Last year club member Tobi Ng had an amazing season of racing, progressing quickly from a Cat 4 to Cat 2 race licence. With very little racing this year, Tobi has turned his attention to hill climbs, with some impressive results.
He started by winning the club’s Durran Cup in September, setting a new club record of 1.02 along the way. Clearly inspired by his success, he’s now competed in four hill climbs over the last couple of weeks.
His first venture, earlier this month, was a local double header organised by Coventry CC. Both climbs were very familiar, the first being back at Burton Dassett, our Durran Cup venue, where he finished second. The event then moved to The Knowle at Edge hill where Tobi went one better and he came first.
The following weekend he took part in his first open event, The George Higton Memorial Hill Climb, organised by Matlock CC. Held along Riber Road in Matlock, the climb is 1.19km long with a maximum gradient of 25% going up in stages and includes two hard corners before a steep drag to the finish. The event attracted a field of around 100 riders and Tobi finished an excellent 11th with a time of 3.57.4. The 10th place rider, Matt Ellis (Saint Piran), put in a time of 3.56.9, so a top ten finish was only 0.5seconds away. The winner was Andrew Feather (HuntsBikeWheels.com) on 3.20.1.
All these events were a good test event for Sunday’s RTTC National Hill Climb Championship up Streatley hill, Reading. The course was a closed road section of the B4009, measuring 0.8km with an average gradient of 13%, but with a nasty maximum of 25.9%. Nearly 400 competitors took part for this annual national event, which enjoyed live streaming. Tobi again put in a great performance finishing 38th overall, in an event where times were incredibly close from some of the country’s top hill climbers. The winner was again Andrew Feather on 2.04.8, a new course record.