Howcroft-Jones and Larkin snatch victories in Buxton CC climb
Ross Howcroft-Jones and Alice Larkin took victories on Bunsall Cob by less than a second in the men’s and women’s events respectively at the Buxton CC/Sett Valley Cycles event.
High North Performance rider Howcroft-Jones won the same event last season and returned to clock a winning time of four minutes and 31 seconds exactly.
The 33-year-old showed his form by going 11 seconds quicker than his winning time last season.
Buxton CC hosted the event on Bunsall Cob, which takes place on Goyt’s Lane and starts next to the Erwood Reservoir.
The 1.6-kilometre climb heads straight up at a steady gradient of 13 per cent. After cresting the first part of the climb the gradient levels allowing riders to build up speed for the final section.
Howcroft-Jones was on fine form with his time beating veteran Leon Wright (Race Hub) by eight tenths of a second (4-31.8).
Completing the men’s podium positions was Adam Kenway (Team Brother UK) in 4-34.1, who was narrowly quicker than Jamie Philpott (Wahoo Le Col) who recorded a time of 4-34.9.
Spindata had predicted a victory for Kenway in 4-22 with Howcroft-Jones forecasted to place fifth. However, the Rapha Cycling Club rider proved that prediction wrong.
“It was a really nice climb to get started, good weather, good conditions and it was a good field as well,” Howcroft-Jones said.
“If you get over the first part feeling strong you can gather a bit of speed, I got up to around 25 miles per hour.
“It’s then like a wall for 50 seconds to finish it off. It suited me well because of the quick recovery which I seem to be able to do quite well.”
Howcroft-Jones will be hoping for more success next weekend when he rides the Brickworks climb, organised by Cheshire Maverick Cycle Club on Saturday followed by the GS Metro event Hedley on the Hill the following day.
In the women’s event veteran rider Larkin took her first open time trial victory stopping the clock in 6-41.3.
She was pushed all the way by Joanne Clay (MagCAD Designs) who placed second just nine tenth of a second behind in 6-42.2, while Elizabeth Batt (Buxton CC/Sett Valley Cycles) was third (6-51.9).
“It’s nice to get my first win and I feel like I can put my feet up now and enjoy the rest of the season,” said Larkin.
“I’d only ridden up it very slowly once before on the way back from somewhere else. I hadn’t raced it before and in my head it was shorter. It was quite steep at the start and then a really straight ramp where you can see a minute ahead.
“You can normally see at least one other rider in front of you and it feels like a reach for the sky. It levels off a little bit and gives you time to recover which for me was really important.
“It then swings around steep again, fortunately there was some bell rings on the last bit which was quite helpful as you need it at that point.
“You couldn’t see the finish line so weren’t sure where you were aiming for on the last steep bend. It was a relief when I finally got there.”
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