WINNATS PASS
A HISTORY OF THE NATIONALS ON WINNATS
Winnats Pass is the undisputed 'Home of Hill Climbing' and I've brought together a range of links, documents and articles that trace the history of this famous climb. More will be added and if you have material to add, please get in touch by email. Don't forget to take a look at Winnats 21.
1966
'THE' championship on Winnats with Pete Greenhalgh's winning time still standing as the course record! HUGE thanks to Mark Greenhalgh and to Dave 'Cox' Houghton for their recollections and information about this monumental event.
"To be honest I don’t recall much about the event, other than it was the last event of the season, and we all, other than the real contenders, let our hair down in one of the Castleton Hostelries the night before."
Dave 'Cox' Houghton (Batley CC)
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"Peter was my father and fortunately for me fell in love, got married and had children not long after his 1966 victory. It’s true he passed away last July but loved his cycling being out most days in his older years. He won his age group at the 2010 National Hill Climb too. The amazing thing about his special 3 min 11 second time was that he ride over from Nottingham with a heavy cough and cold that day to race. He smashed the hill record, then cycled over and won another race on the afternoon.
He was a real Champion and a great father and I’m proud to be his son."
Mark Greenhalgh
1967
"I remember it being a windy day; from memory I changed my gear down to 54 inches -- 48 x 24 from 48 x 23 - at the last moment, it possibly wouldn't have made much difference the amount of extra kilograms that I've always carried.
The times in 1967 are a lot slower than recent Winnats events in 1963 & 1966. The club supported me, we made a weekend of it, six or eight of us, riding up to Bakewell YH on the Saturday afternoon then up to Castleton Sunday morning and rode back to Leicester after the event. I can't recall who would have took my event bike to Castleton for me - there's a few Road Club and Ratae members who rode? Great days!"
Steve Hill (Leicester Forest CC)
Thanks to Steve Hill and Hamish McDougall for this brilliant information all about the '67 national!