The classic Catford CC Hillclimb (held on Yorks Hill near Sevenoaks Kent, Sunday 21st October 2007) is the oldest cycle race in the world. It was first run on the then unmade road of Westerham Hill on August 20th 1887 and won by S.F.Edge of the Anerley B.C. (later to join the Catford), riding a newfangled chain driven ?safety bicycle?. Yorks Hill averages 12.5% but has two killer stretches of 1 in 4.
A small bunch of lfgss riders headed from Borough Tube down to this race where one of our own, “BMMF” was racing. brett and myself were being soft and riding geared road bikes, brett as he’d just built his and me because I’ve not ridden it for two months and it was starting to collect dust. Also with us riding fixed was Stompy, Lucky7, fatboyralph and jonny. Did I forget someone? Probably. It was great! Weather was nice and the hills were steep. Poor buggers on fixed had to put up with me getting all excited about riding up and down hills again.. hit 80kph down Westerham Hill after slogging up a rather steep incline towards Biggin Hill Airport (me ‘orse!). The ride out from Ealing to Borough and Kents Hill was 62k and took us 2:50 with a few stops to check brett’s faultless directions, catch breath, drop roadies, etc.
At the ride spotted more lfgss dudes: Roberto, wayne_f14, Bring Me My Fix (who raced and was the fastest fixed of the day), Mouse, winston. Again names slipping from memory’s grasp. Talked a lot of bike guff and watched some poor riders suffering up the hill. We were about 30m from the top and watched some riders limp to the finish, while others didn’t seem to be struggling at all and practically flew up. The crowd was great, lining the road, shouting support at the riders or things like “put it up a gear!!!” 🙂
Image: wayne_f14’s pic of BMMF climbing Yorks Hill
The ride home was a bit of a slog but good fun with gears (ooh sacrilege!) as I could finally use the big ring and get some real pace on. On the way back called into the Rapha sale/Rapha photo exhibition at Host Gallery on Old St. I bought a pair of their Fixed shorts for ?30. Cheaper than a pair of Endura 3/4s so I figured what the hell?! Arrived home knackered but happy as fsck! I like riding.
Image: My HRM graph for the ride out to Yorks Hill