Last one of the year for me: the BUCS hillclimb. This went up Curbar Gap, gaining 180m in 1.7km, with the steepest part at the start and a long drag up to the finish. The field looked strong, all my good intentions re: practice visits and training had come to naught and my recce of the climb was scary: it would be very easy to go too hard at the start and blow out before the finish. I was nearly last off so I had a few hours to wait around, then it was time to warm up and line up. Gulp.
I did exactly what I hadn't meant to do: go off too hard and die halfway
I sat up for the mid section, but then thought what the heck and gave it full gas to the line, collapsing on the nearest available grass bank. My time was 7:30, a bloke from Leeds won with 5:37 and I'd clawed my way into the middle third with 94th equal in a field of 150. I was fairly happy with that, except I'd really wanted to beat the UCL guy (call this University Challenge round 2) and he rode it in 7:08.
It was an excellent event, so it's a shame I've only got one more year to try it (and even that could be a little dodgy, but seeing as I won't win, nobody will care.) I'd really like to get 7 minutes but yesterday I found that nobody's done it on a tandem before, so I've suggested that we take the club tandem and set a new course record. We shall have to see which option wins out.