Hill climb GH/41 race result - 18th August 2009

It was a sunny & warm evening, a bit different to some of our Hill Climbs held on autumn mornings when it has been very cold with frost on the fields opposite the start.

It was a clear win for Simon Donne improving almost 5 seconds on his previous best time, also what must be a record was four members inside 3 minutes.

Malcolm Bell pointed out before the event that it was 50 years ago that he won the first Club Hill Climb on Ranmore, after coming straight out to the event from an all night party. Malcolm's time of 2-51.0 would have been good enough for third place this year.

From 1926 until 1958 the event was held on Pebblecombe Hill and this was before the steep part was widened and the very top slightly levelled off. The photo above was taken in October 1952 and shows the winner Gordon Tapsell, time 1-22.2, with a very young John Jones on the left eating an apple. With the trees on either side originally almost meeting, the record of 1-7.00 was set in 1929 by Percy Vaughan when a strong southerly wind aided four riders to beat the previous best time.

18 August 2009 7:00 PM		Epsom CC Club Hill climb				Course: GH/41
Number	Name	Time	Pos	Hcp	Hcp Time	Hcp pos
6	Simon Donne	2:42.6	1	0:00
13	Brian Molloy	2:50.4	2	0:00
3	Paul Haywood	2:54.2	3	0:00
4	Stephen Emmerson	2:55.6	4	0:00
11	James Brown	2:59.4		PTT
12	John Heasman	3:16.8		PTT
5	Ben Levine	3:25.4	5	0:00
2	Richard Gill	3:27.4	6	0:00
1	Malcolm Bell	4:59.8	7	0:00