Anniversary win under the floodlights Bolsover & Dist CC hill-climb | Sept 17 | Derbyshire

Twelve months after making his first competitive ride in the same event, Calum Brown (B38-underpin Racing) showed how much he has progressed with victory in the Bolsover and District CC hill-climb in the shadow of Hardwick Hall.

The floodlit evening event attracted a good crowd of spectators and riders alike, who were treated to a course-record breaking performance from 26-year-old Brown, who clocked 1.17 for the 615 metre-long climb to beat reigning national champion Adam Kenway (Raleigh-gac) into second.

Drizzle made for a greasy surface and few expected the course record to fall, but Sheffield-based Brown had other ideas and sliced two seconds from Kenway’s old record, set in 2016.

“I had lots of grip on the back, I only slipped coming out of the blocks but after that I didn’t have any problems,” said Brown, who was third last year, six seconds slower. “It’s an amazing place to ride, and it was great to go back to where I first rode a competitive event last year. It felt like an anniversary!”

Brown moved from Edinburgh to Sheffield to be with his girlfriend Rebecca Goodson (Velo Schils-interbike) who was victorious in the women’s event with a time of 1.49.

While Brown took the win by three seconds from Kenway, Gregg Booker (Loughborough Students CC) took third, just edging Team Wiggins’s Joey Walker off the podium.

Similarly, Emilie Verroken (Maxx RT) took second spot by a fraction from Mary Wilkinson (Yorkshire RC), both being credited with 1.56.