Brighton Mitre Hill Climbs
by R.Pettinger Sri Chinmoy CT
The morning race was in the village of Steyning. The climb is just under 1 mile long with a variable gradient. In the middle is a flat section before a difficult 17% finish, last year I remember going too hard at the start and grovelling my way up the steep section. This year I managed to time it better and knocked 20 sec off last years time finishing in 4.02. This was good enough for third place. The winner was Jim Henderson 3.56 and second place J.Dayus 3.58. Both Jim and Johnathon are former National Champions so it was a good result.
The afternoon hill climb was near the coastal town of Shoreham. It is an unusual climb of 2.66 miles and a fairly gentle average gradient of 3%. This is because there are 2 sections of downhill. With a tail wind there were some very fast places of 26 mph + On the last corner I even had to touch the brakes to get round. This long climb seems to suit me better and I finished 2nd in a time of 4.26. J.Dayus was the winner with 4.18, and I managed to beat my old team mate Jim Henderson in a hill climb for the first time.
Because of the speed I used cut down tribars which I used for most of the climb. I also changed my 39 tooth Chainring for a 45
The organiser Robin Johnson did a good job of securing sponsorship from USE cycle components and Matt Goodes cycle shop - Blackfen Cycle Shop. I won a couple of carbon bottle cages and aluminium seat posts which is very nice.
Results
Morning Steyning 0.96 miles (old course record 4.11)
1. J.Henderson 3.56
2. J.Dayus 3.58
3. R.Pettinger 4.02
4. J.Crawford 4.05
5. J.Dobbin 4.05
6. P.Tadros 4.08
7. D.Diguid 4.09
Team Evans Cycles
Afternoon Shoreham 2.66 miles (old course record 7.49)
1. J.Dayus 7.18
2. R.Pettinger 7.26
3. J.Dobbin 7.33
4. P.Tadros 7.34
5. J.Henderson 7.40
6. J.Crawford 7.51
7. D.Diguid 7.58
Team Evans Cycles
Overall
1. J.Dayus
2. R.Pettinger
3. J.Henderson
- On Sunday I took part in the Cat and Bec Hill climbs