RAMSBOTTOM is all set for the biggest sporting event the town's narrow streets have ever seen.

The RTTC British Hill Climb Cycling Championship will be held over the famous Rake course on Sunday, October 31 and police estimate around 4,000 people will hit town for the event.

Entries closed this week and predictably the line-up of competitors reads like a Who's Who of hill climb cycling.

National champion Jim Henderson will be defending his title while Newcastle's Jeff Wright, the course record holder, will also be back to try and smash his 2 minutes 14 seconds record and pick up another Rolex watch that goes with the achievement.

As well as the big names club cyclists from as far afield as Scotland and Plymouth will be competing as well as local racers such as Tottington-based Brian Green of the Oldham Century club.

It's a real feather in the collective caps of the Lancashire Road Club organisers who organise their annual hill climb on the Rake that the RTTC (Road Time Trials Council) have entrusted them to host this year's event.

Usually the 'National' is competed over moorland hills and this is the first time an urban stretch of road will have been utilised for the event.

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