News & Features

Joe Clark (Envelopemaster-Giant Sheffield) won both stages of the Matlock CC hill-climbs in Derbyshire on Sunday, as he completed his preparations for the National Championships next weekend.

 

The 24-year-old – who lives just a few miles from the venue for the title race on Sunday – used his local knowledge and experience to win both the Sunday morning climb of Riber and the afternoon’s climb on the same Bank Road course ass is being used for the championships.

 

Clark clocked 3:17.9 to take around four seconds from his own record for the Riber climb set in last year’s event, and was 20 seconds quicker than anyone else up the steep hill

 

Meanwhile defending national champion Maryka Sennema (Paceline RT) was the fastest of the women with 4-23.5.

 

Second spot went to Rhos-on-Sea CC rider Kieran Wynne-Cattanach who was 19.3 seconds adrift of Clark, while Jack O’Neill (Team B38-Underpine Racing) was third, another 1-3 seconds back.

 

And on Bank Road – which was around 200 metres shorter than the version being used for the title race on Sunday – Clark clocked 1:48.8 to win by 4.6 seconds from Andy Nichols (Team B38-Underpin Racing).

 

Fiona Burnie (Bishop Auckland CC) was the fastest woman up Bank Road in a time of 2:29.4, beating Sennema.

 

Elsewhere, Andy Cunningham also clinched two wins in a day as he was victorious in the Huddersfield RC climb at Ripponden before winning the longer Yorkshire RC Cragg Vale climb in the afternoon.

 

Cunningham won Huddersfield RC’s event by just five tenths of a second on Sunday.

 

The All Terrain Cycles rider clocked 3.41.2 compared to Kieran Savage’s (Team B38-Underpin Racing) time of 3.41.7 up the 1,320 yard 1:8 average gradient climb.

 

Chris Dyke (Manchester BC) finished in third spot slightly further back, recording 3.46.9 on the course near Ripponden in West Yorkshire.

 

Wrexham RC’s Becky Lewis took the women’s prize with a time of 4.13.0, which was fast enough for eighth place overall.

 

Cunningham beat Kieran Savage (B38-Underpin Racing) into second place, in a repeat of the morning’s result. This time the margin was a more substantial ten seconds over the 4.8 mile climb.

 

Cunningham’s winning time of 14.07.7 also took nearly twelve seconds off Tejvan Pettinger’s 14.19.5 course record set in July 2014, with Savage’s 14.17.1 also just inside the old marque.

 

Third placed Eugene Cross (SSLL Racing Team) slashed a minute and a half of Kieran’s Junior record of 15-18.7, set in October 2015.

 

The first two women were also inside the course record. Charlotte Gorman (Bury Clarion) won with a time of 18.02.5, with Helen Roby (HD Revolutions) finishing second in 18.22.8, compared to Clare Munton’s record of 18-24.2, also set in October 2015.

 

And in Somerset, Tejvan Pettinger (Sri Chinmoy CT) won Bristol South CC’s climb of Burrington Combe on Sunday, clocking 7:17.6 to finish 12 seconds ahead of second-placed Isaac Mundy (Oxford University CC).

 

Joanne Jago (Performance Cycles) was fastest female with 9:21.6, defending her win in last year’s event.

 

And Mundy and Jago were both victorious in Saturday’s Team Tor 2000 climb on West Close Hill in Priddy.

 

22-year-old Mundy clocked 5:53.9 for the 1,979-metre course which, although not close to being a course record, was still an impressive performance on a day which although clear was chilly and had a nagging head wind on the exposed sections.

 

Jago clocked 7:53.7 to win by 11.3 seconds from Sigma Sport rival Mathilde Pauls.