Up The Buttress – The Aftermath

There’s been lots of upset on the international race scene recently, what with the Rocky Road/UCI DH debacle and now two rival World Solo Championship races being promoted for 2012. It’s only fair then that our local hill climb joined in, sparking debate over whether or not they should have cleaned the grease off the cobbles of the formidable Buttress – and indeed whether starting the riders after the hard part made the climb too easy… We weren’t riding, though, so we’ll save the debate for next year and let event organiser Bill Brady continue with his version of events.

Up The Buttress – Hill climbing, northern style.

The idea was ‘borrowed’ from the Cobble Wobble in Frome but we decide to give it a Pennine/Northern feel and try to get as many local sponsors as possible. Instead of a fizzy energy drink, we asked Yorkshire Tea (let’s have a proper brew) to donate tea and cakey delights. Dan from Bridestone Brewery provided free beer. Ragley, Orange and Hope all handed over top prizes for the fastest riders . We were lucky to have the number one MTB magazine (*cough* shameless plug) Singletrack to help out with a web page, online booking and signing on of the riders on the day, plus the added draw of a massive easyup to draw people in on the day.

It’s always hard to sell an uphill sprint as fun, but thanks to the sunshine we got 35 entrants who were all ready to turn themselves inside out on their way to the top. Even better was the fact that we got families walking up the Buttress to see what the noise was, and then staying to cheer on the fools who were sprinting up the cobbles. Having spectators at the side really spurred on the riders and some ridiculously fast times were made.

The plan was to give out spot prizes for fancy dress, best fail, largest vomit etc, but as we had so much beer, cake and chamois cream no one went away empty handed. In fact for your £10 entry fee you went away with about £30 worth of goodies….don’t expect that next year!

Highlights include the cheering competition between the start and the finish (the start won). Watching the rider on a road bike on slicks have a go, Elvis, Sons v. Dads, the fastest female’s face when she realised what she’d won, the desperate sound of air being released from rear tyres to get more grip, everyone drinking free beer and eating free cake at the bottom in the sunwhilst waiting for the results. The fastest riders were:

Open Men:
Matt Bridge                00:01:21.0
Robin Holt                00:01:21.3
Andy Geall                00:01:22.4

Women:
Rebecca Antcliffe                00:02:18.6
Rosie Holdsworth                00:02:42.0

Juniors/U16:
Ben Greenwood                00:01:54.
Daniel Bladon                00:02:10.9
Josh Asker                00:02:33.1

You’ll find all the times and standings here: Tap Timing

We got a lot of good feedback and interest in holding the event again next year, the question is, do I clean the cobbles next year or keep them slimey?

The event was my stupid idea (that I nicked) but it wouldn’t have been possible without the help from the following people:

Katie Kinsella , CMBC
Sue Leffman  Pennine Prospects
Singletrack Magazine
Allan Boult and Blazing Saddles
Andy Geal and the Bikeability crew
Tap Timing
All the Sponsors: Ragley, Orange, Hope, Bridstones Brewery, 2 Pure and Chamois Butt’r, Yorkshire Tea.

And of course the event wouldn’t have happened without the racing, so a big thank you to all the riders and spectators too!

Thanks to Bill Brady for the report and Andy Spencer for the images.