NATIONAL Hill Climb champion Dan Evans raced to victory in the Ramsbottom Rake while the women’s course record was broken twice!

Evans, sporting the British champions jersey, clocked two minutes 23.5 seconds for the 947-yard climb up the Rake which touches 25 per cent in some places.

Fiona Burnie posted 3mins 5.9secs to top the female leaderboard with her effort breaking the women’s record which had only been set minutes earlier by Mark Wilkinson who in the end had to settle for second place with a time of 3mins 6.7secs. Jessica Evans was third in 3mins 20secs.

David Huck finished second overall with a time of 2mins 28.3secs, just ahead of Jude Taylor who rounded out the podium with a time of 2mins 29.1secs.

Brian Oakley, from Whitby, claimed the veteran’s prize with his preparation of travelling down the night before and walking the course twice in the morning paying off as he recorded 3mins 3.2secs.

Joseph Whitehead (2mins 41.3secs) was the quickest junior and AJ Hughes (3mins 5secs) the fastest juvenile.

A number of East Lancashire riders competed with Cycle Sport Pendle and East Lancashire Road Club both represented.

There were two unsavoury incidents when a rider went up the climb on an electric mountain bike before being stopped while a van drove into the barriers that were put up to shut the road.

Large crowds watched the action and cheered on the riders and organiser Duncan Smith was delighted with the action.

He said: “There was a brilliant atmosphere and plenty of people came out to watch.

“It was a very successful event.

“It was good for us to have Dan Evans wearing his national champions jersey to come to our event and then win it while the female record was broken twice and was a really thrilling competition.

“We are already looking forward to next year. “