BINGLEY’S Rob Jebb has won Yorkshire’s most prestigious cycling award.
The 47-year-old, who grew up in Eldwick, will receive the CA Rhodes Memorial Trophy on account of winning the gruelling Three Peaks cyclo-cross race an incredible 13 times in 23 years, including last September.
The ‘Three Peaks’, which includes ascents of iconic Dales hills Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent, is arguably the toughest and biggest cyclo-cross race in the world and is often held in bad weather.
But Jebb has conquered it in 2000, 2002 to 2006 inclusive, 2008, 2010, 2012-14 inclusive, 2019 and 2022, finishing last year’s race a minute and 48 seconds ahead of the runner-up in a field of 343 competitors.
Before his initial triumph in 2000, he had finished third in 1997 and second in 1998, first competing in the Three Peaks as a junior in 1992.
The race starts in Helwith Bridge and involves 5,000 feet of climbing over 38 miles.
Jebb undoubtedly gets his stamina from fell running, in which he was tutored by his father, with the now 47-year-old reaching international standard, winning several national championships.
Mountain biking also helped, while Jebb also competes in cyclo-cross, representing Hope Factory Racing, regularly taking part in Yorkshire Points Series events and the National Trophy.
He has also represented Great Britain in the World Championships.
Jebb is due to receive his award at a Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross Association luncheon in Pontefract on February 25.
Former winners chosen by the CA Rhodes Memorial Trust’s board include such luminaries as Otley’s Lizzie Deignan, Leeds’ Tom Pidcock and Bradford’s Mandy Parker, plus a pair of late greats in Brian Robinson and Beryl Burton.
The memorial was instigated in 1961 as a tribute to the memory of Charles Arthur Rhodes, who died that year and was a doyen of the Yorkshire Road Club and co-founder, in 1932, of the Yorkshire Cycling Federation.
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