Pudsey’s Rob Hope is still on target to lift a fourth straight British Fell Championship after a commanding win at Rd3, the Dollar Hill Race. Still leading going into the final Long race at the Black Mountains Rob will now just need to keep his nerve, and finish in a leading position, to take the title.
His Dollar win was pretty convincing, though was a keenly fought race as you would expect at the elite end of British fell racing.
“Had a lovely night rough camping near Abington Services on Friday night”, explains Rob, “and woke up with a stiff neck and headache which wasn’t a great start but things improved when my super-domestique, Mick Green of Horwich Harriers had prepared cups of tea and a bowl of porridge and later on at Stirling Services – Beans on Toast, the food of champions!
Weather conditions were ok for the race as it was cool, windy and raining intermittently although there would have been some concern if the clag (mist for all you non Brits!-Ed) had descended over the hill tops making navigation an issue.
The race started fairly briskly up a long climb and by the top Lloyd Taggart and I had a very slight lead over Prasad Prasad and Tim Davies and then the chasing pack. As we headed off over a long undulating section Tim put a real burst in to catch up and subsequently went on to drag us along at a sharp pace. A cat and mouse affair continued until the last big climb where I made a big effort to escape before the top. After this was a 2000ft descent back down to finish and a lead I held onto fairly comfortably.
The only panic was stopping after a descending the last knoll to check the map and confirm that we weren’t required to go to another checkpoint before the run in to the finish. The day was also backed up with strong performances by all the Pudsey and Bramley faithful that had made the journey north to clinch another great team win. All that remained was to tuck into a vast selection of cakes and cups of tea generously provided by the organising committee – thanks for that.“
The final race of this year’s champs takes place at the Black Mountains in late September.
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