The Bristol South CC ran the final WTTA Hardrider event of the season on Sunday, with 99 riders feeling the pain of the 3 kilometre Burrington Coombe hillclimb. As always, the BSCC put on a great event and there was a bumper crowd cheering on the competitors as they made their way up through the gorge to the top of the Mendips.
James Hywel-Davies was the stand out performer from the GDW, beating many of the usual series front runners to finish 12th overall with a time of 7.55.4, just missing out on being first junior by three seconds. George Smith did well to improve on his time from last year despite there being a headwind in places on the hill, with 8.37.4 for 31st place. James Chant managed a pb time of 8.56.1, fourth placed vet rider and 40th overall while Sarah Wheeler was pleased to beat the target time she had set herself, finishing 94th with a time of 12.09.2.
Sarah’s result means she has won the women’s championship of the WTTA Hardriders series so congratulations to her. This is the second time a GDW rider has manged this, Sarah Roberts also won the women’s title in 2008.
The overall winner of the event was Tejvan Pettinger, the reigning national hillclimb champion, who won by some 40 seconds with a time of 6.57.8.
Kim Little and Liam Teesdale had both been representing the Gillingham Wheelers at hillclimbs recently as well, taking on the double header challenge of the VC Walcot and Bath CC events. Kim was feeling a little jaded after competing in a six hour mountain bike race the day before (video report on Facebook here) but was still good enough for 16th at Claverton Down and then 10th at Wellow hill. Liam was competing on his mountain bike, and was 48th at Claverton and then 23rd at Wellow.
Chris Mullett took part in the RTTC National Circuit champs at Thruxton circuit on Sunday. After five laps of the track (about 12 miles), Chris averaged just over 23 mph for a time of 30.53 for 68th place from 78 finishers. There were a lot of very quick time triallists competing, with the top six closely matched and all averaging over 30 mph. Josh Teasdale came out on top with a time of 23.28.