Muckle Hill Climb
Sunday 21st October 2018
Prospect Hill, Corbridge, Northumberland
An unseasonably dry and warm October morning was the setting for the 2nd annual muckle hill climb
on Prospect Hill in the picturesque village of Corbridge. There was another packed field of over
100 riders on the start sheet eager to tackle the twists and turns of Prospect Hill.
There was a buzz at sign on, with riders competing in a wide variety of different categories from juniors to veterans, lean racing snakes to more ‘fuller’ figures. First man off at 9:31am was Ian Stanners, resplendent in rainbow tutu and not much else, astride a bike that wouldn’t be out of place in Beamish. For the next 2 hours, the hill was awash with riders putting every last bit of power through their pedals and met at each corner by roars of encouragement from the watching crowds.
There was a healthy number of women riders wanting to test themselves against the clock, last year’s winner was not in
attendance so there would be a new name on the trophy for 2018. Continuing on her good hill climb form in 2018, Hannah Farran of Team Boompods took the win in a new women's course record.
The field was stacked with the hitters at the end, to battle it out for the overall win. Last year’s winner, Zeb Kyffin was last man off and flew up the 8% gradients in a new course record and repeated his success to take the men’s title. Once the results had been decided it was back to the HQ to get stuck into the Muckle buffet and formally award the prizes to the winners, pack up and start to think about next years event.
