Tejvan finishes fourth in UK National Hill Climb Championships

Tejvan Pettinger of Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team missed out on the podium by 1 second, finishing 4th in the UK National Hill Climb Championship.

timetrial

Tejvan's time of 3.56 was 15 seconds behind winner Dan Fleeman (Raleigh UCI) who stormed up the 1 mile climb at Dovers Hill, Gloucestershire.

(earlier in year on same hill Dovers Hill)

The hill climb championship marks the end of the UK domestic scene and a substantial crowd came to cheer on the riders up the grueling 1 mile hill, averaging around 10%.

Warming up at start - wearing number 137

After a successful season with 14 wins, Tejvan was happy with 4th place, though disappointed to get so close to a medal.

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In the UK national 12 hour time trial championship, Tejvan Pettinger from the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team finished in second place with a total of 284 miles. It was Tejvan's first attempt at the distance and it makes a rare double to win both the national Hill climb championship (2013) and gain a medal in the 12 hour championship.

The championship was held on a course in South Wales. It featured an opening leg of 90 miles, before moving onto a 26 mile circuit and finally a finishing lap of 19 miles. The riders had to contend with persistent rain for the last half of the race, which made conditions tough.

Tejvan waiting at traffic lights on the course

Speaking of his debut at the 12 hour challenge, Tejvan said:

"The furthest I have ridden this year was 103 miles, so a 12 hour was a step into the unknown. Although it was a national championship, I didn't think too much about the distance or result, but just concentrated on being able to finish the 12 hours and seeing how far I could go. In an event of this duration, you inevitably have good periods, but also difficult times. After two hours, I was already wondering how I would make it, but after these difficult early morning hours I got into a good rhythm and was going really well in the middle of the event. I think I started to enjoy it, despite the pain in the shoulders.

In the last two hours, the persistent rain seeped through and I suffered from the cold quite a lot, but I just about managed to hang on. Although it was tough, I can see the attraction of these long-distance events and am planning how to try and go further next year. Vilas Silverton, a fellow member of Sri Chinmoy CT, did a great job in helping out passing many bottles and energy gels - even though he did a 300km bike ride the day before.

It was also good to do a 12 hour time trial because every April, the Sri Chinmoy Centre put on a 12 hour walk to mark the anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's arrival in the West, but I never do it because I don't want to interfere with my cycle training, so this is a kind of compensation. In the future I'd like to do a 24 hour time trial, because Sri Chinmoy, with many other members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, entered a 24 hour cycle challenge in the late 1970s."

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12 Hour Results at Cycling Time Trials

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Tejvan Pettinger, of Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team, set a new personal best at 100 miles, completing the distance in a time of 3.34.02 - an average speed of 28 mph. The event was the ECCA 100 mile TT, south of Cambridge. It is an event he has previously won in 2014 and 2015, but this year had to settle for 7th place after some of countries top long-distance riders were on great form. The new 'pb' follows on from the previous week's pb at 25 miles. This coming weekend, Tejvan will be entering the national 12 hour time trial championship - a new distance for the rider who is better known as a 'hill climb specialist.

Tejvan said of the ECCA 100 mile TT.

"It is a fast course, and nice to set a new pb. but I found it quite tough and didn't do quite as well as I hoped. But, then the previous week I exceeded expectations, so that's the nature of the sport. I also nearly missed my start, turning up 5 seconds before I was due and a last minute panic race to the start line. It was a bit lucky I didn't miss the race completley. 100 mile time trials are really hard because you start to hurt in back and shoulders holding low position for so long. The best thing about the race was being able to go back to hotel for a short kip before then going to an Ananda concert in Cambridge that afternoon. It was a busy day - 100 miles cycle, concert of Sri Chinmoy's music, pizza and drive home from Cambridge. The concert was great and helped take away the little dissappointment of not finishing higher. It was also another 100 miles for the June - Sri Chinmoy Cycling Challenge. And if things go well at the weekend (12 hour TT) I may be able to add a few more miles to the monthly total."

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