Sunshine Hill Climb - 06/29/07

Mt. Evans prep is going very well.

Over what is considered one of the hardest climbs in Boulder's Front Range climbs, I ended up 2nd in the Sunshine Hill Climb. The 9-mile course took me 44:19 to complete and left me :19 in arears of the winner, an Aussie from their National Team. The Aussies come to Boulder every year for 6 weeks to train and race the hard hill climb races in June / July. Greg Ross and I both beat this guy last year at Evans, but he was wicked strong today. In fact, he was strong enough to post the fastest time, period, including all the Pro/1/2 racers. Scott Moninger won the pro race, and finished :13 ahead of me, so I don't feel so bad for finishing 2nd! ;-)

The day dawned warm but calm. With the relatively early 8am start, we would avoid most of the day's roasting heat. Our gun went off 7 minutes behind the pros, and it took us about 4 miles before we started passing those in front of us (pros and the 35+ category). The pace began relatively easy, everyone realizing that though the race was short in distance and time, it was going to be anything but easy. The 12.2 mph average speed confirms the difficulty of the climb, half of which is on steep dirt.

Feedback Sports' gameplan was clear: ride at or near the front but do not push the pace. Let others burn their matches in the beginning. The spot to first attack would come at the Poorman Rd. turnoff, roughly 2.5 miles into the race. This is where the road pitches up to greater than 10% and stays there until about 3.2 miles. A hard effort there lasts roughly 4 minutes before the road flattens out for less than a mile and then begins to pitch back up. An acceleration here would certainly split things up and whittle the race to the final group. Or, at least that was my anticipation.

Not long after the start, one rider got a wild hair, panicked at the slow pace, and took off. I felt a pang of sorrow for him. Sunshine Canyon is an unforgiving climb. If you blow your wad early, you might as well turn around and descend with your tail between your legs. To his credit, he did end up 3rd on the day. The pace picked up a little bit with a couple of riders pushing the pace to at least keep things honest. We were down to about 15 riders as we approached Poorman. I left my HR monitor at home but could tell I was in control and ready to attack as planned.

About 200m from the Poorman turnoff, Greg faded to the left and the Aussie kid faded to the right. No one wanted to be in the lead at that point. So, I jumped. I clicked down 3 gears and slingshotted forward. From training on the road, I knew the effort would be finite and HOPED I would be able to recover when the road flatted out a few minutes later. Being objective here, the attack was devastating to the group. The early attacker was just up the road and got swallowed up. He hung on as we crested the steep part and the road leveled out. I looked over my shoulder and saw that no one was with us. I was not naive enough to think "this is the race!" I had jumped harder than anticipated and so I was a victim of my own effort, too. Not a great place to be with 6 miles left but, hey, you go with it.

The Aussie was able to bridge up to us, and the three of us worked together to widen our gap on the rest of the field. This kid from Down Under is stick thin, a pure climber. Very smooth and comfortable. He never seemed to falter. I did my best to recover and conserve my energy, letting him and the other guy take more pulls than I did. Mostly, and if I'm being completely honest, I was just trying to stay with them. This is when I realized that I had pushed a touch too hard on my attack. Again, you just have to go with it, adjust and survive the best you can.

At about 7 miles, the Aussie put in an acceleration I couldn't match. Luckily, the other guy couldn't either. He stretched his lead to a good :30. At 8 miles, on a relatively flat stretch, I jammed it into my big ring, clunked down 2 sprockets and jumped away from my companion. With about a half-mile to go, I knew I'd end up second. But, I also saw I was pulling back time on the Aussie. To be realistic, there is no way I could have caught him or beat him. However, I do know how to beat him now. He's racing Horgan and Evans, and I am very confident I'll beat him in 2 weeks at Horgan and then have a great shot at Evans. I won't divulge my strategy here, but be certain I'll spill the beans should it work! Looking forward to taking off the gloves with him twice more, that's for damn sure.

Greg ended up 5th and JT, still recovering from some sidelining bronchial thing, came across 11th. In the 4s, Andy crossed in 7th and Bry Guy finished 24th. Great job, guys!

I crossed the line totally spent. Nothing left. But recovery came quick and I felt great as I put another 2 hours in the saddle on the day. My goal is to win at least one of these "climber" races - Sunshine, Horgan, Evans and Salida. One down with a 2nd place; 3 to go.

Taper begins in earnest now. This is my own crunch time. Should be an exciting, wild few weeks.

Oh, one last thing. In response to the "anonymous" blogger who posted a response to my Ft. Collins Road Race recap . . . 1) Your grammar is atrocious. Go back to school; and 2) I hope you're enjoying the 2s. You made it sound like you would tear me up on a mano-a-mano climb. I quote from your post, "It's unfortunate that we don't have another go around in the hills because next it won't be so easy for you. If you think i was pushing the hills [at Ft. Collins] just wait and move up to the 2's will (sic) have some fun!!" By my math, Mr. Anonymous, you finished 1:29 slower than I did up Sunshine. Big - BIG - ouch!

Ride safe everyone,
Nate