CLINTON SHOWS HIS FORM A WEEK BEFORE THE NATIONALS

Reigning National Hill Climb Champion, Matt Clinton from Balsall Common showed his main contenders once again that he’s serious about defending his title next Sunday in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire.

Recovering from the cold that set him back last week, Clinton, riding for Mike Vaughan Cycles set out to do some damage at the Pedalsport CC 2-stage Hill Climb at Halifax on Saturday. Two notoriously steep and hard climbs, both ascending out of Luddenden village climb right out of the valley to Mount Tabor. Both of these climbs it’s a struggle to get out of 2nd gear in the car, with the hairpins having to be taken in first gear! First up in the morning was Stocks Lane, which Clinton set a course record on in 2008. Different conditions this year meant that no records would be set with the top of the climb exposed to a headwind. Never the less, Clinton stormed up the climb to only finish 5 seconds down on his course record to win the event by over 24s from National Championship Medallist Dave Clarke and almost 34s from twice National Champion James Dobbin.

1st Matt Clinton MikeVaughan.co.uk 5.22.3
2nd Dave Clarke Pendragon 5.46.9
3rd James Dobbin Arctic Premier RT 5.56.2
4th Rob Watkinson Doncaster Wheelers 6.21.9
5th Andy Pearson Huddersfield Star Wheelers 6.34.4
6th Chris Edmondson Blackburn & District CTC 6.37.5
7th Paul Murphy Tyneside Vagabonds 6.58.8
8th Paul Smith Huddersfield Star Wheelers 7.02

With a two-hour break, it was back to the bottom of the valley for the 2nd climb of the day, Halifax Lane. The setting for the 2003 National Championship, with the record of 5-19 held by the day’s notable absentee, Jim Henderson. Another horrendous climb, Clinton opted to use hisGiant Omnium fixed-wheel bike as in the morning, with the bottom of the climb averaging 17%, easing off for the middle section to 11% before shallowing out to the finish. Without the headwind of last year, there was the anticipation of fast times, but it wasn’t to be, with Clinton only going 3s faster than 2008. Still this was to be a fantastic ride, only 7s off Henderson’s record and taking the win by 20s from James Dobbin, with Dave Clarke another second back. With two incredible rides by Clinton, dealing a huge blow to next weekend’s main contenders for the title.

1st Matt Clinton MikeVaughan.co.uk 5.26.7
2nd James Dobbin Arctic Premier RT 5.46.8
3rd Dave Clarke Pendragon 5.47.7
4th Rob Watkinson Doncaster Wheelers 6.10.6
5th Chris Edmondson Blackburn & District CTC 6.32.3
6th Andy Pearson Huddersfield Star Wheelers 6.35
7th Paul Smith Huddersfield Star Wheelers 6.44

Sunday morning it was a trip back over to Lancashire for the infamous Nick O’Pendle climb out of Sabden. Rising from the village to the top of Pendle hill, the climb is a real lung-buster, a great deal shorter than Saturday’s two climbs, but still tough. The lower section of the climb was again the steepest, before levelling out slight on to the moor and dragging heavily up to the finish line at the crest of the hill. Clinton’s first time on the event, his main challenger would be 5-time National Champion, Jim Henderson, fresh without having ridden on Saturday. As Clinton set off last-man as ever, he broke out on to the moor, to hit the cattle grid where there was an intermediate time-check. Finding out that he was only level with Henderson by this point, he accelerated as the gradient eased slightly to the power up the last kick to the finish. To his surprise, Clinton found he’d actually put 5 seconds into Henderson in the last few hundred metres to win with a time of 3-42.9, with Henderson at 3-47.9 and 3rd pace well over 4mins.

It was then back towards Halifax to ride the 4.8mile long Cragg Vale Hill-Climb. More of a time-trial than a hill climb, the gradient barely reaches about 7% for short sections; Clinton knew after the weekend’s previous three efforts that this would be a struggle. Dan Shand (West Pennine) was to be Clinton’s main competitor, the roadman suited to the longer climb deciding to use his time-trial bike for his local event. Clinton was back on hisGiant TCR Advanced SL Road bike, incredibly light-weight and stiff, but not quite as aero-dynamic as using a TT bike! Climbing up on to the exposed moors for the last two miles, Clinton was going well, but it was the fast top section that led to his downfall, with Shand able to cover the course in a record-beating time. It was to Clinton’s shock at the finish to find that Shand had not only taken 30 seconds off his course-record, but he’d been beaten by 1 minute 5s! Second place would have to do on a climb completely different to the weekend’s other events, finishing in a time of 17min 16s.

Now less than a week away from the Championship, Clinton is looking to build his form and is confident to keep his National Title