Race report by women’s captain Phoebe Barker
On 30th October CUCC hosted our annual “hill” climb out at Gog Magog. It is a bit of a struggle finding any elevation out in the Cambridgeshire countryside and the climb boasts an impressive whole 37m… Nevertheless, many riders turned out to get a final practice effort in before BUCS the following weekend. After spending a morning watching the rain steadily fall, the clouds blew over and people ventured over to the start.
First up was CUCC’s Ladies’ Captain, Phoebe Barker, who put down the initial mark to beat – 2:02.4. She was followed up the hill by CUCC’s president, Zoe Burrell, who laid down a very competitive 2:08.0. These two times remained podium positions until Miranda Clements (our new recruit from the terrible sport of rowing…) sneaked above Zoe with a 2:07.6. Ellen Inglis, Nina Haket and Abigail Cox hotly followed and all put in strong performances. Nina and Abi deserve particularly special mention as it was both of their first races. I am excited to see what they can do for the rest of the season!
Ladies’ podium:
1st – Phoebe Barker
2nd – Miranda Clements
3rd – Zoe Burrell
Next up were the men. Joe Adlam-Cook had another storming climb to finish top of the CUCC pile with 1:35.7 and take the outright victory. Joe was four seconds clear of Renzo Casale who put down a rapid 1:39.3 to snatch silver ahead of Alban Wales’ 1:41.9. Alban has already improved massively this season and I am so pleased to see his dedication to training paying off! Matt Bryan and Sam Lewin completed the top 5, both finishing within 1.5 seconds of the podium. Matt’s time is particularly impressive bearing in mind he was marshaling up until 5 mins before his start time! Stasiu Polanski, Matt Davison, and Tim Welsh also made the top 10 making it 7 CUCC in the top 10 and highlighting the depth of talent we have. Ex-rowers Luke Andrews (CUCC’s Mens’ Captain) and Rob Peacock used their strength and fitness to power their way up the hill to join Tom Wade, Harry Weedon (our speedy fresher), Ewan Collar, Colin Krawchuk, Sam Kimber, Bertie Cliffe and Lucas Beghein in the top 20. Finally, Louis Stuart, Daniel Lamb and Tom Peretz all contributed fast times to the CUCC squad.
Mens’ podium:
1st – Joe Adlam-Cook
2nd – Renzo Casale
3rd – Alban Wales
A big thank you must go to Ben Proctor for his efficient and slick organisation (allowing us to time to a greater accuracy than one second) and everyone who helped marshal, at the start and with timing; the event would not have been possible without them.
