Mt. Evans Hill Climb

July 22, 2006

2006 Racing results here.

This race is brutal: twenty-eight miles and 6700 vertical feet of climbing, finishing at 14,000 feet. The grade is never very steep but the remarkable consistent grade of 5 or 6 percent just wears on me. I’ve done this race five times now and every time I’ve gotten faster. Of course when you start out with a slow time, it’s easier to get faster.

My team, Rocky Mounts, is locked in a tight battle with D.R. Horton for Best All-round Team so we had our superhuman climbers out for this race. Scott seemed unbeatable this year with wins at Lookout Mountain and at the Mike Horgan hill climb the weekend before. Brad was 3^rd there and Bruce was 4^th and Chris was 5^th, so we had some stacked talent. I knew I wouldn’t contribute any scoring to the team and was mainly riding it as a time trial, hoping to improve on my 2:30 time from last year. I hadn’t been riding many hills this year, but I had been riding a lot more and hoped it would translate into a good result.

I drove up to the race with my neighbor Steve Ernst. Steve is a former 2:40 marathoner and he’s a hill climbing machine. He finished Horgan in 9^th place last week. It seems everyone is a super climber around here. We did all of five miles of warm-up before dropping off our clothes bag. This bag would be waiting on the summit for us. We then queued for the race and waited for the bell and the pain.

I stayed pretty near the front for the first seven miles, but the field was strung out. My heart rate his 167 before this relatively flat (see the profile below and wonder “What flat?”) section ended. The pace was so high here that I almost blew up. Steve dropped out the back of the group before the turn because the pace was too high. Maybe I should have done that as well.

Once we made the turn, I could see three Rocky Mounts driving the peloton at the front with a fourth only a couple riders back. “Go, boys!” I thought. It wasn’t long before John Guilliaume came riding by me, giving me a little push as he passed by. I dropped the lead D.R. Horton rider, Mike Bowers, here.

Thirty-five minutes into the race Steve pedaled on by me. I was doing fine, trying to keep my heart rate above 160 bpm, but not much higher. I could still see John up ahead and at times I thought he was coming back to me, but he wasn’t. After a bit, I got into a three-man group with Mike Bowers and another guy. Eventually this other guy raised the pace too high. Mike was first to pop off, but it wasn’t long before I popped off as well. A bit later Mike went by me.

Just before we got to Echo Lake a group of four riders caught me and I latched onto the back of them to get a draft on the short, flat section. We caught up with Bowers here, but I never pulled even before I was off the back once it started to climb again. My heart rate now was down in the 150’s and I figured I was destined for a bad time. I just couldn’t make myself suffer at 160+ for the entire race. I just don’t seem to have the mental toughness I used to possess…

Other riders caught me and I latched on and stayed with them. One of the riders I rode with for quite awhile was a Pikes Peak Velo rider. It was his first time on Evans. He’d gap me now and then, but I always closed it down. Around 6.5 miles from the start, the lead 45+ riders caught us and they were moving. In this group was eventual winner Bruce of Excel and Rocky Mounts rider Jimi, who’d get second. It was a semi-flat section and one of the riders in our group grabbed their wheel. I knew that was illegal, but I didn’t have the breath to complain. The Pikes Peak Velo rider grabbed that guy’s wheel and I had the PPV rider’s wheel. We drafted these guys only for about a minute and they towed us up to a Rocky Mounts rider, Mike Bowers and a couple other riders. Bowers yelled at the guy to get off the 45+ rider’s wheel and he did immediately. I’m sure he didn’t know it was illegal and was just following wheels. At the time I was positive this rider was John and even after seeing John at the top and talking to him, I was still sure it was him. Except that it wasn't. It must have been Chris Busacca who was on his way to a catastrophic finish of 2:44. He had been shooting to improve on last year's 2:20 and was fit to to do it. I still don't know the story here.

I rode up to Chris (who I thought was John) at this point and he gave me a push (yet another reasont to think this was John since he had pushed me lower down on the climb). Man, I wish teammates would just follow me around and give me more of those pushes. The rider who was drafting the 45+ riders put in a surge here and no one in our group responded. I waited only a few seconds and then broke from the group and grabbed the guy’s wheel. Chris said, “Go, Bill!” I rode that guy’s wheel for a minute or so and when his pace faltered, I took the front, thinking we’d work together and stay away, but he was shot and dropped off immediately.

I worked hard for a couple more minutes and got to the slightly downhill section before Summit Lake. I hammered this section, wanting to solidify my gains on the chasing riders. I got behind a shuttle bus here and had to slow and brake behind this vehicle for about a minute. I was pissed. There was a referee right in front of the bus – following the lead 45+ riders, so I didn’t dare break the yellow-line rule. On one of the only sections on the course where I could go fast, I was slowed. I tried to wave the bus out of the way, but it ignored me. Didn’t he know we were racing here? On the only time there upper road has been closed to cars, I’m held up by a vehicle for the first time.

I started up the final five mile climb to the summit and continually passed citizen riders and dropped riders from earlier groups. I passed one or two riders from my group as well. Earlier I thought I was having a bad race and at one point feared that I’d finish slower than 2:30. I really didn’t want to be slower and I didn’t want to get caught, so I pushed very hard up these final five miles. My heart rate was once again into the 160’s and would remain there until the finish.

The finish to this race is cruel. It’s supposed to be 14 miles from the ranger cottage (where there is a sign saying “Summit: 14 miles”) and mile posts mark your progress. So it was quite disheartening to pass the mile marker 14 sign and shortly afterwards see the “1000 meters” sign. I knew this from last year, but it still sucked. When I had passed mile marker 13 I braved a glance at my watch and was surprised and delighted to see it reading only 2:16. I worked hard to the finish to avoid getting caught by a chaser and finished with a huge PR: 2:23:43. I finished 27th, which doesn't sound that great, but it was my best finish as well. There were

Steve was waiting on top. He had ridden 2:19 - good enough for 17th. I was surprised that Scott only finished 6^th with Bruce in 10th. Brad finished 2^nd with an incredible time of 2:09. I asked about Chris and someone said he bonked. When John got to the top, also under 2:30, he said that he saw Chris right behind me near the summit. Strange. He was no where in sight. After we found out clothes and geared up for the descent, Steve and I were off, headed back down.

About mile down the road, I saw Chris Busacca laboring away toward the summit. I yelled out some encouragement, but felt immediately for him. Something must have gone seriously wrong. He had to have been off the bike, since I never saw him on my way up. I still don’t have the story, but I hope he’s okay.