We’re approaching the end of the national championship season and, despite predictions to the contrary, we’ve had pretty decent weather. It couldn’t possibly last could it? Well, the forecasters thought not and were predicting heavy rain but heading up to Freuchie for the Scottish National Hill Climb Championships on Sunday (16th October) we had beautiful red skies…what’s that line about ‘red sky in the morning’?

Passing into the Kingdom, suddenly the countryside closed in and the mist came down. Arriving at Freuchie, we took a run up the hill to check it out and we saw a number of riders practicing…that is, when we could see them. The fog was pretty thick and despite a brisk and chilling breeze it was sticking doggedly to the hillside.

The Purrin Den climb is deceptively mild to begin with. Unlike last year’s Logie Brae it starts off quite gently with no really steep ramps to get the heart racing. On through some shallow curves, staying in the trees, it begins to almost imperceptibly notch up the gradient.

A couple more twists and turns and the riders are over the halfway point but as they break out of the tree line they take a right hand turn and are presented with a long ramp up, this time noticeably steeper. With spectators waiting on the corner they could be fooled into thinking they were nearing the finish at the end of this climb, only to go round the left hander and see the road soar away in a straight line up past the gorse moor on either side with the radio mast away in the distance…well away in the distance.

For the later finishers, the mist had risen a little at the top but the bulk of the satellite dishes were still obscured by the weather. And this just made the climb seem all the harder.

The start was delayed by 30 minutes for safety reasons. With such a narrow road, ending at the top of the climb, it was a bit of a surprise to see a full-size coach squeezing around the bends on the way to the top. A large bit of maneuvering and it slowly made its way back down and off the hill. If they’d been looking for the spectacular view from the top, all they saw was some fog and a lot of cycle fans trying not to laugh.

And they were off! First to tackle the 1.2-mile course was Aileen Clyde (Fullarton Wheelers) running ahead of the Youth riders. She would set a benchmark time of 11:38.61, the timekeepers wisely measuring to hundredths of a second, as would become apparent later.

This time was soon eclipsed by Conor Stevenson (Perth City Cycles) as he lowered the mark to 8:29.77. This was a great time and would put quite a number of the later senior riders in the shade. There was no championship medal for this youth category but we’ll look for Conor’s name when he steps up to junior.

And the juniors made a fight of it, the three podium riders all finishing within 1-½ seconds of each other. Cameron Richardson (Synergy Cycles) was carrying number 13 and scorched up the hill to finish in 7:30.52. Starting one minute behind was Ross Thomson (Dunfermline CC) and he matched the Synergy rider pedal for pedal all the way up the hill. In fact, it looked like they would tie but Mhairi Laffoley’s watch showed that they had finished with just 0.24 of a second between them, the win going to Richardson.

We had to wait a while for the third podium spot to be claimed in this category. Joe Agnew (Edinburgh RC), due off number 37, punctured just two minutes before his start time so he was allowed to ride after last year’s defending champion. It was not ideal preparation but he crossed the line in 7:32.06…so close but not this time for the ERC rider.

The Women’s race was well underway by this time. We spoke to Juli Rourke (Edinburgh RC) who has finished third too many times in this championship and she told us that she’d been training specifically for this event. She’d dropped her weight to 47kg and she reckoned she had the lightest set-up on the course. She was out of the saddle and pushing when she passed us but there had been several women over the course before her.

First rider after the juniors had been Emily Palmer (Glasgow Nightingale) and she calmly spun the gears as she went threw the s-bends before the long straights. Super-smooth, she would pass the timekeeper in 9:07.62. She was followed up the hill by Ayr Road’s Toni McIntosh but her 9:40.22 couldn’t get her onto the podium on this occasion.

With ERC’s Helen Wyld posting 9:57.32, and Velocity 44’s Amanda Tweedie still suffering from the bug that kept her out of the Ras and opting not to ride, it was down to the final three women to sort out the podium. Anna Fairweather (Spokes RT) was running just ahead of Rourke with Dooleys RT’s Lynsey Curran being the last women on the course, last year’s champion Genevieve Whitson not defending the title.

Fairweather was the smoothest of the three and her time of 9:07.83 put the timekeeper’s watch to the test once again…1^st and 2^nd places being separated by just 0.21. The win was Palmer’s as Rourke came home in 9:14.47 to round out the podium and add to her collection of 3^rd’s. She’ll try again next year.

And so onto the Men’s race. It was a smallish field for this championship but the main contenders were there. Walter Hamilton (VC Edinburgh) was the defending champion but he knew that he would face stiff competition from a determined opposition, and Pro Vision Cycle Clothing had come in force.

Embarrassed with himself last year, David Griffiths had been late to the starter in pure Pedro Delgado style and he was keen to make up for that mistake. Down 3kgs in just three weeks, he’d lost 8kg in preparation for this race but he had a lot of top riders around, including the course record holder in Arthur Doyle (www.Dooleys.co.uk) the ultimate aim being 6:48 set in 2010.

