Warwick first-year crowned national climb champion

Warwick first-year Alice Cobb put in a superb ride in horrible conditions to capture the junior national hill climb title just two months after a broken pelvis had threatened to end her season.

The Scott Contessa Epic RT rider produced a time of 13 minutes 45 seconds to take the title by more than 20 seconds ahead of second-placed junior Isla Rush (Wyndymilla).

While Leamington spent Sunday afternoon bathing in autumn sunshine, the climb of the Stang in North Yorkshire greeted some of the best cyclists in the country with driving rain and vicious wind.

If many of the riders struggled with the conditions on the 2.33 mile climb, 18-year-old Cobb had no such difficulties with an excellent performance to take away the national champion’s jersey.

The Warwick rider’s dominance was all the more impressive considering she broke her pelvis in a crash at the end of July, being told that she would be off the bike until the end of November.

Unfortunately, one rider who did not fare so well in the difficult condition was Jack O’Neill, the other Warwick representative in the race.

One of the favourites for the junior men’s event, O’Neill, riding for the Kenilworth-based Mike Vaughan Cycles, was disappointed with his seventh-place effort, having failed to take advantage of the strong tailwind helping the riders up the climb.

The overall title was won by Tejvan Pettinger (Sri Chinmoy CT) with Kenilworth’s Matt Clinton (Mike Vaughan Cycles) in third, while Maryka Sennema (Kinston Wheelers) won the women’s race.

While the freshers were competing in the national event, the rest of Warwick’s cyclists travelled to the less prestigious, but no less painful, BUCS hill climb in Calver, Derbyshire.

With Warwickshire’s topography not exactly lending itself to developing climbers, high placings were always going to be hard to come by, especially in a field of almost 300 riders.

Despite the win always being out of reach, the team all rode well, as they pushed themselves to the very edge of – and sometimes beyond – their physical abilities.

The women led the way with Charlotte Taylor (8^th overall) leading the team to sixth place in a strong field, while Andrew Rogers, competing in his first ever hill climb, was the fastest Warwick man in 29^th.