FORMBY flyer Jim Henderson proved he's still the man to beat on a bike when he clinched the Lancashire Road Club's Hill Climb on the Rake at Ramsbottom for the fourth time in five years.

His winning time of 2 minutes 27.2 wasn't the best he'd recorded up the 947 yard haul but he was still more than six seconds ahead of runner-up Dave Clarke (Bradgate CRT) with his Southport CC clubmate Robert English third with 2.23.3.

Speaking after the event Henderson declared he had found the climb tougher than recent years.

"I'm glad to have got that over with, it was very hard actually," he said.

"Sometimes when I've ridden the Rake the last stretch has always gone very quickly but for some reason today it felt slow.

"I was really tiring when reached the top and the finish couldn't come quickly enough"

Henderson picked up a brand new Fausto Coppi "Torino" bike valued at £600 from Bolton's Geoff Smith Cycles for his efforts.

This year's event included the British Universities Sports Association hill climb championship boosting the field to more than ninety.

The winning team was, once again, national champions Blackburn and District CTC while the veterans event was won by Peter Greenwood in a time of 2.49.3 beating Chris Forde into second place.

Winner and second place in the open and BUSA women's events were Cath Ware and Jules Toone from Loughborough with times of 3.30.3 and 4.09.3 respectively.

First placed junior rider was Ben Greenwood (Bath University) whose 2.39.3 was good enough to win the BUSA gold medal. Silver went to Richard Teare of Derby University in a time of 2.45.9 while bronze position was a dead heat between Martin Cubison (UMIST) and Barry Stewart (Nottingham).

Nottingham University took the BUSA team award with a combined time of 8.58, Loughborough were second and Oxford third.