Fourteen enthusiastic riders signed on for the 2013 hill climb, cocking a snoot at very heavy overnight rain that persisted until 15mins before the scheduled start time of 10:00. Our starter, Colin Baker, was still recovering from his soaking during last week’s Road Race marshal duties obliging Club Captain, Chris to step into the breach after a couple of minutes tuition. Mike English, paying his annual homage to the hill climb, adopted the pusher off role and all was set for the ‘Rumble on CumCum Hill’, defending champion, Matt in the red corner and contender, Gray in the blue corner.
All had a dry run at the hill but were hit by a headwind at the crux, just before Essendon Village, catching out those who changed up the gears too early. First man home, Andy Turnock was 30secs off his 2013 pace and Joff Verby 18secs, although Jeremy Geenwood at only 3secs in arrears showed that strong men could still prevail. As the field returned, it seemed that we were back to the reality of normal times after last year’s record breaking exploits, especially as Gray posted 3:12.4, clearly disappointed with his effort although he crossed the finish with an impressively fast sprint. What could Matt do?
3:00.6 was the answer, recording in excess of 500 watts for the duration of the hill to defend his hill climb crown; and still had the breath (and the sand) to claim sub 3 minutes according to his expensively acquired electronic gadgetry; dream on Matt.

The downhill was a bit of a challenge with wet grid covers and plenty of gravel on the sharp left hander before the finish. Gray was last to go and just made the start point in time. Where had he been? What had he been up to? Dirty tricks I suspect as he finished a clear 10 metres ahead of the pack to repeat his win of 2012. Probably had his tyres at 200psi and his bike frame filled with ballast; I’ll have to speak with Mr Cookson.