The PNP Cycling Club are running their annual Hawkins Hill Climb Challenge on Sunday 10th April 2011.
This is a 480m human elevation challenge that you can enter as a Runner, Road Rider or Mountain Biker. There is no handicap for any class.

GOLD SPONSOR
R & R SPORT are giving away $500 of spot prizes for the event, thank you very much Jason. http://www.rrsport.co.nz
125 Victoria, Wellington.

SILVER SPONSOR
Altitude Inc are giving away two $100 vouchers that can be used as a discount on any programme, thank you very much Bronwyn.
Level 1, Lambton Square http://www.altitudeinc.co.nz

SIGN-IN
Sign-in will be “on the day” from 8:30am to 9:30am at Happy Valley Park on Happy Valley Rd, which is 1km up from the Owhiro Bay beach.

ENTRY FEE
Entry fee will be a $20 each, capped at $50 for a family. 50% of the profit will be donated to Makara Peak Supporters and 50% allocated to the PNP High Performance Fund, which we use as grants to help fund our riders to major events.

STARTS
At 10:00am there will be a mass start from Owhiro Bay for all runners, road riders and MTB riders. Runners will start on the footpath and are not allowed to use the road. Cyclists may slip stream in the bunch on the road.

COURSE
The start for everyone will be at Owhiro Bay, at the bottom end of Happy Valley Rd.
Road riders will ride up Happy Valley Rd, turn left at the Todman St traffic lights, climb past the Windmill and go on to the Airways Corp UHF building.

Mountain Bikers and Runners will ride 1km up Happy Valley Rd, turn left up the Tip Track, then right on to the tarseal at the top of Tip Track, and go on to the Airways Corp UHF building.

CLOTHING / FOOD / DRINK
We will send a vehicle to the top, leaving at 10:05am from the start, which you can put your spare clothing/food/drink in. Everyone MUST be prepared for cold windy weather at the top. We will hand out free bananas and apples at the top.



PRIZE GIVING
Will be held at about 11:30am at sign-in location, Happy Valley Park.
The Makara Peak Supporters Perpetual Cup for the first Man & Woman overall will be presented.
The winner of each of the 10 classes (see below) will be able to pick from the R&R Sport and Altitude Inc spot prize pool, so a good mix of runners, roadies and mountain bikers will collect.
Remaining prizes will be called as random spots.

POINTS SYSTEM
Like last year, the most important thing is the Teams event between MTB, Roadies and Runners. The MTB’s won it last by sheer weight of numbers, but it's wide open this year with the prediction that the Runners will be out in force and the Roadies as always want to look good. All starters get points for their team. The winning team gets bragging rights for the rest of the year.
The points system will allocate 50 points for each of the 10 class winners, then 40, 32, 26, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 then 5 for all starters, so you need to encourage your friends along on your favourite mode of transport.

CLASSES are Men Junior (Under 15), Men Junior (Under 17), Men Junior (Under 19), Men Senior (19+), Men Master 1 (30+), Men Master 2 (40+), Men Master 3 (50+), Women Junior (Under 15), Women Senior (19+) and Women Master (30+).

WARNING: ALL ROADS ARE OPEN TO PUBLIC VEHICLES – KEEP LEFT.

So get out there and round up your mates. This is going to be a great event.
We hope you can support us on Sunday 10th April.

Marco Renall from PNP Cycling Club and Makara Peak Supporters.
Entry Form at
http://www.pnp.org.nz/mtb/HawkinsHillClimb2011
mailto:mtb@pnp.org.nz

Nice one Marco and PNP. Alas, I'm going to miss this for yet another year...!

As usual I will watch this with interest from afar, as I find this kind of contest strangely appealing (even though I have no brand loyalty to either of the disciplines)

Does the course get tuned from year to year to improve the handicapping?

How about providing a hall of fame showing the top few results over the last few years for each of the disciplines? Might generate some smack talk...

The course was changed a couple of years ago to favour the roadies a little more - the finish point was moved a little closer to their route. Did seem to even it up a little overall, but is still a little faster on a MTB from the looks (I've never done this event, so happy to be corrected!).

results? reports?

1. Andy Hagan with his Roadie
2. Alex with his MTB

Sure Marco will be around soon with full results...

Another roadie in 3rd, then me on a MTB in 4th, followed by another couple of roadies before the first runner came in.

In the women's section, last years winner (a runner) was a bit faster than last year, but not fast enough. Alex's mum, Stephanie Revel won with a narrow margin on her road bike.

It was good weather conditions today, but Alex was a couple of minutes slower than last year (partly the track being slightly rougher and partly too many chips (and I wasn't really keeping him honest)). So, still hard to say if the course favours the MTBers or the roadies.

Simonk wrote:Another roadie in 3rd, then me on a MTB in 4th, followed by another couple of roadies before the first runner came in.

In the women's section, last years winner (a runner) was a bit faster than last year, but not fast enough. Alex's mum, Stephanie Revel won with a narrow margin on her road bike.

It was good weather conditions today, but Alex was a couple of minutes slower than last year (partly the track being slightly rougher and partly too many chips (and I wasn't really keeping him honest)). So, still hard to say if the course favours the MTBers or the roadies.

Don't forget the runners... a couple of years ago Marco changed the course and took out the shortcut for the runners, made it a little unfair on the runners. Saying that a hot runner could make it a close race.

I couldn't tell you whether the course favours roadies or mountain bikes but, as one of the runners, I reckon it was more even in the past when the gates were closed on the tip track and the runners were allowed to go up Bata Pl . It seems from the results like the winning mountain bikers can usually make it up there in 22-24 mins. I reckon a runner who broke 24 mins would have to be international class.

Yeah, I can't remember a runner winning the event (although I'm open to correction of course...)

Might be something to do with it being put on by a cycling club

The women's section has been won by runners a couple of times - once via Bata Place, once not. But never quite the men's title.