Snake Pass Hillclimb - Sun 6th Sep 09

Snake Pass Hill Climb, 6th September 2009-09-18

Upon reflection on my hill climb performances in 2008, it was clear that I did much better over the longer, slightly less steep hills.  With that in mind I decided that in 2009 I’d mainly enter longish hill climbs, rather than the 3 minute jobs. 

My first of the season was the Snake Pass Hill Climb, organised by Glossop Kinder Velo.  Wikipedia tells me that the climb is “one of only a few road climbs in the UK that are comparable in length and average gradient (approximately 7% for around 3.2 miles) to those used in continental cycle racing”.  It climbs about 350 metres, with the summit being 512m and the start being around 160m. 

I was a bit unsure of my form having done very little racing during the summer, but I’d been putting in quite a lot of miles and on my new light bike (I got a Cervelo in the end) I’d broken my records for all my local rides and hills in recent weeks, so I was hoping for a decent result. 

As it happened I came 8th out of 26 finishers in a time of 14.46, which I was very happy with, especially as I beat a couple of people who had beaten me soundly in various hill climbs in 2008.  My hope pea inflated (although it deflated again slightly when I didn’t get my rightful mention in Cycling Weekly due to the results never appearing anywhere). 

The winner was current national junior hill climb champ Adam Pinder (12.43) who won comfortably from current veteran hill climb champ Chris Myhill (13.49).