It was another very good weekend for the Blackburn and District CTC racing squad with them taking both of the three-rider team awards in the two hill climbs based on Pendle Hill although in each of them they were just pipped for the individual top spot.

At Barley village in the drizzle of Saturday morning, Raleigh professional Mike Cuming from Stoke-on-Trent was fastest on the brand new climb in 4m 06.5s but was closely followed in second place by the CTC’s Ian Stott in 4m 09.1s with Carl Helliwell third (4m 22.3s) and backed by Chris Edmondson (4m 40.1s) in fifth the team prize stayed locally.

Sunday morning dawned bright but bitterly cold and it was another travelled one Matthew Pilkington from Poulton-le-Fylde taking the individual honours in 4m 14.8s but the CTC packed tightly with Stott second in 4m 23.7s, Helliwell 3rd (4m 26.0s) and Edmondson again fifth (4m 42.1s) for a team success.

On Sunday the National Hill Climb Championship will be held on the famous Dovers Hill at Weston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire and the three Blackburn and District CTC riders along with recent Ramsbottom Rake heroine Sarah Hartley plus the two event winners are all competing in the selected field of 150 riders.

It is only two years since our local CTC racing section won the team award at that level and they are all in excellent form for the title race which is being held is on a similar length of hill to the two on Pendle last weekend.