Today was Burrington Combe hill climb. It is a two mile hill climb, averaging 6%. I first rode the race back in 2004 – it was one of my first cycle races. I like this photo taken by Dave Johnson.

This year, I haven’t been able to train so I wasn’t sure whether to race or not today. But, some friends from the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team were coming to watch, so I thought it would be a nice day out.

The past five years I have been trying to be 100% prepared and trained for the hill climb season; I like racing on top form. This year, it has been interesting to do a few races, when very much unprepared. If you wait for everything to be perfect, I might never race again.

In the end I did better than I expected with a time of 7.17 – 1st place out of 113 entrants.

spectators on the course.

Related

• Burrington Combe 2016 – at Cycling Uphill
• Race report at Cycling Time Trials