San Fairy Ann Cycle Club

Did anyone do this last year at all ?

Carl did - results here http://cyclingtimetrials.janet0102.co.uk/Default.aspx?&ge482__geka=zDDQ-6ZV33MzjqeBwbmQrz_ANSkB_T7qN_S6WibhjZTI8y2wcGnNyDpN-nRZsqK486nMPTHg8yTzeeKaQICdzf3LWyDhRPPO63oQtLM3hulalXdnvYNVLWnxvcv03F19EY8ryVr2zdBGpXMBHV5eWQ&ge482__gevi=bkosVTEcmXX5ekdECVvBmA&gv484__gvac=2&gv484__gvff0=53584&gv484__gvfl0=0&language=en-GB&tabid=109
As the Catford event was the club championship last year more fairies opted to ride Yorks Hill instead (Carl did both though).

Ah thanks Dave

The Catford have asked me to publish this press release re the 2009 Hill Climb - a week after the Wigmore - so how about this event. Phill will be unable to get down to present prizes but you migh enjoy the ride.


PRESS RELEASE
Catford Hill Climb Classic on Sunday 11th October 2009
“From 1886 - The oldest continuing cycle race in the world”
__________________________________________________________________________________________

In 1983 Phil Mason (San Fairy Ann CC) broke the record on Yorks Hill in this event, once considered the ‘Championsip of all England’. He recorded a time of 1min 47.6secs knocking a massive 7.4secs off the previous record, which was an unprecedented achievement. Despite the emergence of scientific training methods and advances in modern cycle technology his record still stands today, over a quarter of a century later.
The nearest contender was three years ago when Dan Fleeman got within .7sec of establishing a new record. So every year there is intense speculation. Will we see a new hill climbing star storm up the hill to the cheers of the hundreds of spectators and claim the £250 special prize put up by the Catford CC for breaking the record? In all the winner could walk away with over £800 in prizes. For this is one of the richest hill climbs with a total prize list of £1,670, including those donated by Rapha. There is even a prize for the fastest rider on a Mountain Bike!

Former record holder and 8 times winner of the Catford Hill Climb – 64year old Max Pendleton will make a ‘guest appearance’ this year competing for the Veteran’s prize. Father of Olympic and World Champion Victoria Pendleton he comments – “ The ‘Catford’ was and still is, I think the equivalent of a South of England Hill Climb Championship”. Of this tough ascent with its stretches of 25% gradient he says “I always liked Yorks as a hill to race up”!
Anyone who is up for this lung searing effort and wants to compete for a share of the prizes should enter before the 1st October. See www.catfordcc.co.uk.
Event Organiser: Dave Marshall – 30, Jay Close, Eastbourn, E.Sussex BN23 7RW – 1323 76784 - www.davesprockets30@talktalk.net
Media Liaison: Bryan Stout - 01322 402051 - www.bryan.stout@ntlworld.com

Latest from Wigmore Doug Laidlow that may be of interest:-

Good evening Pat,
Many thanks for getting a discussion going on the SFA Forum. Entries coming in quite nicely. a few surprises too. At this time I have 28 with 14 hopefully on their way and with 6 days to the official closing date am quite confident of reaching 50. I will in fact hold open until at least the Saturday 26th. Start sheet prepared just a question of arranging a start order. I am hoping the post dispute will not be a problem. Riders who have entered and are concerned should give me a ring before I shut down on that Saturday.
Your mention of the Catford Hill Climb eggs me on to mention that in 1910 when the event was on Westerham Hill my father, then 19 and his brother age 22 both rode. Have the start sheet and I was quite honoured when Harry Carrington placed it on the Souvenir Programme when the National was held on Ditchling in the 1990's.
Harry sold me my first real racer. An A S Gillott on Feb 24th 1951. I still use it as my winter bike. I adore it. That makes it 58 years old. A proper bike that cost just £13-12s-6d. I think it was very good value.

Regards,

Doug.

Have sent off my application for the Wigmore Hill Climb, there should be quite a few Fairies fighting it out for the honour of being club hill climb champion.
Come on Bosley, what are you waiting for?, are you a hill climber or what?
Or are you waiting for Kate to sign up first!

Already done, bad luck! By the way, thanks for pinning my number on at the weekend. When I had finished and it was hanging by just one pin ... and I had to wait until all times were in as they couldn't read my number ... I couldn't help noticing that you'd shot off!

Message from Doug Laidlow 22 9.09 in case any latecomer is interested -details at start of this thread

Hello Pat,
9 SFA entries in to date. One more on its way. Excellent. 47 Entries in so far and 15 more expected. I am holding open until Sunday so if anyone else is making a late decision, then they should email or phone me so that I know what to expect.
For the record. If the promises come up trumps then 62 would only have been exceeded 3 times before in the 34 years of the events history.

2000 winner Gary Baker entries 74,
2003 winner Robert English entries 70,
2005 winner Robert English entries 69,
2007 winner Bill Bell entries 60.

