Race report by Maddie Angwin

Baring a pan, a spoon and some bikes CUCC headed for Leicestershire for the first BUCS event of the season – the hill climb. Hoping to follow on from last year’s success, the team dinner the night before had been planned to perfection – an essential weight-saving diet of burgers and brownies. Conversation over dinner of course fell into the realms of Mario Kart courses and hill climb tactics. Race strategies sorted and the team was ready to go. 

The hill was 1.1 km long averaging 6.4% with a total of 79m elevation, practically a mountain compared with what Cambridge has to offer. The first rider off for CUCC was Matt Davison, followed by Ben Proctor, Jacob Lewis, and Tim Bodey. Whilst the performances by our riders were strong, nothing was more impressive than former President George Spooner’s commitment to running up alongside every rider and cheering them on. 

Fresh off his podium at Varsity Hill Climb and win at the annual CUCC hill climb, eyes were on Joe Adlam-Cook to see what (watt) he could produce. A strong, well-paced effort saw Joe place 8^th with a time of 00:02:33.33. However, what may be more impressive than the result itself is the fact that Joe, for once, did not end up sitting in a bush half-dead afterward – miracles do happen. Joe’s performance, paired with rapid races from Theo Weinberger (00:02:42.80) and Tom Hale (00:02:43.68) saw CUCC claim third place overall. A huge achievement once again for the club. 

It was great to see so many excellent performances from CUCC with every rider finishing within the top half of the results table. The men’s results were as follows: Joe Adlam-Cook (00:02:33.33), Theo Weinberger (00:02:42.80), Tom Hale (00:02:43.68), Rob Peacock (00:02:44.05), Sam Lewin (00:02:45.02), Tim Bodey (00:02:46.32), Ben Proctor (00:02:46.75), Jacob Lewis (00:02:47.02), Matt Bryan (00:02:48.18), Matt Rizzo-Naudi (00:02:48.37), Joris Witstock (00:02:48.79), Jake Stuchbury-Wass (00:02:55.89), Matt Davison (00:02:56.36), Alban Wales (00:02:59.09), Tom Wade (00:03:00.45), Luke Andrews (00:03:01.72), Harry Weedon (00:03:04.95).

After the conclusion of the men’s race, the women’s racing began and saw an exceptional performance from CUCC. First off on the women’s side was President Zoe Burrell putting in a strong performance of 00:03:22.35. Up next was Sannah Zaman who, despite a slight altercation with a car, stormed up the hill with a time of 00:03:13.37, putting her into 3^rd place. Coming off the back of her CUCC hill climb win, Phoebe Barker put down an incredible time of 00:03:09.75, securing 2^nd place overall. The final two riders for CUCC were Miranda Clements (00:03:18.17) and Maddie Angwin (00:03:40.27). The incredible rides by Phoebe and Sannah meant that CUCC won the women’s team event as well as having two riders on the podium and all within the top half of the results table.

It was an excellent day all round for CUCC. We look forward to racing again next year (and proving that it seems you don’t need hills to win hill climbs). The full list of results can be found here and the photos can be found here.

Race report by women’s captain Phoebe Barker

On 30th October CUCC hosted our annual “hill” climb out at Gog Magog. It is a bit of a struggle finding any elevation out in the Cambridgeshire countryside and the climb boasts an impressive whole 37m… Nevertheless, many riders turned out to get a final practice effort in before BUCS the following weekend. After spending a morning watching the rain steadily fall, the clouds blew over and people ventured over to the start.

First up was CUCC’s Ladies’ Captain, Phoebe Barker, who put down the initial mark to beat – 2:02.4. She was followed up the hill by CUCC’s president, Zoe Burrell, who laid down a very competitive 2:08.0. These two times remained podium positions until Miranda Clements (our new recruit from the terrible sport of rowing…) sneaked above Zoe with a 2:07.6. Ellen Inglis, Nina Haket and Abigail Cox hotly followed and all put in strong performances. Nina and Abi deserve particularly special mention as it was both of their first races. I am excited to see what they can do for the rest of the season!

Ladies’ podium:
1st – Phoebe Barker
2nd – Miranda Clements
3rd – Zoe Burrell

Next up were the men. Joe Adlam-Cook had another storming climb to finish top of the CUCC pile with 1:35.7 and take the outright victory. Joe was four seconds clear of Renzo Casale who put down a rapid 1:39.3 to snatch silver ahead of Alban Wales’ 1:41.9. Alban has already improved massively this season and I am so pleased to see his dedication to training paying off! Matt Bryan and Sam Lewin completed the top 5, both finishing within 1.5 seconds of the podium. Matt’s time is particularly impressive bearing in mind he was marshaling up until 5 mins before his start time! Stasiu Polanski, Matt Davison, and Tim Welsh also made the top 10 making it 7 CUCC in the top 10 and highlighting the depth of talent we have. Ex-rowers Luke Andrews (CUCC’s Mens’ Captain) and Rob Peacock used their strength and fitness to power their way up the hill to join Tom Wade, Harry Weedon (our speedy fresher), Ewan Collar, Colin Krawchuk, Sam Kimber, Bertie Cliffe and Lucas Beghein in the top 20. Finally, Louis Stuart, Daniel Lamb and Tom Peretz all contributed fast times to the CUCC squad.

Mens’ podium:
1st – Joe Adlam-Cook
2nd – Renzo Casale
3rd – Alban Wales

A big thank you must go to Ben Proctor for his efficient and slick organisation (allowing us to time to a greater accuracy than one second) and everyone who helped marshal, at the start and with timing; the event would not have been possible without them.