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.
Varsity HC squad on a rainy day in Oxford
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.
Women’s podium of BUCS HC featuring our own Sannah ZamanBUCS hill clomb 2024 squad
With another hill climb season under the collective CUCC belt, it is time to reflect and remind ourselves that we do in fact enjoy riding our bikes despite the long cold days spent climbing hills for mid-pack finishes. With the nearby summits including Chapel Hill and Gog Magog, CUCC, unsurprisingly, had another brilliant season, mopping up many medals along the way.
First up was OUCC Hill Climb on 21st October with an early start at the Sports Centre. CUCC cleaned up the medal table, taking the men’s and women’s overall wins with Will Lowden and Phoebe Barker, as well as the men’s and women’s varsities with Will, Joe A-C and Ben Proctor, and Phoebe, Sannah Zaman and Maddie Angwin – we could not have asked for a better start to the season. We would like to say a big thanks to Oxford for hosting us and organising the entire event! The highlight for me was the post-hill climb social ride with multiple riders, committee members no less, being told off for launching attacks. All I can say is that I was just following the wheels.
CUCC at OUCC Hill Climb, Saturday 21st October 2023CUCC’s Gen Sec Ben Proctor, going full send up Chalet Hill. OUCC Hill Climb 2023
Next up was our very own hill climb up the savage Gog Magog – there’s a reason they built a hospital right next to it. Go too hard at the start and you’ve probably finished before the lactate sets in. Just as we ordered, the heavy rain began right as we started sign-on. In the back of Alex’s Land Rover, we quickly found out the packing fraction of CUCCers – it was indeed not large enough with many people left outside, feeling very cold. Or so they looked from inside. Despite the ridiculously cramped conditions, sign-on was completed, and attention turned to the great pain faces on show, as riders battled their way up the hill. Maddie Angwin deployed her presidential watts to win the women’s competition, with Joe A-C putting on another classic performance, winning the men’s. Special mention must go to Louis for doing an amazing job organising the whole event! We really appreciate it.
The weather didn’t stop CUCC! CUCC Hill Climb, 29th October 2023
A few CUCC members decided to trade Gog Magog for the dizzy heights of the Lake District and The Struggle on 29th October for the National Hill Climb Championships. The likes of Andrew Feather and Ed Laverack were quaking in their Sidis at the thought of being pitted against CUCC’s finest hill climbers and their machines. The CUCC team, comprised of Will Lowden, Francis Schofield and Jacob Lewis, had an incredible performance – all well within the top 50 % of riders. Special mention must go to Will, only 20 seconds off a top-10 result with a severely over-geared set up. Needless to say it left him with a cadence which made my knees hurt just watching. Cameron Walker, a CUCC member racing under the Elevate Race Team, had a superb performance only a few seconds behind Francis who managed to sneak into the top 50. If anyone has seen the photos or videos from the event, it is easy to see why hill climbs are so popular here – I had goosebumps just watching!
Tim B cheering on Jacob Lewis. National Hill Climb Champs, 29th October 2023
BUCS Hill Climb, the finale of the hill climb season, started with another early morning and a trek to somewhere off the A1. There was indeed a hill, and we rode up it. For early November, the weather was, fortunately, abysmal. Phoebe continued her clean sweep of hill climb victories this year, taking the overall women’s win. Although she was again closely followed by Sannah in 2nd place, allowing CUCC to comfortably win the women’s overall competition. In an outstanding repeat of the OUCC Hill Climb, Will, Ben and Joe all put in top-15 performances to win bronze in the men’s team competition. Their backs need a well-earned rest from all the carrying they have been doing so far this season. Special mention must go to CUCC alumnus, Craig Rogers, now racing for Newcastle, who led the event for most of the day, only to be pipped for the win by Oxford’s ‘Andrew Feather’, Matthew Coulson. After multiple attempts to manoeuvre the van and remember how to use a clutch, the CUCC Van® was back off to Cambridge with another huge medal haul. A fantastic day full of laughs, cold hands and rain, I would nearly choose to do it again.
BUCS Hill Climb, 4th November 2023
It would seem the club-subsidised university events were not enough for some, with members spending hard-earned student loans on more open hill climb events around the country. Streatley Hill near Reading was graced with the Fenland Watts on 17th September (yes, this isn’t in chronological order 🤡) – multiple members came out of summer hibernation to perform some max efforts: Matt Davison, Tom Hale, Maddie and recent alumnus Zoe Burrell ensured CUCC gave ample warning to the other universities to get their act together before the season proper. Another mention to Cam Walker for bagging a top-10 for his team! Numerous other events were entered strengthening the CUCC hill climb name, with strong showings by CUCC members and alumni including: Tim B and Jacob at The Urban Hill Climb in mid-September and Cam Walker who took multiple top-10s in the Chilterns.
And with that, the club’s racing for the calendar year is at an end. A huge thanks must go to all those who helped organise transport, entries and the events themselves: Louis Stuart, Tom Wade and Phoebe Barker – the smooth running of these events was all thanks to them. Lastly, thanks and well done to all those who rode any of the hill climbs – I certainly had a great time and I hope you all did too. Being able to take such large teams to these events really makes me realise how much the club can come together to support each other – the fact that we are competing on such a high-level nationally is a testament to this. I hope everyone has a restful holiday and is as excited as I am for the year to come!
