Cyclists go down the gears for infamous Oddicombe Hill climb

Fancy a crack at cycling up Torquay’s Oddicombe Hill, even on an E-bike?

Anyone can have a go next month when the twisting half-mile ascent is closed to traffic as part of the Mid-Devon Cycling Club’s Totnes-Vire Two-Day Stage Race.

Torbay Council have given permission for the road, from the beach to Babbacombe Downs, to be closed for most of Sunday, May 26, and the MDCC are planning to hold a spectacular hill-climb ‘festival’, sponsored by nearby Bay Cycles from St Marychurch.

The first two Totnes-Vire stages, a nine-mile time-trial and a 68-mile road race, will be held at Hatherleigh on Saturday, May 25.

Then the action switches to Torbay the next day.

Stage Three, the Oddicombe climb against the clock, will start at 9.30am, and Stage Four will be a 42-mile closed-circuit Criterium at Paignton’s Torbay Velopark.

All the stages for the event’s 50th anniversary are being named after club stalwarts – the late Ken Robertson, Roy Hopkins and Colin Lewis with current club president Ron Keegan giving his name to the Hill Climb.

There will be a programme of support, ladies and junior events at Oddicombe after the Totnes-Vire stage, and then the road will remain closed for anyone else to have a go.

They can even use E-bikes if they want to.

“We want to maximise our time on the hill, and we hope the public will come along to cheer on the riders,” said British Cycling’s South-West Events Manager Andrew Parker.

“We’re also thinking of giving all the corners names, a bit like they do on Alpe d’Huez in the Tour de France.”

Before the Totnes-Vire, the MDCC is sending a team to Normandy to contest the Grand Prix du Jumelage, organised by its ‘twin’ club VC du Bocage over the May Day Bank Holiday (May 4-6).

The team will be led by Exeter-based former pro Charlie Meredith, who’s on a comeback at the age of 26, supported by promising juniors Ben Meek, Nick Makin and George Watch, Under-23 rider James Pearcy and Sean Davey.

The squad will be managed by former Colin Lewis Cycles boss Simon Aske and respected veteran racer Andy Hitchens.

Other club members will be heading for northern France over the same weekend to ride various parts of the hugely popular Tro-Bro Leon Sportive.