Last November’s Hounslow Hill Climb report foresaw that Simon Wroxley, who had just taken the second spot in that edition of the race, might be a future winner.

This year he duly fulfilled his promise and took the victory, improving by over 12 seconds on a day when most of the field were slower than in previous years.

He owes this win, at least in a small way, to his club mates shouting encouragement on the final steep bend.

These exhortations usually have no visible effect on competitors, but on this occasion when Simon’s concentration seemed to be wavering, he appeared to be galvanised into action by the noise and accelerated away up the last hundred yards to take the medal.

Mention should be made of Marc Cunnington’s second place ride. It is generally acknowledged that the ability to climb is the fastest thing to fade as a cyclist ages, so Marc, in the second half century of life, showed great resilience in pushing his twenty year old rival to a margin of victory of 0.9 of a second.

The event again took place on Windsor hill near Wooburn Green.

Result: 1. Simon Wroxley 2 minutes 05.7 seconds.

2. Marc Cunnington 2 – 06.6 3. Seb Greenwood 2 – 09.0 4. Geoff Shaw 2 – 29.1 5. Alec Butler 2 – 47.6 6. = Jill Bartlett 2 – 58.9 6. = Norman Howson 2 – 58.9 8. Patsy Howe 3 – 12.0 9. Glen Mealing 3 – 16.4.