Inspired by the National hill climb, I went out for a 30 mile training ride yesterday to Brill. It was a beautiful autumn day, but unfortunately, I was in discomfort by the end of the ride. I was plodding along St Clement’s at a fairly sedate speed when I got overtaken by a young lad on a mountain bike, backpack and big mudguards.
There was me – on a state of the art – Trek Emonda, Dura Ace Di2, several thousand pound Carbon fibre bike, and here I was getting overtaken by a young lad, taking home the weekly shopping. Welcome to the future.
Not only that, but as he nonchalantly breezed past, he obviously recognised me and said:
“Hi Tejvan”
So I made a big effort to catch up this MTBer and find out who was sailing past. Of all people, it was Joe Baker (Zappi CC) who had been riding the national hill climb championship this weekend up at Hedley on the Hill. Not only that but he was the champion under-16 rider, finishing 11th junior men in a very respectable time of 4:40.5 (results)
On the positive side, he mentioned he is getting closer to my Brill KOM, but still a good 20 seconds off. So at least for a short-while, I can live on my past glories of Brill hill.
It’s a small world. You cycle around Oxford and you don’t know who you are going to bump into next.
Update 2018
In 2018, Joe Baker finished 1st junior in National Hill Climb Championship at Pea Royd Lane. Even more impressively, he finished 5th overall in a top quality field. Men’s results 2018 National Hill climb
Related
You might want to have a look at the strava segment for brill hill… 😉 looking forward to Nat HC again this year!
Lol, just searched your name to see if anyone had written about your amazing performance at the weekend and found this from last year.