Teessiders Take Part in 16 Mile Up Hill Bike Ride

Cyclists from Teesside and around the country have taken part in a gruelling 16 kilometre up hill cycling race as part of a national event.

The riders from Stockton Wheelers Cycling Club were joined by dozens of other cyclists from clubs around the UK to take part in the Teesside regional section of The National Hill Climb Championships.

Similar events are held around of the country and each event winner is awarded points with the overall winner being the rider with the quickest time up hill.

The race took place at Tan Hill near Richmond in North Yorkshire.

Teesside rider Ryan Blakemore was one of 50 people who took part in the event.

He said: “I think that Hill Climbs are a very historically British event.”

“The events are usually run in the Autumn and winter after the ‘road season’ has finished and riders want something else to compete in.

“The events are savage and the people competing are giving everything to get up the hill as quick as possible but after you have crossed the finish line, you turn into a spectator instantly and you’re shouting at your rivals to “get up the hill”, you go from enemies to friends real quick.

“It’s a community that only people in the scene would understand.”

The winner of this year’s Stockton Wheelers Hill Climb was 17-year-old Matthew Cole of Team Bottrill based in Leicestershire.

He beat the  favourite Jude Taylor of Team PB Performance who came in  second,.

Marcel Schubert, Adam Pinder, who was another favourite to win the race, and Richard Lillekar made up the top Five.

Autumn is the time where many road cyclists step off the pedals, but a small niche of pain seeking bikers go the opposite way and begin their training for the National Hill Climb Championships.

The National Hill Climb Championships begin in late September and finish just before Christmas with the “National final” held in a different location around the UK every year.

They draw the types of scenes you would see at professional cycle races with big budgets and planning, fans gather in their masses at every event whether it be two minutes or 10 minutes long.

This event is not for the faint-hearted and only attracts the most devoted and arguably craziest of road cyclists.

In late September, Stockton Wheelers CC hold their annual Hill Climb Championships on Tan Hill in Richmond.

Tan Hill sits just outside of the Yorkshire Dales so you are guaranteed the day of the event is mostly filled with dark clouds and wind.

A longer course than most with 16km of smaller, rolling, undulating hills instead of  one steeper shorter hill.

The event began at 11am with riders setting off at one minute intervals at the bottom of the climb, essentially playing cat and mouse with the rider in front.

The Stockton Wheelers event is just one of hundreds of Hill Climb events that go on around the country every weekend from the first week of September until the last week in December.