Surrounded by Olympians!!!
Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race and Combined King of the Mountains…
Today was the conclusion of the Whiteface Mountain Challenge King of Mountain race. I went into the competition in third place after the run segment of the race and in 1st place for my category. The bike portion of the race was on the same exact course as the run and it should prove even more gruesome than the run. The weather was not ideal low 90’s and 80% humidity.
I had hopes of racing well and being in the top twenty considering the competition would be great. The competition included three Olympians (Tim Burke US Biathlon, Lowell Bailey US Biathlon, and Duncan Douglass US Ski Team, as well as several Cat 1 Road racers). It was great to race against the Olympians since I grew up running High School Cross Country with them …but man did the push the pace.
The race started out incredible high paced… and shelled the pack within a half mile. I stuck with the pace until the pitch increased and I realized an error early on … I had not put a climbing specific compact crank on my bike and was unable to spin a high enough cadence. I pushed the high gear as long as I could but the leaders simply spinned away from me.
The only problem was that I had four miles to grind out this high gear… man did it hurt. But I had to keep pushing if I wanted to keep my 3rd place position in the King of the Mountain contest. Somehow I ground my way to the top retaining my 3rd place in the King of the Mountain contest and my 1st place for my age category. Ouch did that race hurt like crazy.
Results can be found at http://www.whitefacerace.com/
Thanks to all my sponsors …. But on a sad side note… I have had to rearrange my racing schedule for the next few weeks due to a freak accident with a dog, my bike, and a visit to the Emergency Room in Grosse Pointe, MI. I will miss all my scheduled races until July 9th, when I will return for the 6 hours of Endorphin Race.
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