John Bornhoft Memorial Hill Climb

Saturday 3 October saw the third edition of the John Bornhoft Memorial Hill Climb on the one mile climb of Leith Hill. John Bornhoft was a President of the Kingston Wheelers CC until his death in 2003 and he was a regular on both club runs and races well into his retirement. The race is held in his memory and is a tribute to his work for the club.

Pete Tadros (In Gear RT) won the Kingston Wheelers' John Bornhoft Memorial Hill Climb on Saturday 3 October. Tadros finished 8 seconds ahead of Chris McNamara (Team Corley - Cervélo) and 11 seconds ahead of the promoting club's Steve Saunders.

The race was held on Surrey's Leith Hill with a one mile course up the main road on southern side of the hill.

On a blustery and cool morning race organiser Tim Lawn set himself off as the first rider. Lawn - who placed ninth in the National Hill Climb Champs in 1995 - held the top spot on the leaderboard for some time. But it was inevitable that his time would be beaten and it was Sylvain Garde (Addiscombe CC) who was the first to go faster, smashing Lawn's time by 20 seconds in a ride which eventually earned him fourth place. The final ten riders all justified their top seeding and set ever faster times and it was the last man off and race favourite Pete Tadros who set the best time.

"I stayed in the 17 all the whole time, spun in the flatter bits and out of the saddle when it got steeper… at the end it felt pretty hard" said Tadros after the event.

Tadros also broke the course record. The Hastings rider had set the record in 2007, only to see Bill Bell (Gemini BC) break it in 2008. But Tadros set a new time of 03:43.9 to reclaim his record. The women's prize was won by Leona Kadir (Kingston Wheelers) and the Kingston Wheelers (Saunders, Wallis and Breen) took the team prize too.

Pete Tadros interview from Rob Enslin on Vimeo.

The race is growing steadily each year and this year's vintage had 43 entrants. Riders faced a change in the weather with cooler temperatures and blustery conditions although the climb itself was relatively sheltered. Things were warmed up by a large and supportive crowd towards the top of the climb which helped to spur many riders on. Many thanks to all those who helped to make the event a success.

Race organiser Tim Lawn also rode. "My "cunning plan" of setting myself of first worked as I was sitting on top of the podium for nearly half an hour before Sylvain Garde went under four minutes and smashed my time by nearly 20 seconds", said Tim. Rob Leslie apparently turned in a stunning PB by five seconds off the back of three weeks secret training with Mark "The Badger" Briers.

The seeding seemed nearly spot on this year. With the exception of Sylvain Garde, the top ten were all in the last ten starters and the top three were the last three in reverse order.

"You would have heard me mention that there were only two clubs with qualifying teams (us and the Norwood Paragon), but if there had been further prizes, the Paragon would have been pushed into third place by the Wheelers "B team" of Lawn, Ember & Storms!" added Tim. [Webmaster: Tim won't mention this often but he finished ninth in the national hill climb championships on Ditchling Beacon in the 1990s]

Click here for the full results.

Click here for the startsheet.

The Course
The hill climb is 1570 yards long and takes the southern route, from the Forest Green/Ockley side. The precise details are as follows:
Start: in Abinger Road , just east of Forest Green, at a gate on the west side of the road opposite the footpath to New Barn House at the bottom Leith Hill 580 yards north of the junction with the B2126
Finish: Proceed in a northerly direction past Leith Hill place to finish near summit of hill opposite grey metal painted post 70 yards before bridleway to Leith Hill Tower.