Paul Winkley writes…
Formally the ‘Hilly 42’ – although the course had been shortened in past years due to the introduction of the Horsham bypass – the race this year used the same course as ‘the Croydon and District Hardriders event [now SCCU] based on the Bletchingley/Smallfield circuit and organised by EGCC second claim member John ‘This is the last year I’m doing this’ Cole.
To say this course is an utter b*****d for anyone over 10 stone is an understatement so carrying an additional 3 stone round was really great fun! I made the time keeper’s job easy by making enough noise on the final climb to make my identity well known.
Two ‘Grinnies’ faced the aforementioned timekeeper, ‘lightweight’ Andy Seltzer and myself PW. Both of us improved on our somewhat windy ride on the same course earlier in the season with Andy improving by two minutes to record 57.17 for a fine 11th place [on his road bike!!]. I recorded 1.01.05 an improvement of over 4 minutes – amazing what a weeks holiday can do!
The event was narrowly won by Mike Coyle by a handful of seconds over Chris Yates.
Flat courses who needs ‘em!
PW
Event pics