Andy Seltzer writes…
Lewes Wanderers organised a new addition to the open racing season a double header hill climb event on Ashdown Forest the first event started at Fairwarp and ascended the climb of Camp Hill close to the top of the forest, this was then followed an hour and a half later with the ascent of Kidds Hill aka “The Wall”.
Two weeks before the event it seemed like a good idea as I tried to cajole other club members to support the event, in the end Steve Dennis and me joined a select field of twenty riders who faced the time keeper and more importantly the hills.
Fortunately the heavy rain from the Saturday had disappeared leaving a misty Sunday morning as I cycled out to the start knowing that I was Steve’s minute man in both events and having not touched a bike for two weeks I was going to have my work cut out just to keep ahead of him.
On the climb of Camp Hill as I past Duddleswell tea room I decided now was the time to shift it onto the big ring something that had worked in training and I thought might look a bit heroic for the handful of spectators alas it resulted more in a slow moving track stand as I passed the time keepers in 5 minutes 52.3 seconds. This was good enough for 8th place. Next across the finish line was a smooth pedalling Steve Dennis who recorded 5minutes 15.9seconds just being piped into 3rd place by Andrew Comben of the Met Police C.C. by 0.3 of a second. As we descended the hill we saw last man off and local hill climb star Ishmael Burdeau of Agiskoviner powering his way up the climb towards a convincing win in 4minutes and 56seconds.
It was surprising how quickly the hour and a half intermission shot past and soon we were lining up to face the”Wall”, this time there was no chance of me trying to big ring it. It was fair to say it was the same for everyone as most said afterwards that their legs were still heavy after the first climb. Still my time of 5minutes 8seconds moved me up the results to 5th place and 7th overall Mr consistent Steve finished 3rd again and 3rd overall with 4minutes 47seconds and Ishmael Burdeau took to place with 4minutes 26seconds.
Overall Result: Ishmael Burdeau www.agiskoviner.com 09:22.6 Andrew Comben Met Police C.C. 09:56.4 Steve Dennis East Grinstead C.C. 10:03.1 Select: 7th Andy Seltzer East Grinstead C.C. 11:00.3