Starting in the middle of the pack because of last year’s time David Griffiths appeared through the trees and, as is often the way on hill climbs, didn’t look to be out of his comfort zone. The times would later show that he had paced himself well on the lower slopes and ramped up the effort as the hill got harder nearer the top.

He finished in a time of 6:46.63 to break the course record and move into the lead but he would have to wait and see if the others could match or better his time. Coming up behind it was really down to three men: Arthur Doyle, Walter Hamilton and Pro Vision’s Harry Johnston, no slouch on a climb having taken the circuit race title on the esplanade at Stirling Castle.

Johnston would get closest to Griffiths as he finished in 6:51.31, the only other rider to go under the 7-minute barrier. The time-splits later showed that the young rider from Rhu had been 10 seconds up on his teammate at the mid-point but had been overhauled on the later sections.

Arthur Doyle had come home ahead of Johnston in 7:21.93 and this might have been good enough for third if the defending champion hadn’t pushed home 8-seconds quicker in 7:13.66. This put Walter Hamilton onto the podium on 3^rd but nobody could get close to the Pro Vision pairing of Griffiths and Johnston.

With their team captain Jason Roberts posting 8:12.34, Pro Vision Cycle Clothing finished in 21:50.08 to take the team category ahead of Dooleys RT’s Doyle, Jim Cusick and, making the journey up from Castle Douglas, Gavin Shirley.

The Women’s team category went to Edinburgh Road Club with Helen Wyld and Juli Rourke in a time of 19:11.79.

All that was left was to head back to Freuchie Cricket Club, present the awards, thank everyone for their hard work and get away before the rain started, which it did just 20 minutes after everyone headed off.

We have just two more Nationals to go this year and with the 3-day track champs being indoors that only leaves the ‘cross championship to see if we get a good soaking…on past form, we’re not taking any bets on a dry run.

Results:

1	41	David Griffiths	Pro Vision Cycle Clothing	S	6:46.63
2	54	Harry Johnston	Pro Vision Cycle Clothing	S	6:51.31
3	55	Walter Hamilton	Veloclub Edinburgh	S	7:13.66
4	53	Arthur Doyle	www.Dooleys-Cycles.co.uk	V	7:21.93
5	13	Cameron Richardson	Synergy Cycles	JM	7:30.52
6	14	Ross Thomson	Dunfermline CC	JM	7:30.76
7	35	Ben Norris	Glasgow Nightingale CC	S	7:31.80
8	37	Joseph Agnew	Edinburgh Road Club	JM	7:32.06
9	40	Alistair Merry	Unattached	S	7:39.14
10	49	Jon Entwistle	Team JMC	V	7:43.89
11	38	Andrew Hale	GJS Cruise Racing	S	7:49.58
12	42	Calum Gray	DUMRCC	S	7:56.64
13	31	Barry McColl	Peebles CC	S	8:01.90
14	47	Ross Crook	Edinburgh Road Club	V	8:06.82
15	52	Jamie Kennedy	GTR	V	8:08.29
16	34	Francis Chesters	Angus Bike Chain	S	8:10.12
17	51	Jason Roberts	Pro Vision Cycle Clothing	V	8:12.34
18	39	Calum Kennedy	Edinburgh Road Club	JM	8:17.32
19	36	Ian McDermott	Glasgow Green Cycle Club	S	8:18.31
20	16	Calum Shackley	Glasgow Cycle Team	JM	8:19.13
21	8	Conor Stevenson	Perth City Cycles	YM	8:29.77
22	12	Vincent Jozajtis	Stirling Bike Club	JM	8:30.48
23	48	Gavin Shirley	www.Dooleys-Cycles.co.uk	S	8:38.26
24	44	James Cusick	www.Dooleys-Cycles.co.uk	V	8:43.19
25	15	Cameron Earnshaw	Caithness CC	JM	8:51.97
26	17	Andrew Merry	Discovery Junior CC	JM	8:55.06
27	46	Ian Archibald	Johnstone Wheelers	V	8:56.33
28	21	Emily Palmer	Glasgow Nightingale CC	F	9:07.62
29	26	Anna Fairweather	Spokes RT	F	9:07.83
30	27	Julianna Rourke	Edinburgh Road Club	F	9:14.47
31	4	Adrian Hay	Dunfermline CC	S	9:15.50
32	33	Nico Anelli	Angus Bike Chain	JM	9:32.08
33	28	Lynsey Curran	www.Dooleys-Cycles.co.uk	F	9:33.74
34	22	Toni McIntosh	Ayr Roads CC	F	9:40.22
35	45	Erik Lornie	Kinross CC	V	9:41.06
36	9	Finlay Hamilton	Carnegie Cyclones	YM	9:55.51
37	24	Helen Wyld	Edinburgh Road Club	F	9:57.32
38	2	Charlotte Anderson		F	10:03.23
39	30	Jamie Costello	Dundee Wheelers CC	S	10:14.61
40	3	Callum Sleigh		V	10:32.15
41	7	Kyle Howie	Stirling Bike Club	YM	10:36.39
42	43	Gordon Swan	Edinburgh Road Club	V	11:27.37
43	1	Aileen Clyde		F	11:38.61