Thank you for your support.

Start sheet is now on the CTT website. 11 Fairy entries including 3 ladies.

Come out and support - in order of starting -

Steve Berry
Sarah Bosley
Natalie Bent
Brian Wesson
Michael Gore
Kate Bosley
John Bosley
Jason Gould
Rob Tipples
Michael Barnes
Carl Bradford

It's on Hollingbourne Hill, first rider off at 10.31.

I went and rode the course this afternoon to see how bad it was.

For the first 2/3 I thought that it might be quite pleasant. The final 1/3 is brutal though.

The Gradient starts off at about 5% then steadily increases up to 14% 100ft before the finish* at which points it levels off to about 3%. My Garmin makes the gradient about 9% rather than the 12.5% in the start sheet. It certainly doesn't feel like it averages 12.5%.

And for the benefit of those doing hill climbs; here are some tips I wrote for climbing hills several years ago prior to setting the record up Bathwick hill (1 mile of 10% in 4.15). Obviously several rules don't apply to racing up hills!

There are several tips that I have discovered which should help you with your climbing technique. When you hit the bottom of a hill that is going to last longer than 30 seconds;

1) Relax the upper body, don’t grip the handlebars, just wrap your hands around them. Move your hands to the middle bars and bend the elbows slightly, if you need to you can move the hands out to open up the chest.

2) Don’t get worked up by the hill, just relax, chill, mentally picture yourself on the decent afterwards. If you are concerned by the amount of tarmac at your eye level then don’t look forwards, look just in front of your front wheel (but not in a group).

3) Use all of your lungs, make sure that you concentrate on exhaling and you will breathe in naturally.

4) Shift into a gear which allows a cadence about 5-10 rpm lower than usual.

5) Pedal proper circles, your cadence should be sufficiently high that you can do it quite easily. If you pedal mash, you will keep on decelerating and then have to accelerate with each down stroke, which will waste lots of energy. A smooth pedalling action should see you gliding (only slightly less gracefully) up a hill.

6) Never stand up*(see note)

7) Once you hit the top don’t slow down the tempo until you are at cruising speed past the top, otherwise you will slow down to a crawl and have to accelerate again.

8.) On the decent after a long climb, make sure that you keep on turning the legs round, you don’t need resistance, but it does help clear the legs of lactic acid.

*The only notable exceptions to this rule are i) stretching, ii) breaking away and iii) stopping falling off.

i) In this country, you shouldn’t need to stand to stretch on climbs at all, this is only really intended for climbs that are 2 or more miles long. Alpine ascents are a good example of when to do this.

ii) You can accelerate when you stand up, but bear the following in mind; As soon as you stand up, your HR (heart rate) will increase by about 5 bpm (beats per minute). You will also start using your upper body. Therefore some of the energy that you would have used to turn the pedals goes into levering on the handlebars. When you sit back down you will also need to recover which will drop your speed considerably. Short gaps can be bridged on the drops, but larger gaps require use of the hoods.

iii) This is reserved for really steep climbs or moderate climbs with luggage. With a triple you should be able to manage anything (I will excuse people who go up Church Hill in Wales – 33%, not a typo and yes it can be done!), with a double, gradients of above 15% are worthy causes. I have been up a 20%er sitting down though, so it can be done.

If you do decide to stand though, make sure that you shift up a gear or two so that your cadence is about 20 rpm lower than normal cadence.

Further to point 6. strengthening arms and core can improve your ability to climb out the saddle, and hold the bike steadier to apply power to the pedals most efficiently. Some cyclists do upper body weights (like bench pressing) and core exercises (like pilates - One of the great things about Pilates is improved flexibility and core strength without increasing muscle mass) to allow them to do this better, although this has to be balanced with the weight of extra muscle mass gained to the upper body.

If you are doing a particularly long hill, you can shift position to accentuate different muscle groups. Moving forwards in the saddle and pointing the toes down uses the calf muscles more, moving back in the saddle and cycling with the heel pointing slightly down (or a level foot) will use the quads more. Mentally you can also pick a point to reach that is achievable, get there and pick another point. Don't focus on the whole hill, just bits at a time. Makes it a lot easier psychologically.

The way to improve climbing ability is either
- lose weight
- increase power
- increase ability to ride at threshold (perceived effort, "hard")

Think I'll give up now!

For the first 2/3 I thought that it might be quite pleasant.

Sounds as though you have never had the pleasure of riding it before. It often featured in Bob Shillings Sunday clubruns

Never stand up

I'll be watching the top third to make sure that you follow your own advice!

ronlee wrote:I'll be watching the top third to make sure that you follow your own advice!

I did quite a fast run today without standing. I'll probably get out the saddle to sprint for the finish at the bit where it begins to flatten out though on the day; exceptions are allowed for racing!

Thanks for the advise, I'll not have to buy 'How to be a climbing god' that keeps being offered to me on certain bike related website.