First Win Of The Year

Yes I know it's October already but I have just had my first win of the year and I'm feeling reasonably smug about it.
I have been trying to win the local hill-climb for ages and keep coming close, two second places and a third so far. Following my back injury last summer my climbing hasn't been great so far this year so I wasn't feeling very confident for this year's race. Maybe it was because I was nice and relaxed due to not really going for the win that I did so well.
This is Lincolnshire, so the hill we use climbs a total of 189ft in ¾mile (no sniggering from the Welshmen please).



I had swapped my usual tyre for a ridiculously light Conti GPSupersonic, which seemed to help a lot. However, even with this my road bike still weighs 19.75LBs, pretty much the same as my hardtail! Not an ideal hill-climb bike...
Anyway, something just clicked, I felt great in the sprint towards the hill and kept on it all the way up, none of the usual niggles from my back, and had a good sprint along the flat bit at the top, hitting 28mph by the time I crossed the line. I had no idea that I had won though, being against the clock rather than a mass-start, and was very surprised to learn that I had knocked 3 seconds off the course record too, setting a new record of 2mins35s.
Darren Jessop was second, just ahead of Stuart McKeller.
That was my first win since April 2010, before my injury, looks like I'm finally getting back up to speed. Roll on next season!

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