This is an article October 2013, from Cycling Weekly, after winning the National Hill Climb Championship.
Prior to 2013, my best placed finish was 4th. In 2011, I had been one of favourites, but only finished 5th. 2013 was the ninth time I had entered the national hill climb championship; I guess it made a good story -ninth time lucky. At 36, I was also probably one of oldest people to win the championship too.
After the race, Cycling Weekly interviewed me quite a bit. They were interested in my cycling team – Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team – which takes its inspiration from spiritual teacher and keen athlete Sri Chinmoy. Also, I try and meditate before a race and get in a good space. On the Championship day, the weather on the Stang was really bad – high winds and rain. Usually I would spend time warming up on the roads, but the weather encouraged me to warm up less and spend more time in the car meditating. It wasn’t a great meditation if I’m honest, but it was still good to do.
Full article
The photo on first page is good. But!
- My woolly socks weren’t very aerodynamic, I intended to take the second pair off, but it was cold. The person in the distance was my ‘minute man’ – the person who started one minute before. He was Sam Ward, who ironically got me to do my first hill climb for Otley CC back in 1993.
- Number not put on properly. Someone accidentally started to take my number off in the HQ, and it didn’t get put back on properly.
I also blogged at:
- Nat Hill climb 2013 – Cycling uphill
- National Hill climb championship 2013 at Cycling Weekly