MORE than 4,000 spectators are expected to line the route on Sunday when Ramsbottom hosts the most prestigious sporting event the town has seen.

For the first time ever the RTTC National Hill Climb Championship is to be held over the punishing Rake course that weaves high above the town and everything is in place for a top quality occasion.

That Ramsbottom has been chosen as venue for the 1999 event is a real feather in the cap for the Lancashire Road Club committee who organise their annual hill climb on The Rake every October.

Usually the 'national' is competed for over moorland hills and Sunday will be the first time an urban stretch of road will have been utilised for the event.

The highest quality of competitors seen on the famous course will battle it out to try and wrest the crown from defending champion Jim Henderson (Terry Wright Cycles) while Jeff Wright (Team Travelwise) will also be back to try and smash his 2 minutes 14 seconds course record, achieved in 1994, and pick up another Rolex watch that goes with the achievement.

It looks like being a straight, two-way fight between those two with Henderson the favourite on current form. Last Sunday the former Oxford University man picked up the Matlock Cycle Club hill climb title and the week before won no fewer than three races over the weekend.

But Wright, national champion in 1994, knows The Rake like the back of his hand and he will be keen to reverse last year's positions when Henderson pushed him into the silver medal position.

Also likely to be in the frame is last year's bronze medallist Gary Baker (Anglia Sport) while former British Best All-rounder Gethin Butler (Team Men's Health) will try his hand in the national again for the first time since 1993 when he was ninth.

His best position over The Rake is seventh and it would be a surprise indeed if he was to seriously trouble Henderson and Wright.

Meanwhile local hopes lie with Tottington-based rider Brian Green of the Oldham Century club who could clinch the team title.

The lung-bursting haul begins at lamp post No 3 outside the public library in Carr Street, Ramsbottom and proceeds via Carr Street, Tanners Street, Rawson's Rake and The Rake to finish at the lamp post opposite Exeter Cottage, Chapel Lane, Holcombe Village approximately 120 yards before the junction with Helmshore Road.

Average gradient of the 947 yard course is 1 in 8.8 with a maximum gradient of 1 in 4.8.

Lepps the Jewellers, of Bury, have once again offered a Rolex watch to the fastest rider breaking the course record and the presentation of awards will be made by the Mayor of Bury, Coun John Costello, approximately 20 minutes after the final ascent at the car park of the Shoulder of Mutton public house, Holcombe Village.

The event has also been sponsored by Fort James, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, Dixon Ford, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ramsbottom Chamber of Trade.

First of the 120 competitors, Trevor Pain (North Hampshire RC) sets off at 12.30pm with Henderson the last off at 2.30pm.

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