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news
David Millar MSR 2012 © Simon MacMichaelDavid Millar to end career with Bec Hill Climb next month
David Millar, currently riding the Vuelta a Espana, will bring the curtain down on his career next month back where he began – on the British club scene, as he takes part in the Bec Hill Climb in Surrey on 12 October.
The 750-yard course near Limpsfield has a gradient of 1 in 6, reaching 1 in 4 towards the top, and the event attracts a boisterous crowd as well as some of the country’s top riders as well as club cyclists wanting to pit themselves against the hill.
This video from the 2012 event shows what the Garmin-Sharp rider, who began his career riding club time trials in the Home Counties with High Wycombe CC, and the other competitors can expect.
Organiser Garry Beckett, a soigneur with Garmin-Sharp, said: “Obviously, its great kudos, for a small club like ours to be chosen by Dave to host his final race, and after discussing it with him, and offering the Bec event as his final stage as a Pro rider, myself and my Bec CC Clubmates are really excited about promoting this year’s event.
“We are pretty confident he’ll be overwhelmed by the amount of people coming to wish him farewell, as well as to see him race.”
Millar, who during his 18-year career wore the leader’s jersey at all three Grand Tours, said: “I’m not just going to ride uphill and wave goodbye.
“I’m going to have a crack at setting a new ‘White Lane’ record in what will be my first ever Hill Climb TT, as well as my last race.
“It’ll be like going full circle on my cycling career. Most Brits start in a Cycling Club as I did, so it’s fitting to end my career at a British Clubs event
“I’m really looking forward to it, although ‘Gazza’ my friend, soigneur and organiser of the event, tells me Hill Climbs are not always that easy and it takes a certain knack to hit the Hill just right.
“He also tells me they bloody hurt, even though it’s only a sub-two minute ride. Maybe I’ll enjoy it and not retire after all and just ride Hill Climbs,” he added.
More details of the event can be found on the club website.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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12 comments
"Bloody hurt" does not even come close - you think you're about to blow at half way but then the crowd appears and makes you dig deeper than ever. Took hours for the taste of blood to fade last year and the cough lasted 2 weeks!
He'll probably get another DNF....or end up 27th.
Thanks Scoob_84
http://www.strava.com/segments/6691229
Anyone have a link to the Strava segment for this to hand?
My son has entered both the Catford and the Bec. Hope the weather is better than last year. Couple of guys I know have also entered the Bec on a tandem for reasons I can't fathom.
Great spectacle.
Same reason as these on the 'Dirty Dozen' ride with the 37% gradient on Canton Avenue:
Does he stand a chance of winning? I know he is pro and all but surely there are some crazy whippet locals who just specialize in this climb? You know, the kind that take a drill to their saddles.
He's a great rider, but I can well imagine there will be some guys about the size of horse-racing jockeys with bikes that weigh under 5 kgs (this event wouldn't be subject to the UCI weight limit would it?), and I assume Dave will pitch up on a Cervelo R5. Whether he will get it stripped down, 1 chainring, no front mech etc is something else.
Didn't the lack of a front mech once cost him a yellow jersey?
Ned Boulting is also a regular at the Bec Hill climb.
Everyone usually heads down after the Catford Hill climb in the morning.
Riding out and watching both hill climbs, with a pub stop between the two, is a great day out. Thoroughly recommend it, and would be going myself if I still lived in London. Can't recall seeing Ned down there myself when I last attended though