Mt. Evans Hill Climb

Left: Looking down on the world from 14,286 feet. To the right of Summit Lake, you can see the road at the start of the final switchbacks, about 3 miles down.


Score:
Justin: 1, Mountain: 1
Saturday was the Mount Evans Hill Climb, arguably one of the hardest hill climbs in the country, and possibly the world. Starting elevation is about 7000 feet, and the finish is above 14000. Race distance is 28 miles.
Coming into this race, I was unsure how I would do, as I seem to have a problem with racing at high altitudes, and this race usually goes hard right from the start. The last time I did this race was in 2003, and I finished in a time of 2 hours 22 min 30 sec. This year my time was 2 hours 3 min 30 sec. Not a bad improvement, though I was shooting for two hours flat.
The race started hard as expected, with a bunch of ignorant riders pushing the pace, thinking they would win the race by attacking at the bottom. Of course, none of these guys were with us by the half way point. What this did do was blow the field apart, and put some serious hurt on me. By Echo Lake (approx half way) we only had about 15 guys left at the front. I held on for several more miles, but the group kept surging and slowing down, and finally the rubber band broke and I was dropped. I kept the group close for a couple of miles, but they slowly distanced me. One guy dropped off the back a while after me, and after chasing him for several miles, I caught and passed him. On the switchbacks to the finish, I got a small scare when I saw that he was catching back up, but I gritted it out and held him off. I finished 12th, and came back to within a minute of catching the back end of the lead group. Coming back down the mountain, I could not sit on my seat because my butt muscles were cramping. It was not too much fun having to stand up for 16 miles. Luckily, my dad was half way down to give me a ride the rest of the way. Later in the day, he and I drove back up to the top, did a little hiking, and took in the views.

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Forward Into the Past

As I mentioned in my last post, before this Sunday, I had been away from road racing for a couple of weeks. My last road racing was the Dead Dog Classic stage race up in Wyoming, on the weekend of June 24th. The next week, I raced the Eldora Escape mountain bike race, which is part of the regional championship series. Then, on the Fourth of July, I raced the 4th of July Firecracker 50 mountain bike epic. Here, I will tell you a little about each of these races in chronological order.

Dead Dog Classic (road stage race), June 24-25: This was my second stage race of the year, and after having a stellar race at the Tour of the Gila, the team (Colavita) and I had high hopes for this race. The event started out with a climbing road race, which had to be modified due to a nearby forest fire. Because of the fire, a lot of the climbing was taken out, and a bit more flat road added. I made the lead group of about 10 guys by the top of the climb, though I had to struggle a bit to stay with them. My teammate Eric also made the group, and was putting the hurt on the group. Having made it with the group past all the major climbing, I was feeling good about a high placing, especially now that the group was down to 8. We had just a few rollers to the finish, with the biggest one coming at us first. This is where it all fell to pieces. Due to non communication with my teammate in the group, I was dropped when he attacked the group, along with one other rider. From there, it was me and him for 20 miles to the finish, and I ended up getting him at the line for sixth place. We lost 2:30 on the lead group, but were able to hold off a big group chasing us by a little over a minute. Eric placed 2nd.
The next day continued the stage race with a crit in the morning, and a time trial in the afternoon. The crit was pretty uneventful, though I had to work a lot to chase down attacks and breakaways that were a threat to the GC. My work paid off, as the front of the field finished on the same time.
The time trial was billed as "flat", but it was far from it. That, in addition to the wind, made for a pretty challenging course. I rode a solid race (7th place), but my breakaway companion from the previous day rode a better one, and so he moved in front of me in the overall. I ended up in 7th place in the final classification, and Eric ended up 2nd for another solid race for Colavita.

Eldora Escape (mtn bike XC), July 2nd: This was my first mountain bike race in a little over a month, and it was good to be back. The course is challenging with technical climbing and descending, and a good amount of singletrack, and can be very fun if you are having a good day (or it could hurt a lot on a bad day). Luckily, I had a good day, and began with an excellent start in the race. I settled into my pace, and stayed in close contact with the front riders for about half the race. I ended up catching the back part of the pro field, and ended the race in 14th position. Finishing mid pack was already a good result, but I was also pleased to find out that I was within 10 minutes of the winner. To top things off, Dale, from Dale's Pale Ale (a sponsor of the race) was at the race finish handing out cold beers. Nice.

