I used to enjoy riding hill climbs, way back in the mists of time, or the early ’80s to be more precise. Short ones, at any rate. Odd, really, since I was not much cop at climbing short, steep hills during a road race, but events such as the Catford, which last a couple of minutes or so, suited me just fine.

The picture is of a young RH nearing the top of the Catford CC’s regular hill climb venue of Yorks Hill in, I think, 1984, when I finished, if I remember correctly, in or near the top 10. This was not my best open performance by any means. In 1982 I finished joint 4th in the Bec CC hill climb, dead-heating with a very young Chris Lillywhite, who turned out to be very good indeed at climbing short, steep hills during a road race.

I missed the twin events – the Catford and Bec climbs are held on the same day a couple of hours and about 10 miles apart – in 1983, course record year, when I might have hoped to do even better and when I was just outside the top 20 in the national championship event on a gear about 6 inches too big for the hill. This was the only time I ever thought I might be sick at the finish line…

And that was it. After ’84, hills just got progressively harder, or at least riding up them fast did.

So, when I had a few goes in recent years, I quickly decided spectating is much more fun. Going by the picture, it probably was even back in ’84.