Three weeks before the RTTC National hill-climb championship the anti-gravity specialists are out in force this weekend.
Current national champion Gunner Gronlund (RST Trigon) rides the Shefrec CC event on Monsal Head, which he won last year, where he comes up against the Downings Russell and Dean, former hill climb champion Matt Clinton (MikeVaughan Cycles), Adam Duggleby (Sportscover Altura RT) and Graham Briggs (Team Raleigh GAC) amongst others.
Gronlund also rides the Birdwell Wheelers hill climb, as does Clinton. Last year’s winner Lee Baldwin defends.
Already having notched up a clutch of hill-climb wins this season; Tejvan Pettinger (Sri Chinmoy RT) is out to repeat his 2011 success in the Otley CC events at Pately Bridge and Norwood Edge.
Robert Gough (Arctic-SRAM) is another looking to emulate his 2011 successes in both the Severn RC and Chippenham & District Wheelers events. Gough also rides the VC Walcot promotion.
Winner of last year’s Rossendale RC hill-climb, Carl Helliwell (Blackburn & District CTC) goes for it again with James Coleman (Witham Wheelers) among his opponents.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST
Many of yesterday’s champions combine with some of the current generation in Warrington RC’s Johnny Helms Memorial 2-Up.
Les West, Owen Blower, Tony Hewson, Phil Thomas, Adrian Timmis and Martin Early are some of the names that stand out for the Knutsford based event. The younger (?) set includes Matthew Bottrill, Mark Holton and Ryan Mullen.