Maldon & District Hilly TT

Sunday 1st March

Julian Stock began his season in earnest on Sunday 1 March with an appearance at the Maldon & District CC Hilly 20 mile SPOCO qualifying event at Purleigh near South Woodham Ferrers.

Having not raced since May last year but having had a reasonable winter Julian wasn't quite sure how his form would be. It was a cold but not freezing morning and oversocks and knee warmers were the order of the day.

Julian hadn't ridden this event before and had taken advice from some fellow competitors from the CTT forum earlier in the week with regard to equipment, choosing to use a low profile machine with a disc wheel and 54t front ring.

With a tough climb only 200 yards after the start, it was clear that he was overgeared and wishing he had put a 53t ring on and ridden a road bike with deep section wheels. The course was much harder than he had imagined, not due to the climbs (of which there were a few) but simply due to the hard roads around that area. Roads which would appear flat in a car but are just very hard on the legs where the right gear was hard to find.

Despite being caught for 2 minutes at about half-way Julian toiled away and battled the undulating circuit. With 1 mile to go came the ascent of Kit's Hill. This is only a short climb but brutal in gradient and with 8 or 9 people watching and shouting encouragement at the top he had to put on a brave face over the top of what was a face gasping for oxygen.

In an event that he felt was never going to end, he finished with 56.57 for the 20 miles. Winner on the day was Dean Lubin with a superb 48.42.