Thanks to Amy and Jon for taking the Sunday CR to the hill climbs, great to see a good number of ACC out supporting, much appreciated.
I can't race up steep hills but the masochist in me enters these as I just love the atmosphere, it's a stunning experience riding through a wall of people.
For the Catford hill climb on Yorks Hill in the morning I made a complete balls up of it. I started too fast and then rolled a bigger gear for too long and didn't change down in time before the first 25% ramp. Consequently I was suddenly over-geared and has to practically stall as I got out the saddle and un-weighted the bike to grab 3 gears at once
. In the right gear now but almost stationary so had to get going again. A complete mess but got going quick enough and it did mean I had enough to "give it some" through the crowds
. I don't like this hill, the slightly varying gradient makes it harder to judge as the "easier" bits are still very steep.
On to the Bec hill climb on White Lane and the usual great event by Gary. I prefer this hill, very steep but a pretty constant gradient all the way seems to make it more suitable to me. I went for a different tactic of out the saddle all the way and this kept everything much smoother and felt a lot better. Now all I have to do is try and marry some of the smoothness with an element of speed
.
As ever, nothing very good from me timewise and they're always the lowest placings I get in any race (right at the fag end of the field), but like I said I just love the atmosphere.
My Dad was at the Bec HC and took a few pictures.
Me doing my best gurning.
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/MeBecHC20111-Dad.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/MeBecHC2-Dad.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/MebecHC20113-Dad.jpg[/img]
Matt Harris from the Isle of Wight who came over with John Lovell to try these. He's a good climber and loves hills.
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/MattHarris-BecHC2011-Dad.jpg[/img]
Germain on his way to back-to-back victories.
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/GermainBecHC2011-Dad.jpg?t=[/img]