The Hospice hillclimbs are a series of cycling events held in the Furness area of Cumbria organised by The Lakes Road club and Barrow Central Wheelers. The races are sponsored by local firms and raise money for the St Marys Hospice in Ulverston.
Posted by Howard Lindow, Tuesday, 17th April 2012 @ 11:17am
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It was another good turn out for round 3 of the ST MARYS HOSPICE HILLCLIMB Series on Monday 6th April. There was a lot of coughing after a cold blast from the Clocktower to the main gates of Bigland hall in the GILL CYCLES sponsored hillclimb. 19 riders caned it one mile up the varying gradients with the fastest rider being a show of quality from Haverthwaite based adventure racer Tony Gibb at six and a half minutes. Right on his heels was the fastest youth, Biketreks Connor Furness, spinning out and saving the knees for Salt ayre & I was next up the hill. Smiling wonderwoman Lynn Hamel in her Herballife kit was recovering from a hard weekend of racing but managed a good time to top the ladies catagory.
Next in with a combined time of 13:47 to take the interclub points was the BCW duo of James Stott and Sean Casson. Showing that Grizebeck was no fluke, Graham Huddleston put in a fantastic time getting under seven minutes and winning the veterans prize. Next in to round up the LRC team time was Eammon Quinn, hitting the line with exactly the same time as BCW Lakeland loopy Glenn Rhodes. LRCs Jamie Bryson & Stu Walker were next in, then good mates Scott Young & Graham Carrick. Phil Danson was the same time as Graham then dancing up the hill & proving that knobbly tyres and a heavy bike can still be quick was Anne Plant taking the mountain bike class. Bret Wren had a good first effort and next up was Furness future Flyers’ Parris Huitson. Finally a family effort from the days sponsors Dave and Claire Watson giving theGill demo bikes a good outing.
The helpers on the night were Andy Woods, Dad, Roz & Flumps and Timelords Wils Jenkinson & Steve Jenkins. Several spectators shouted and took pictures of the riders in distressed states, & all in all it was a good do. Dave & Claire Watson raced on mountainbikes then handed out the prizes to the winners. In a show of charity there were Gill goodies for everyone who turned up and extra cash went in the Hospice tin. Speaking of which the tin is now feeling good and heavy, so keep the donations coming and hopefully at the end of the season we will have a good lump for St Marys Hospice to count. Thank you to everyone who turned out and we hope to see you out again 18:30 (race starts 1900) on Thursday 24th May for the doubleb*stard that is Gamswell. The current record is held by Connor at 5:27- So as a great man once said ‘Come and ‘ave a go if you think youre hard enough!’
In a health news update; Mike Speight is waiting for surgery and resting at home. Dave Black ‘& Blue’ has hit the deck on foreign shores and has bust several ribs. Everyone connected to the local cycling scene wishes them both a speedy recovery.
Photos will be on the websites soon and check for full details of the up coming races. Just a quick note for non club members- If you are thinking of competeing in more than one race, do join a CTT registered club. Theyre cheap & easy to join, with LRC & BCW being the local two, but there are others in the area. There are several reasons for this which are fully explained in the rules above- any questions just let me know, cheers. Howie. http://www.stmaryshospice.org.uk/http://tumblr.gillcycles.co.uk/http://www.lakesroadclub.org.uk/http://www.barrowcentralwhs.org.uk/ http://groupspaces.com/furnessfutureflyers
