Mt. Tamalpais Hill Climb September 12, 2015

At home on Bolinas Ridge
photo: Tali Herzka

13th place in Masters 45+ Cat 123

This short “road race” is a traditional near-end-of-season celebration that brings out hundreds of participants with its many cat 5 and public heats. The roughly 12-mile course has three sections, with a total ascent of about 2050 feet:

• 4.3 miles at sea level, northbound on curvy California highway 1,
• 3.9 miles up Bolinas Fairfax Road, climbing 1531 ft., average 7% grade,
• 3.8 miles up Ridgecrest Blvd., ascending 567 ft of rolling terrain, along Bolinas Ridge (the northwest shoulder of Mt. Tamalpais), average 2% grade

This would be my first race in cat 3, and I had no fantasies of a podium finish. With training for flatter late season road races, and a couple of weekends taken up by shorter sessions at the velodrome in San Jose, my usual focus on climbing has been a bit blurred for the past six weeks.

Before preregistering, I debated whether to race m55+1234 or m45+123. When I saw that Carl Nielson and Harold Reimer were already registered for the older group, I opted to dive in and join teammate Kevin O’Donnell to hash it out with the likes of Tom Lyons, Bill Laddish and Hans Gouwens, among other of my local heroes.

Here come more excuses: For the week prior I suffered from nasty sinus congestion, scratchy throat, drowsiness, general malaise and eventually a bronchial cough, which I attribute to late summer allergies. I decided it was a signal to take several days off to rest up. The continuing hot weather made the decision easier.

When my alarm woke me at five a.m. on race day I felt good. I ate, coughed up a lung, loaded the bike and drove out to Stinson Beach Park, arriving at 7 a.m. Teammates registered for other heats began pulling in as I changed clothes, ate and drank more and warmed up on the rollers for 35 minutes.

Seventeen of us rolled out at exactly 9:05. One rider attacked immediately. When no one else bit, Hans Gouwens (Thirsty Bear p/b Akamai) sprinted in chase and the two had a 150 meter gap right away. Later Hans told me he figured he’d just go for it to give teammate Tom Lyons and easier ride to the base of the climb by making the rest of us chase. It worked pretty well, but the two were reeled back in within a couple of miles anyway. We were a busy little peloton though, just a couple more short-lived attacks, and for the most part, everyone rotating through to keep things together.

With none of us working too hard individually, we flew at 26.5 mph, for those first flat 4.3 miles, reaching the turnoff to Bolinas Fairfax Rd. in 9 minutes and 50 seconds (about 2:10 faster than the m55+1234s, 2:30 faster than the E3s, and 1:10 faster than the m40+4s).

That’s where my fun with the gang ended. The group split up before the first incline. Before I knew it I was hustling to stay in contact with the rear six riders. Dan Connelly, one of my Low Key Hill Climb teammates (Sisters and Misters of No Mercy), easily cruised past me at his own pace as my heart rate hit 179. I knew I had no choice but to let the others go, hoping that I could claw back some time on Bolinas Ridge.

Four riders remained in sight for the rest of the race as I was only able to maintain about 4.2 watts per kilogram. My time on the actual ascent portion of this course was actually my best to date, but still too slow to catch onto another wheel. The four I’d chased up Bolinas Fairfax road increased their gap as I was chasing solo on the exposed ridge.

I did have a good run for the final mile, and just managed to pip one guy from my group before the line. It turned out to be Gary Gellen, another Low Key Hill Climb teammate, who only entered this race on a lark, as his competitive focus is 50 to 100 mile runs. His cardio is absolutely supreme, but I’m amazed that I barely was able to catch a guy whose legs only pedal occasionally lately.

My 13th place finishing time (47:55) was my best to date, but only because of the blazing pace of our group in that first four miles. Some friends have suggested I may have chosen the wrong age group to race with, suggesting that my result would’ve put me on the podium in the 55+1234 group. On paper yes, but in reality that’s doubtful since that group started the ascent with more than a two minute deficit relative to mine. I calculate that I would have finished at around 50 minutes in that group, for 5th place.

I had a really fun experience in my first race with the m45+123s, even though it was “over in a (full-gas) heartbeat” and this twelve-miler just barely qualifies as a “road race”. I got a tiny look into this new-to-me level of competition, and they’re as elite as I expected. Thank goodness USAC Nationals in Utah kept more immortals from leaving me in the dust (namely the newly-crowned this very weekend national 45-49 masters champ, Chris Phipps)! I’ll get to ride with them next season.

I’ll spend the off-season doing the Low Key Hill Climb series again, as well as look for ways to carve out more time during each week to train harder and smarter. and of course in January, look for me at the afternoon Early Bird training criteriums, hoping to hone skills to fit in smoothly with the cat 123 peloton.