Autumn might well be the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness in the words of poet John Keats, but it’s also the season of hill climbs, and mellow is not a word that quite fits with the ordeal of riding such races. It is still possible to have, however, a ‘fruitful’ hill climb if you go well and you get things right.
The Sunday of the Exeter Wheelers annual ‘Open’ Hill Climb was far from misty. It was blue in sky, sun, and clear air. From the top of Stoke Woods hill there were crystal clear views across a sunlit patchwork of fields, hills and woods of this part of our fair county of Devon. The presence of a slight northerly breeze might’ve led some riders to hope for a course PB, but the cold air over-balanced any possible tailwind advantage – cold air is thicker, and cold air doesn’t suit the lungs. Times were a few seconds slower than last year for most.
Once again for a Devon hill climb in 2026 there was a strong contingent of Exeter Wheelers taking part, no less than 14 on the start sheet of 44 riders, and although we had no riders in the top seven come end of race we did win the team prize (Gideon Aroussi, Michael Mason-Sanders & Finlay Webb), following up our team triumphs in both of the Mid-Devon CC hill climbs earlier this autumn. We also had a number of ‘fastest in age-category’ riders on the day.
The hill is 1.2 miles long, and rises a total of 137 metres, with the average gradient just below 6%. It’s important not to start too fast – if you get the pacing right then upon reaching the paintball signage at the end of the initial wooded and winding section you are able to move to a bigger gear, up your speed and even enjoy the flatter open section and then the cowbells and cheers from onlookers by the car park. But oh my the last few hundred metres seem to go on forever. Ex-pro and frequent National Hill Climb champion Darryl Webster used to say of the late stage of a hill climb that “It doesn’t matter if I black out after the race, it won’t kill me”, so you do give it even more of everything when you get into the last reaches of the hill.
On the day, it was a close run thing between first and second place overall. Pre-race favourite was Magicshine’s Tristan Kelsall-Spurr, winner of the Haytor hill climb. However, another win for Tristan K-S was not to be, for in what was Wellington Wheelers’ rider Luke Eggar’s first ever Open Hill Climb. the latter stormed the course in 5 minutes and 2.3 seconds to take victory by just a 1.6 second margin over Kelsall-Spurr (5.03.9). Thomas Macpherson of Mid-Devon CC was third at 5.06.0.
The race for podium place in the women’s section was similarly close. From the far west of the CTT SW district came Penzance Wheeler Angharad Berriman, who was fastest with 6.20, a mere one second ahead of FTP’s Claire Pile, with Katrina Tse (Oxford Univ. CC) at 6.23.6. Angharad afterwards “I panicked, and went off way too fast at the start, but managed to recover, which was a pleasant surprise, and then knew I was going ok when I was able to get onto the big chainring for the second half of the hill. Then I saw Ayse up ahead, I was making time on her, this encouraged me to really bury myself”. Angharad was also very complimentary about the event and Exeter Wheelers: “I really enjoy the great atmosphere at this hill climb, and it’s fantastic that so many Exeter Wheelers want to ride, and want to support the event, it’s very impressive”. Bless you Angharad.
Of our fourteen EWCC riders we had winners in vet 40+, the vet 50+ and the vet 60+ categories.
Three times British National Hill Climb Champion Pete Graham once said of older riders “To me, veterans shouldn’t ride hill climbs. You can get by in a flat time trial and look like anyone else, but on a hill climb [ . . . ] veterans look distressed and uncomfortable. They don’t look good, veterans climbing hills. They look pitiable. Your lungs turn to shredded wheat as you get older”.
Well knickers to that in that firstly hill climb riders of all ages should look ‘distressed and uncomfortable’ if they are committed, and also I’d say that the top 50+ veteran on Sunday, our own Gideon Aroussi, looked pretty damned majestic and far from pitiable moving swiftly uphill for his 5 minutes and 19 seconds time, distinctly impressive for a rider who in 2 years will be in the 60+ grouping. His time placed him eighth overall.
Another EWCC vet category winner was Stuart Pollard (40+) on his £550 & 5.9kg hill climb special bike, 6.01.3. Andrew Haydon, was fastest 60+ with 6.31.2, giving EWCC a further age-category winner. Andrew has moved across to bike racing after many years as a runner, and he is proving to be very strong.
Our paracyclist-supreme Fin Webb (class C5) took the para prize, with a time of 5.37.
At the other end of the age grouping from our venerable veterans the Junior category winner was Exeter Wheeler Michael Mason-Sanders, who went with a spinny gearing to look very composed and efficient as he reached the top of the hill on 5 minutes and 33.8 seconds. This was 30 seconds faster than he’d ridden it last year . . . “Just you wait . . . ”, quipped Michael afterwards, “ . . . another few years of improvement and I’ll be beating that Andrew Feather course record !”. This was said half in jest, but is none the less a statement of intention, and given he is only 16 now and is getting stronger as he grows then who knows….
Lost amongst the middle placings was EWCC’s Escot CX race organiser Jon Hare, who despite only just returning to the UK after eating a lot of Croatian pies and drinking a lot of Croatian wine when away on no-cycling-whatsoever ten day holiday, still gave it a go and though his time was a minute slower than his course PB was still respectable at 6.21.
The full result sheet can be viewed here on the CTT event web page.
Race organiser Andrew Whittemore says thank you to the following people for their kind assistance in running the race: Timekeepers Ken Evans, Sally Hutter and Mike Rose, Lynda Evans for ‘spotting’, Didier Lebatteux for pushing off (of the riders, not himself), Jane Mason for sign-on and sign-off duties, Phil Harris for managing the car park, Ann Owens for taking photos on what she has said will be her last EWCC Hill Climb photoshoot (I’m getting too old ! sayeth Ann). Andrew points out that his key helpers were of course wife Thuza but even more so young baby Beatrix. Sadly, this will be Andrew’s last time in the Hill Climb hotseat; he’s run our hill climb since 2019, but is now stepping down, so as a club we will be looking to find an incumbent (rather than a recumbent).
This coming weekend sees the National Hill Climb on the Porlock Toll Road. A full field of 520 riders. Wowsers. How will ex-Exeter Wheeler, ex-National Hill Climb champion and thoroughly nice chap Andrew Feather fare ? He’s a veteran now, but going well, winning all but one of the hill climbs he has competed in this autumn, including getting the better of Ed Laverack on a 3 mile hill climb with a similar gradient to Sunday’s course . . . or will Kieran Wynne-Kattenach live up to his ‘Scratch Man’ billing and emerge victorious ? Or might it be some dark and gallopy-gallopy dark horse who proves the most fleet of legs? There are a number of EWCC riders taking part – we wish the very best to them all, these being Jon Hare, Fred Mayall, Graham Turner, Ayse Vahiboglu, Stuart Pollard, Gideon Aroussi and Michael Mason-Sanders.