For a summary of results, see the ‘Results Archive’ on our website under the ‘Racing’ tab.
If you’d like to get involved with any of the racing in the club, or simply have any questions, please email one (or all!) of your race captains: Matt (mlar2), Tom (tjh93), Jo (jgm42) and Phoebe (prab2)
Our riders might have been scattered around the country for the long vacation, but that hasn’t stopped CUCC bringing home a host of fantastic results over the summer months.
Back in late July, one half of the coming year’s social sec team – Ffion James – put in a strong performance on her mountain bike, finishing a fantastic 2nd place in the Women’s U23 race at the National XC Championships at Cannock Chase.
Craig ‘Mystery’ Rogers has been battling away at a load of Northern 2/3/4s, winning the Ian Mountain Memorial RR, finishing 2nd at the Cold Dark North RR and then also competing at the Harlech ‘Hell’ Climb, finishing 6th in a quality field up an especially grim climb (recently recategorised as the steepest in the world!) to show good form as hill climb season comes into view.
Craig Rogers (Fitz) winning the Ian Mountain Memorial RR. Cred. Kieran Metcalfe Photography
Lucas ‘The Bullet’ He has continued a season of great TT results, a particular highlight being the VC Baracchi 50 near Norwich, where he clocked a rapid 1:51:17 to bag a quality 2nd place. He then followed this up with another podium on the 25 mile variant of the same course a week later, finishing in 56:04.
When not trying to finish writing up his PhD thesis, John Mulvey has been casually winning the odd TT here and there, including the Victoria CC and Chronos RT 10s on the same day?!. The latter was won with a rapid 18:51 on the F2A/10 course just west of Cambridge.
Moving into August, aside from seeing his form slide away through a month of 30-minute crits in Crystal Palace Park, Website Secretary Jack Kellam took the club’s Zipp wheels all the way back home to South Wales for an average day out at the CTT Welsh 10-mile Championship near Abergavenny, finishing 15th for a 20:24. Faring far better, however was Women’s Captain Elspeth Grace who traded her standard ‘cross tyres for slicks, coming 5th in the Women’s field in the Victoria CC 10.2 on the Bank Holiday weekend.
Jack Brown (Caius) on his way to a new CUCC 25 record
General Secretary Jack Brown headed over to a dual carriageway near Derby for the rescheduled RTTC National 25 Championships after a summer comprised mainly of lugging touring kit up mountains and trolling the numerous (8!) Loughborough students he keeps beating in road races.
TT-position muscle memory proved strong, however, as Jack churned out the watts to break the club 25 record for the second time this year, posting a 48:09(!) on the A25/11, good enough for a top 10 finish (9th) on the day. Rumour has it he might get his skis out and head down to the R25/3h in South Wales in search of a 47′ next year.
All in all, its been another superb summer of racing across the board for the club with numerous great results and performances not covered here. With another intake of talented freshers just round the corner, things are looking good for BUCS 2019/20, with the season-opener hill climb up Mam Tor fast approaching at the end of October.
On Saturday the 9th April it was the BUCS 10 Mile Time Trial Championships, held just outside Oxford. The format of the racing, a time trial, sees each competitor try and lay down the fastest time they can around the 10 mile course. On top of this, the Team medals would be awarded on the combined times of the fastest 3 from each University.
In the Men’s Competition 48 Universities were represented and 7 Cambridge riders qualified – fewer than the year before. The Women had 4 qualify for their event, but bad luck (and shoulder dislocations!) lead to just 2 taking the start. With only one rider seeded, both men and women were regarded as outsiders for the titles- one person from a Scottish University even forecasting that Cambridge ‘would go off a bit of a cliff’ this year and stood no chance- laying down a bit of a challenge!
WOMEN’S CAPTIAN JESS TAKES THE START
With one rider put off every minute it would be 3 hours before all the times were in, making for an anxious wait to see how riders compared. Soon, however, it began to show that the Cambridge Men were doing pretty well! The fastest time crawled slowly downwards throughout the course of the afternoon, until it came to a halt with Cambridge’s Oliver Mytton setting a new fastest time of 20:23 with 110 people still to go. This ended up standing unchallenged for over half an hour- despite some seeded people coming and going, the person coming closest was Fresher Ali Golby, 9 seconds back in his first showing for Cambridge.Continue reading→
On the weekend of 19th/20th November a small group of us took the excuse of BUCS track Championships to take a trip to the mecca of british cycling that is National Cycling Centre. Home of British Cycling and Team Sky, the current generation of world beating British cyclists were formed and molded here, in the hard kilometres of training and countless hours spent on the boards lapping the track. The astute amongst you might be aware that the current generation of CUCC cyclists were not formed and molded on the boards, due to what I can only assume is an oversight by leadership of British Cycling to have not yet built a velodrome in or around Cambridge. Wholly inadequate as it was, 2 hours of track time at Derby would have to do.Continue reading→
