Rapha Urban Hill Climb
Not usually a hill climb specialist but the attraction of an urban hill climb lured me in!
Lucky my girlfriend lives just around the corner from the event, so after finishing work I drove up to Hampstead. On route the heavens opened – so much rain was falling that the M40 traffic slowed to a pace where I would have been better off being on the bike!
Thankfully after kitting up the skies cleared ready for the evening’s event.
The event had already started when I arrived so unfortunately I wasn’t able to pre-ride the cross.
I walked up the climb so I could mentally prepare myself for what was in store.
The climb started fairly gradually, levelled briefly before ramping up.
I set off at 19:56.
Scorching away in the big ring, the plan was to shift down on the flat prior to attacking the real climb.
Everything was going perfectly my friends could hear the commentator mentioning Schleck and they could only assume it was because I was climbing so well.
Little did they know however that on the steepest part of the climb my chain had given up!!
The commentator instructed me to fix it and have another go as he had been impressed with what he saw.
I did just that – thanks to the chap who kindly lent me his chain tool.
Second time round and as soon as I started I could feel the previous effort in my legs.
I pushed on as hard as I could through the crowds of people the noise was immense enabling me to push on through the pain.
Over the top and I was happy I’d given it all I had.
I finished a respectable 13th place (unlucky for some?!).
A hugely successful event and one I’ll be looking forward to competing in again next year!
