Published: 13th Oct 2024 Images: Scottish Cycling

Dickson and Carrotte conquer the Ben

Sam Carrotte (University of Aberdeen) and Lauren Dickson (Alba Development RT) tamed the monster that is the Ben Cruachan Hill Climb to claim the 2024 Scottish National Hill Climb titles.

They say that mountains have giants sleeping inside and this could not be more true about Ben Cruachan. The inside of the mountain has literally been scraped out and a giant power station placed inside. The electricity is generated by falling water from the tarn above, held back by the dam, and turns massive turbines creating enormous quantities of power.

It was power of a different kind however that was on display as the lightly-built hill climb specialists toiled up the access road all the way to the dam. It’s a relentless climb that rises, and then rises again, and then a bit more until you come around the right-hander with the dam in view, only to realize that almost the steepest part is still to come.

In the first of the championship events it was Murdo Morrison who came around that final right hand curve but hot on his wheel was Edinburgh RC’s Hamish Mayes who finished in a time of 13.59 and took the title. Morrison came home in 14.50 to claim silver with Forres CC’s Callum Craib claiming the Bronze.

With no Youth or Junior Girls taking part today the next championship race to be decided was the Junior Men and this went to Rhys Edwards (trainSharp Development Team) in the quickest time of the day so far, 12.37. Silver medal position went to Joshua Wilson from Inverness Cycle Club.

Now it was the turn of the senior women and there were some riders with well-proven ability in this type of discipline. First rider up was Charlotte Dewdney (Edinburgh RC) and she came home in 16 minutes dead.

The host club North Argyll CC had put up several riders with Charlotte Forbes and Heather Shanks but everybody’s times were obliterated when Alba Development RT’s Lauren Dickson blasted up the hill in 13.46. Madeleine Bell (Musselburgh RCC) and Sharon Bird (Vanelli-Project GO) finished in 15.24 and 15.30 respectively but neither time would see them on the podium today.

Natalie Stevenson (Glasgow Ivy CC) came closest finishing in 14.55 but this would only get her to second position overall. Now it was down to defending champion Arianne Holland, Lauren Dickson’s teammate at Alba, to see if she could unseat her colleague but it was not to be as she crossed the line in 15.03 to claim a podium spot but this time in third place overall.

Lauren Dickson has come on in leaps and bounds this year and is just back from some warm weather training in Spain and it served her well today. There was no rest for Dickson, as she was spotted training on the boards of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome only a few hours later!

In the open race first rider up was the ever-youthful Euan Pope (VC Glasgow South) and he set the time for the men with 15.36. This was the best Masters time until Callum Anderson (Musselburgh RCC) dropped it to 15.13 but it was great to see stalwarts of the sports like Hector Nicolson taking part.

Next best time was Laurence Fryer-Taylor (Macclesfield Wheelers) in 12.33 and this stood until Aidan Quinn of Dooleys Cycles was able to bring it down to 12.24.

We were definitely at the sharp end now and it was Loose Cannons Conditioning’s Angus Toms who claimed the first podium spot with a time of 12.17…but which step would it turn out to be?

Home favourite Matiss Robertson (Isatis Cycling Team) was being cheered all the way to the finish line and bettered Toms’s time by just nine seconds, coming home in 12.07. His use of track tyres and a lighter saddle had look to have paid dividends but the gap of nine seconds would be repeated as defending champion Sam Carrotte (University of Aberdeen) blasted up to the finish line to come home in 11.59 and claim the top spot for a second year in succession. With Carrotte in Gold, Silver went to Robertson and Bronze to Toms.

Such was the difficulty of the climb that 13-times champion Sandy Gilchrist said that he was glad he wasn’t racing today but that he was in awe of just how well the riders did today.

With the podium presentations back at the Ben Cruachan Inn, it was an emotional Scottish Cycling President Kathy Gilchrist who presented her last championship winners before a new president is elected at the AGM in November.

A wonderful day’s racing put on by North Argyll CC and a hill climb worthy of the name!