Words by Charlie Ormerod
UOBCC cheering on riders on the fearsome Pea Royd Lane climb.
Curbar Gap was once again the location for the BUCS Hill Climb, a gruesome climb in the Peak District of 1.1 miles at 11.3%. With over 300 competitors, the day is split up into two halves, with the northern universities riding in the morning, before the southerners have a go in the afternoon. This allowed us to have a long lie-in and a good bulkfast before heading down to the start.
At the bottom of the climb, much of the talk was about the strong tailwind up the climb, and with rumours that the BUCS record had already been broken, the pressure was mounting on our riders. Fortunately, some of us, myself included, had decided that it would be far more fun to watch rather than suffer this masochistic event, (definitely no reflection on our fitness…), so we marched up the climb, cowbells and pans in hand, for some Tour-de-France-esque spectating.
First up was Kate, who stormed up the climb in under 8 minutes, taking a hugely impressive 12th place! As usual, Andrew was soon chasing after her, and showed his current good form by posting a 6:33, a time that would stand as fastest Bristol rider for some time. Not to be outdone, Georgie left it all on the road to set 7:49 and 8th place overall!
At the bottom of the climb, much of the talk was about the strong tailwind up the climb, and with rumours that the BUCS record had already been broken, the pressure was mounting on our riders. Fortunately, some of us, myself included, had decided that it would be far more fun to watch rather than suffer this masochistic event, (definitely no reflection on our fitness…), so we marched up the climb, cowbells and pans in hand, for some Tour-de-France-esque spectating.
First up was Kate, who stormed up the climb in under 8 minutes, taking a hugely impressive 12th place! As usual, Andrew was soon chasing after her, and showed his current good form by posting a 6:33, a time that would stand as fastest Bristol rider for some time. Not to be outdone, Georgie left it all on the road to set 7:49 and 8th place overall!
 Michael and his race face Bristol Individual Results: Kate Mactear: 7:55 12th Andrew Kirby: 6:33 74th Georgie Panchaud: 7:49 8th Mike Gallagher: 6:50 113th Fred Cook: 6:41 94th Alastair Stephenson: 6:56 123rd Ryan Witchell: 6:40 89th Ben Alexander: 6:32 72nd Callum Hunter: 6:23 60th Bristol Team Results: Womens: 15:54 5th Mens A: 19:46 23rd Mens B: 20:28 31st | With riders finishing, our crowd of spectators at UOBCC corner was now growing. Michael, Fred, and Alastair were next up, coming in quick succession and posted great times of 6:50, 6:41 and 6:56 respectively. Ryan was soon powering up the climb, sporting a pair of extremely un-aero sunglasses, but had just enough watts to beat Fred by 1 second. Our final two climbers were very near the end, Ben was first and, motivated by an enthusiastic car behind him, smashed the climb in 6:32, just pipping Andrew’s time, and as the sun was beginning to set, Callum, the last man, got a huge cheer as he past us to go on and set a 6:23, good enough for 60th out of 239 in a very strong field. In the mens team event, Bristol showed their consistency with the A and B team coming in 23rd and 31st. Whilst the girls brought home the result of the day with an incredible 5th!  On Sunday, we went over to Pea Royd Lane, to watch recently graduated Will Bourne compete in UOBCC colours in the National Hill Climb, where he took a staggering 14th place! Huge Kudos to him and our immense support even made it into CyclingWeekly. See the photo here! |
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