7/19/08: Mt. Evans Hill Climb

The weather was beautiful for the 2008 edition of the Mt. Evans Hill Climb. Definitely windier - which played a part in the substantially slower finish times at every level of racing - but not a cloud in the sky. Despite PRing being out of the question, tactics would play a big part in the race's final outcome.

The magnitude of this climb never ceases to amaze me. The race starts in Idaho Springs at 6,700 feet and finishes atop the highest paved road in the US at just north of 14,200 feet. All in all, just over 28 miles from start to finish. The average gradient is just shy of 5% with the steepest parts coming in the second half of the race and the final 3.5 miles punctuated by never-ending switchbacks. Above treeline, especially, there is nowhere to hide.

Feedback Sports entered the race within reach of the BAT (Best All-around Team) title. Spine & Sport has raced well all season and has largely led the BAT competition from the early stages of the season. Feedback, however, is clearly a better climbing team and we showed it here at Evans by placing 5 riders in the top 20 to Spine & Sport's one (note: only the top 3 placed riders count for the BAT competition).

The race itself went pretty well. I really can't have any complaints. I ended up 4th. Our team ended up 1-2-4-18-20-22. Felt great in the first 12 miles, very smooth and in control. The pace was not super fast, mostly due to the wind. Several individuals attacked in the early miles, for nothing, it appears, except to squander precious energy which should have been saved for the upper slopes. Then Ian Nansel, who ended up 3rd, put in an attack to rip everyone's legs off. I went with it and the field was whittled down to about 10. He kept the attacks up to about mile 16 and I thought, surely, he was either going to explode and things would settle down (please, god, please) or I was going to explode. In previous hill climbs, Ian has proven to be short on patience and long on attacks. Invariably, he always would get snapped up and finish respectably in the top 10, but never end up victorious. There was not reason to believe that today would be any different. However, I must say he put in one hell of a solid ride.

After another surge, the front and final top 3 guys - Ian, Greg Ross and Brad Winn - started pulling away. I sat behind 2 guys and figured I would let them try to bridge up since Greg and Brad are on my team. When a 50m gap opened, I geared down and tried to bridge up. Got within about 10m and just couldn't make it, so tried to calm myself down and survive.

Long story short, a chase group of 5 of us eventually came together and played cat-n-mouse for the final 10 miles or so. Lots of attacks, regrouping, slowing down, positioning and more attacks. Just about everyone wanted to drop everyone else, which left the pace frantic and up-and-down. Not the best for maximizing our speed, but what needed to be done by those who wanted to make a solid bid for 4th place. I didn't attack at all, wanting to conserve everything for an anticipated final dash to the line against the other 4 guys. But finally with about 1.75 miles to go, Will from Vitamin Cottage put in a strong attack and the other guys just couldn't respond. I went after him, caught him, looked over my shoulder and noticed a gap, so clicked down 2 gears and attacked myself. (Note to self: An all out attack with 1.5 miles left at 14,000 ft is NOT recommended next time). I opened up a :33 gap by the finish line on Will (who finished in 5th), but I was wrecked. My legs were tingling because of the lack of O2.

So, while I was disappointed that I could not stick with the top 3 guys, I was definitely satisfied that I raced smart and was 'the best of the rest.'

I won't be at next weekend's race in Salida. It's a brutal course - 6.5 laps of a 10-12 mile circuit with each circuit including 1,300 feet of climbing. Feedback's lead on Spine & Sport is a scant 3 points after Mt. Evans. We have a solid crew of guys heading out to Salida; barring supreme bad luck, we should widen our lead and come away with the BAT title.

Time to chew on the season for the next couple weeks, figure out what worked and clearly what did not and then mesh that with 2007's approach. I'll probably blog about it, once I ferret out the details. Till then . . .

Ride safe,
Nate