TSB: 21
A lot of people use one hour as a bench mark for themselves on this particular climb, I've only done it once before on my mountain bike and it took me about 90 minutes so I had a much easier goal to meet. :)
Tons of club members for the ride and the after climb ride - Luke, Rich, Rob, Dan, Lucia, Kwan for the climb and Spike, Yvette, Garrett for the after climb ride.
I saw one guy who had so little body fat one could see the veins on the front of his legs and he also was using a $5000 pair of Lightweight brand wheels, so I was pretty sure I wasn't seeing him again after the start!
We went off in small groups, Lucia and another woman I that rode in my group at King's were in mine, plus a guy with a Everest Challenge jersey - this one little climb had to be tons easier than the Everest Challenge, but he said he was a slow rider. So of course he guns it after we pass the rough descent near the start and pulls away from everyone.
I consider being rational and pacing myself but can't help myself and go for it, and start reeling in riders from the group ahead and finally the Everest Challenge survivor. Look down at my time/average power and it's pretty good for me for 20:00 and I'm feeling good about myself when a fellow wearing a Camelbak catches and drops me easily - I dropped everything unnecessary from the race bike save one tube and the micro pump. By the one third point, the road starts to flatten out quite a bit and I regret having dropped every one else in my group. The headwinds are strong enough that a draft would probably help here. This proves out when two riders from our group catch me in the middle of this section. I satisfy myself with drafting for the most part for the next third or so of the climb.
The climbing resumes with a tortuous section exposed to the wind but the view is pretty nice to compensate. A few times even though I am working pretty hard I start to shiver uncontrollably which is a bad omen for the descent. Luke catches our group and we follow for a bit and then one by one let him go off at his own pace. There are scattered riders ahead of us and we each surge a bit trying to close the gaps and then my two companions gradually fall off the pace. I spent the last quarter of the climb going back and forth with one rider. At one point it is so cold and windy I can see his breath streaming behind him for a good four or five feet. Finally we see Camelbak, but also signs of the top so I dig really hard and close to within a few seconds of Camelbak but fall just short.
Probably should have paced the entire climb more evenly but unfamiliarity with the course makes that hard.
P.S. Checked out a creaking I heard during the warmup and there was a loose spoke and my rear wheel was rubbing on the brake! Doh.
T: 1:02:49
Pavg: 243
Pnorm: 250
C: 80
S: 17.2
D: 18.09
H: 175
3 comments:
What is wrong with your Blog?
There is always a hug amount of white space before the text begins.
I put too big of an image in there. This causes the autoformatting to push it down past the left hand column to where it can show the image full size and not clipped. I could post smaller images to fix it.
Woo - I'm wondering what kind of power meter you run. SRM, Powertap? I'm looking into getting one and asking everyone who has one what they like/dislike. E-mail is dblrider@comcast.net and thanks in advance.
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