4th of July Firecracker 50 (mtn bike epic), July 4th: For those of you not in the know, the 50 in the name is for 50 miles, which is the length of the race. This race is in Breckenridge, CO, and is quickly becoming a classic because of an excellent course, and awesome race support. The race starts off in downtown Breck, and leads out the 4th of July parade through town. Because of this, there are thousands of people lined up along the street, cheering us on, which is a very cool experience that is not common at bike races.
The race started fast, as the semi pros and pros started together. I found myself settling into a group of several guys a little ways back from the leaders. Things were going well until a little past half way of the first 25 mile lap. I was on the wheel of a pro rider, and couldn't see the trail ahead very well. I believe I pedaled my crank arm directly into an immobile rock in the trail, which catapulted my bike into the air with me on it. Going about 25mph, I was on the ground before I knew what had happened. I seem to always crash "softly", and this time was no different. I somehow missed all the trees and rocks along the trail, and landed down the hillside next to a log in some soft soil. I came away from the crash with only a slightly bruised shoulder, and a small cut on my knee. My bike was seemingly untouched, but later, when cleaning my bike, I did find a small ding in the frame.
The crash seemed to shock my system a bit, and with probably a slight water and calorie defecit, I found it hard to push myself for the rest of the lap and the first part of the second lap. All this while, I was drinking and eating everything I could get my hands on--which was a lot, as this race has many feed zones with lots of volunteers. By the second half of the second lap, I finally got my energy back, and with a new burst of speed, I started passing many of the people who had passed me half a lap earlier. Considering how bad I had felt earlier in the race, this comeback was amazing, and I ended up racing my self into eighth place. This is my first top ten finish in Semi-pro (not including my '05 Sea Otter Short Track), and is made especially sweet coming at the toughest race of my mountian bike season. To top things off, I set a new personal best for the course by 10 minutes.
Next up on the mountain bike schedule will hopefully be the Brain Head, UT NORBA National (but if not, the Snowmass National will still definelty be on the sched.). If haven't raced any of the national series yet this year, so I am really hoping to make these last two.

Victory!...And Then Some

The heat of summer is here, and times have been busy. That is, busy bike racing, and busy trying to make money so I can bike race. I haven't been blogging frequently, and I've got a lot of updates and info to give, so go grab a cup of coffee or your favorite ice-cold beverage (especially if you don't have air conditioning), and enjoy.
Yesterday: Mike Horgan Hill Climb (road race). I came into this race not knowing what to expect, as I hadn't raced on the road for 3 weeks, and I had only a few days of training in my legs after having a whole week off (to rest, but then I also got sick for a couple of days). Luckily, I made the good decision to pre ride the course, which turned out to be a key part in my victory (sorry if I just ruined the ending to my story--but then you should have guessed by my title).
The race started off with a fairly fast tempo up Boulder Canyon, with some guys trying their hands at attacking. I just sat near the front of the group and let other people work. The steep pitches came, and people started falling off the back. Eventually, the group was pretty small (though I never looked back to see how small). I have learned to listen to the breathing of racers around me, and towards the top of one of the steepest sections, I noticed that guys were breathing harder than me and the group was slowing. Knowing that there was a downhill section coming, I did what has been dubbed a "mountain biker attack" where I ramped my pace up to an uncomfortable level, and then kept it there for maybe two minutes. This resulted in me riding everyone off my wheel, except for one guy. From here on out, the race became basically a time trial, as the guy I was with only took a couple of short pulls for the 15 or 20 minutes to the finish. I believe he was really was having trouble with the pace I was setting, so I was ok with him sitting on. Nearing the finish, I could not see the chasers behind us, so I concentrated on saving energy for the finish. Sure enough, at 500 meters to go, my companion accelerated, trying to shed me from his wheel. For a second, thought he was going to succeed, but then he gave up. I waited two seconds, and then attacked with everything. I won! Looking at the finish times later, it was obvious that my breakaway companion had sat up when I accelerated, as he finished 6 seconds behind me. Shortly after I finished, my teammate Steve came through in 5th place to top off a solid race for Colavita.
This win came at a key time for me, as I am planning on moving up to Category 2 in a few weeks. I was getting a little worried about not getting a win before the move (though I have many solid results), so this win couldn't have come sooner.

Note: I was going to talk about the last several weeks of racing all in this post, but it is long enough already. I am going to start another post for those stories (see above).