Who did I find handling registration??? Well it happens to be Ben (aka silenben), and my WW friend Laura. Well, at least there are a couple of people I know here ... Ben wasn't doing the ride, but looks like Laura was going up to the end of the route, so won't be catching up with her (like I'd be able to anyways ... not ... too strong for me).
This LKHC was handled a little different than Sierra ... it was not a mass start. Due to traffic concerns, they had us go in groups of 10 when we head up on Page Mill. That's fine, since we all would be separated into groups anyways, when we climb.
Fast riders were in the first groups, so obviously, I head to the back. It took us a while to sift through everyone, and by the time I actually got on course, it wasn't till about 10:30 am.
Even with the 10 or 20 riders I rode with, people were flying up the hill. I wasn't gunning it, knowing what is up ahead.
On the way up, one rider was trying to shift into his granny gear, and it didn't sound too good, and he eventually fell ... he got Schleck'd .... then, a little later on, his buddy got a blow out, while climbing. The park ranger thought it was a shot, and saw the rider go down ... asking if he was okay. It was just a tire blow out, so no biggy. Continuing on ...
I was able to pass a bunch of people, but I know they were not on the LKHC ... they were either out on a club ride, and just a solo ride, that happen to go the same way we were. Still, it's the adrenaline of competition ... dig down deep, and turn your guts inside and out to squeeze that little amount of energy out of you.
Trying to minimize my losses, I downshift at the top part of the hill, as I know it's slightly downhill and flat at the top. I see the "200 paces" sign, and I gut it out some more. My final result was 53:13. I looked at my previous Strava data, and it looks like I beat my previous best time by 9 minutes. Wow, that's huge.
Only sucky part ... no bananas at the top. There was water, and some crackers, but what I really wanted was a banana ...Oh, like a doofus, I forgot to bring food with me on this ride ... now that's what I call a dumb move.
Final results are at http://lowkey.djconnel.com/2011/week3/results.html.
2 comments:
Great ride, Ron. 9 mins margin on PR is huge.
btw, were you able to catch the incidents in your on-board camera?
Hi Yihua, it was great to see you at the start. You were just way too fast for me to keep up with.
Yes, I was able to catch both of those ... it will take me some time to edit this. I had some problem with the camera earlier, so I want to splice up the good parts.
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