Mt. Evans Bike Race

A few weeks ago my fractured leg started feeling strong enough to ride on again so I figured I’d sign up for the Mt. Evans bike race for kicks.  The race starts in Idaho Springs around 7,000ft and climbs for 27.5 miles to nearly the top of Mt. Evans around 14,000ft.  I probably would have been in decent enough shape but then I got Giardia which set me back another 10 days. The Giardia was bad enough and being on the medicine was bad as well - headaches and constant fatigue.

By the time I got to the start line I had a whopping 10 days of real training in so I was ready to go!  I don’t enter many bike races so I was in the Cat 4 category with a bit over 100 riders.  The race starts relatively flat for the first 5 miles but we weren’t riding all that fast.  I rode to the front and found triathlete Tim Hola leading the way.  He was putting some work in but not getting much support.  We alternated leading the way and started to climb.  When neither of us would lead the pace would get absurdly slow.  It is a race and bike races are tactical but in a race like this I figured guys would take some pride on their overall time.  I figured guys would like to ride hard and compare themselves to the better categories.  But that wasn’t the case, everyone was looking to conserve and avoid leading.

Once this became apparent I figured what the heck, I’m really here to get in a solid 2+ hour effort to start building the fitness.  So I took the lead and started to put in some effort.  Some riders dropped off and we were down to around 30 guys.  It stayed like this through the Echo Lake feed station which is about halfway up the mountain.  Amy was volunteering with the Practical Coaching crew so it gave me something to look forward to.  I picked up a bottle from them and got into the real climb.

I kept leading for another few miles until the moment I was waiting for.  Bam!  I real break as 7 guys broke away from the pack.  I jumped on a wheel and went for it.  I hung on for about a mile but my legs were angry at me!  I’ve got the ability to go steady now but my body is not good at going into overdrive at the moment.  I realized that it was just too much and let them go, had my 1st gel, some water and tried to regroup and get it back together.  What’s annoying is that once they got 30 seconds ahead of me they kind of just hung there for the next few miles and dialed back the pace.  I should have stuck with it.

From then on I was alone for the most part.  Tim rode up to me and we rode together a bit before he rode away.  Finally we hit the switchbacks and I could start looking forward to the finish.  I hadn’t seen the course before but I knew there were 12 switchbacks so I started counting down.  This took some serious concentration at 13,000ft!

Tim was still in sight and I respect his abilities so naturally I wanted to beat him.  I rode up and got on past him but then I really started to hit the hurt and even started weaving around a bit.  Tim got back past me and rode away.  A few more switchbacks and finally I got to the finish - 2:14:xx, 17th place in the Cat 4.  Nothing to be too proud of but a solid result off the training.  I had no extra gear but at least I could hold a decent effort for that amount of time.

I definitely want to do this race again and highly recommend it.  I gotta go back next year for some redemption and see what I can bang out when I’m in shape.

On a sidenote. While Amy was volunteering she came across this Gulliver impostor.  I promise it’s really not him!