Over the last few weeks, Redhill members Matthew Ferguson and Ben Elliott have been competing in the Southern Hill climb series and finished off their season by competing in the National Hillclimb Championships in the Lake District.
Matthew started off by taking a brace of wins over the same weekend, the Saturday saw victory on the Blazing Saddles event in Charlton followed on the Sunday with victory on the Bostal in Steyning at the Sussex CA event. A couple of weeks later at the Bec CC climb on the nasty, White Hill Lane, Matthew recorded an 8th place and Ben finished 29th against some very strong opposition. The following day at the Catford CC hillclimb, which is actually one of the oldest cycle races in the world, both riders further upped their games and finished an extremely impressive 6th and 14th respectively. They then ventured down to Ditchling Beacon where Matthew finished 3rd overall with Ben coming in 10th and 2nd Espoir.
Buoyed by this impressive form, both riders decided to take on the challenge of the The Struggle, and the 2023 National Championships. On this most difficult of climbs, 2.67 miles, with and average gradient of 8%, and ramping up to a lung busting 24% in sections, Matthew finished 26th overall with Ben 52nd and 11th under 23. Massive congratulations to both riders from the Club.
We also have a new rider who's ventured onto the hills this season and that Finley Andrews. As a youth rider, 13 year old Finley won his age group in both the Bec and Catford events, and what was even more impressive is that he came home as second junior, the higher age bracket, both times. On the Ditchling climb, Finley came home 18th overall and 1st junior, some 50 seconds ahead of the second place rider. Having ridden with Finley on several occasions, this young man is a star of the future. Not only is he fast on the flat, but whenever the ground starts to rise, he just flies.