NCNCA Hill Climb Time Trial Championships on Mt. Diablo, June 25, 2016

Not that he's not a nice guy, but I'm really trying to stay away from Carl Nielson.
photo: Craig Huffman

Age group

Master 55-59

Result

6th

Time

28:45.5

Course

6.2 miles ascending about 1700 feet, average grade of 5%, on excellent roads.

Preparation

I was fortunate to receive a pair of carbon tubulars with American Classic hubs about three weeks before this TT. I hustled to upgrade the rear from 9 to 11-speed, re-dish, glue on tires and road test for a couple of days. Two years ago I did this TT on my 21.5 pound steel Ron Cooper for a time of 29:29.6, but now with the carbon wheels and sew-ups my 136-pound carcass sits on a 14.5-pound Emonda. I was hoping for a dramatically faster time. Still I didn’t expect miracles with competition like Carl Nielson (cat 2, CA Technologies Racing), Dan Shore (cat 2, Hammer/53x11) and Kevin Metcalfe (cat 1, Peet's Coffee Racing), who would be doing his second TT of the day, after placing 3rd among the elite cat 1/2 field.

In fact I really only do these hill climb TTs (San Bruno Mtn., Diablo, and Mt. Tamalpais) to get an idea of how the guys in my age group perform on different durations and pitches of ascent. The information is useful throughout the rest of the races in the season.

Unfortunately my calendar got really busy after the Pescadero road race, and I didn’t have time to prepare properly, so I’d be going on whatever constituted my base.

The ascent

We’re started 30 seconds apart. The first 1.4 mi. are pretty flat and fast. I was already only 15 seconds behind Mark Edwards, who took off right before me. I thought “Hey! These wheels are making me fly” But then as the grade increased, Mark began to distance me. The other heavy hitters were starting 2 to 4 minutes after me, so I just kept my heart at 175-178 and hoped I would’t have any company.

Half way up a series of switchbacks, I began to hear yells of encouragement from riders descending. They were cheering on Carl Nielson who started 2 minutes after me. I put everything I had left into staying “ahead”, but nope.

I came across the line with a time of 28:45.5, for 6th in my 5-year age group.

After catching my breath, I watched with Carl as the rest of our group finished. Jon Ornstil (cat 3, Hammer/53x11) looked graceful, comfortable, fast and composed as usual, and Kevin Metcalfe and Dan Shore finished with amazing times.

Takeaways

I climb pretty well, but still need to get faster to be able to get away with these guys on hillier road races. And I could use some advice from some of my teammates who have success in traditional time trials. I recognize that it takes a lot of training to learn how to pace your effort. I know what level of effort I can sustain for a half hour on a climb, but it may be that dialing it back for the first 12 minutes or so might leave me with more headroom to finish better over the whole course.