Mike Horgan Hill Climb - 07/14/07

2 Tests Down; 1 To Go.

Another tough day of climbing. There is nothing forgiving about this course. For starters, the climb up Magnolia is the hardest climb in the Boulder front range. On the lower slopes, some of the switchbacks hit close to 20% and the overall gradient averages close to 10%, rivaling some of the harest climbs the Tour can serve up. Above the paved section, the road levels out a bit but turns to dirt with quite a bit of washboard. This makes it challenging to get into a rhythm and can derail any momentum gained on the lower slopes. The reprieve comes once racers hit Peak-to-Peak Highway to start the short descent toward Nederland before taking the hard left and starting the climb up toward the Eldora Ski Mountain.

While a beautiful day for racing, the temperatures began to rise quickly. This coupled with the steep pitches of Magnolia left riders huffing and puffing, and sweating buckets at the lower elevations. My teammate, Greg Ross, put it well after we recon’d the course a couple weeks earlier. He said, “You just can’t go easy up Magnolia.” And it’s true. You can’t just spin up it like you can up to Jamestown or on the Peaceful Valley loop. You are forced to grind it out and your HR can skyrocket fairly quickly and easily.

Rolling out of the Boulder County Courthouse was an easy affair. With the relatively easy climb up Canyon toward the Magnolia turnoff, the pace was fairly sedate. Magnolia is a climb that scares riders, quite frankly. As much as I love to climb, I don’t know that I can honestly say that I love climbing Magnolia. Or even like climbing it. It’s a necessary evil when it comes time to race up it. To be perfectly honest, I probably won’t ride up it again until it’s time to prepare for Horgan in 2 years (as next year’s race will shift back over to Sugarloaf Mtn).

A small group of 4 riders broke away about halfway up Canyon and established a :10 gap at the Magnolia turnoff. At this early stage, expending any energy unnecessarily is, simply, a total waste and silly. I was feeling strong, riding well within myself and enjoyed a touch of dialogue with a few riders. But it was quickly becoming time to focus on the task at hand. The paved section of Magnolia is 4.5 miles, but would take about 30 minutes to climb at a fairly hard clip. That’s 9 mph average.

The only “yikes!” moment came during the left turn onto Magnolia. I was on the outside of the road and hit a bit of washout about three-quarters of the way through the turn. My bike slid hard and only a bit of counter steering kept me upright. Crashing would have sucked royal ass. Luckily, disaster averted. The first switchback, which hits riders immediately, hits about 20%. It’s a wall that bends back to the right. I was shocked at how quickly riders started to go backwards. While forced to the inside and, thus, to traverse the steepest part of the switchback, my legs felt great and I danced past a throng of riders. This is where the lead group of 4 were swallowed back up. It was also the point where my teammates who were not racing decided to plant themselves to cheer Greg and me (and Andy in the 4s race; he ended up 2nd!) on. Great to see them there!

The attrition rate was amazing. Before I could blink, the race was already whittled down to 5 riders. The key was going to be to keep effort in check on the paved section and then see what was what before deciding what to do on the 7.5-mile dirt section. The riders around me were breathing pretty heavily, so I was confident that without making any moves it would just be a matter of time before they dropped off the pace. Then, quite by serendipity, Greg found himself with about a 10- to 15-meter lead. He kept looking back to see what was happening behind him. I sat in second position in the “chase” pack of 4, doing absolutely no work. One time Greg looked back, I motioned for him to attack. This was the time to see who had what in the legs. Greg did not attack, but he kept forging ahead and had a solid lead by the time we hit the dirt.

About 3 miles up the paved part of Magnolia, the lead pack was down to 3 – Greg, me and one other indi rider. We regrouped on the dirt but, quite frankly, did a poor job of working together on our way to P2P Highway. Finally, I sat up, looked at the third guy and said, “Look, you can either work with us or we’ll attack you and drop your ass. Your choice.” He decided to “try” to work with us. But near the top of the dirt, he tried attacking us. A worthy effort for sure, but a waste of energy given we were about to hit a descent into Ned.

Halfway down the descent, I was thinking it was time to put some strategy in place to drop this guy. He was strong, but Greg and I would have no excuses if at least one of us didn’t beat him. Once we took the hard left leading to the Eldora fork, I went to the front and ratcheted up the pace to keep things strung out. I looked over my shoulder and Greg was in third position. Perfect! I was hurting myself, so my hope was that I was also stinging the legs of the third guy. We hit the left hand fork to Eldora and I continued to jam the pace. My hope was that at some point very soon, Greg would come bolting by me.

Lo and behold, Greg jumps past me. Here I made a tactical mistake which nearly cost me the race. When Greg jumped, I literally stopped pedaling. The third guy reacted a little quicker and a little stronger than I anticipated, and I all of a sudden found myself with a 5-meter gap to close. Not good. I dug deep and bridged up to the other guy while Greg continued to open up a sizeable lead. I sat on the other guy’s wheel and recovered while Greg continued to churn and pull away.

With about 600 meters to go, I could tell Greg’s lead would not be in jeopardy if I attacked and, by chance, happened to pull this guy with me. So, I jumped. And unceremoniously dropped him. Reeling Greg in was beside the point, as the key was dropping the last guy and securing 1-2 for Feedback Sports. Which served as a great boon on our run for the BAT title. And it was great to see Greg rebound after (what he considered) a disappointing 6th place at the Sunshine HC race 2 weeks ago.

Next up, Mt. Evans on Saturday. Can’t wait! Greg and I will be quite the one-two punch there. People seem to come out of the woodwork for this race, but we’ll be ready for all comers. First goal is under 2 hours. Secondary goal is 1:55. We’ll see what the day throws at us in weather and competition. But this is what it’s all about.

Till next time . . .
Nate