By Sannah Zaman
VARSITY HILL CLIMB
The 2024 Oxford Hill Climb took place on the 20th of October. We arrived bright an early to a very rainy and cold Wytham Hill, just over a kilometre in length. We had a large team of 14 competing and all CUCC hill climbers set very impressive times despite the adverse conditions! Jamie Maxen took a strong 3rd place in the open category with a time of 03.42.6 closely followed by Dan Taylor in 4th and Ben Proctor in 6th. A solid performance from the women saw all 3 in the top ten with Sannah Zaman in 3rd, Freya Taylor in 6th and Nina Haket in 9th. Unfortunately, Oxford just pipped us for the overall win but the competition was very close. I guess it was nice for them to see their trophies again after a year of being under CUCC care… Preparation has already begun to regain our title in 2025! After filling our legs with lactic acid we went into Oxford centre to fill our stomachs with pizza and beer to round off a fun day out.
BUCS HILL CLIMB
The 2024 BUCS Hill Climb took Place in Leicester on the 2nd of November. The course took us up Terrace Hill, a 1.1km effort with 79m of elevation – mountainous for us Cambridge residents who are well acquainted with the flatlands of the fens. Another very early start alongside lots of rain and very cold temperatures still did not dampen the spirits of the CUCC squad. Tom Hale was the first off for Cambridge setting a rapid time despite the freezing conditions. Jamie Maxen was our top finisher in the open category with an impressive result of 6th and a time of 02.32.71. The guys narrowly missed out on 3rd team by just over a second, but strong performances were seen all round with Ewan Collar, Tom Hale, Harry Fieldhouse and Ben Proctor all in the top 20 (and all within 3 seconds of each other!) proving their hill climb prowess in a very stacked field. After a short break, the women were off. Special shoutout to Sam Fitzgerald for playing the imperial march and other (motivational?) songs for the competitors as they passed. But most importantly the biggest cheers definitely came from CUCC who provided the best support. As a result of being chased up the steepest part of the climb by very loud CUCCers Sannah Zaman placed 2nd in the Female category with a time of 03.09.83 (0.5 seconds off 1st!). Mieke Kalmijin also finished very strongly putting the women’s team in 4th overall. Huge efforts were put in all round from CUCC and we were rewarded by a successful day out and muddy bikes with no bottle cages for Sunday’s club ride.
