I am pleased to say that the 2017 Hilly 50 was a great success! Thank you to all who helped with the signing on particularly Geoffrey Shields and Terry Lowe, without U2 it would have been a disaster for reasons you best know why! Thanks also to all those who helped me with the administration during the weeks before particularly Tim Court who's assistance was invaluable. Maybe the weather helped but it was certainly good to have the sunshine instead of the snow storm on White Down in 2016.
Most of all I must thank all those that turned up to support the event and the charitable beneficiary St. Raphael's Hospice in Cheam. Chairman of Cycling UK SWLondon, Dave Vine participated along with Roland Saber, husband of Julie Rand from HQ in Guildford. A number of our member group also rode, including Ken Day, Mark Gladwyn, organizer of our 2016 Tri-Vet rides, John Austin, Daniel Arthur, Cheam & Morden member group and also a member of Epsom CC, along with Jake Dodd and John Beer. I must also particularly thank one of our oldest group members Ray Dare (90yrs) for doing a magnificent job in marshaling and directing down Logmore Lane which proved to be pretty muddy due to lots over heavy rain on the Friday. Most of the riders that signed on were Cycling UK members. The event was heavily supported by local cycling clubs and particularly I should mention V-C Londres with the largest contingent, Addiscombe CC, Epsom CC who had the first finisher in 1.hr. 53.mins - Steve Winder, a regular supporter!
My apologies to some who had signed on by internet on Thursday afternoon but did not appear on the pre-entry start sheet. By Wednesday we had only 19 pre-entered and so I printed the sheet around midday on Thursday 2nd March. That afternoon I received another 12 entries and would be interested to hear why so late when the event had been flagged-up for weeks? Was it the weather forecast?
Anyway no gripe from me just interested to learn for future!
So now for some photo's. I took around 30 in all mainly at the finish but here are some at the start!
Then came the finish below with first man back Steve Winder. I emphasis this was not a race but a Sportive or reliability ride but there will always be one wants to beat the 2 hours and well done!
