Again, since I was new to bike racing AND had a lot of unknowns about the course and my ability to do it, I decided that I wanted to ease out of the start and try to stick to high Z2 for the first hour and see how I felt after that and try to pick it up. However, the hills had other ideas. I pretty much got right into Z3 and stayed there. I was fine with that, as I have raced for over 2 hours at that intensity before, and been just fine.

As I suspected, everyone in my wave was off like a shot. It was hard on the ego to let them go since I felt like I could easily keep up, but I was not sure what the course was going to offer, so I stayed within myself. Sure enough, I started to pick off the other riders one by one as they gassed themselves out on the climb. I think I passed close to two dozen people...

My nutrition plan was to bring one bottle of water and take in GU on the climb. My plan was to reload on both water and gel at the two aid stations, but to my dismay, they didn't have gels. I could have sworn they said they would have them in the race literature. So I was a bit put off by not getting any calories during the ride. However, I don't think it hurt me too much.

I drafted on the bike when I could, and worked with someone for a while taking turns pulling. A whole new experience to racing.

As it turned out, I had energy to spare at the end and probably could have gone a bit harder. But without knowing what to expect, I probably played it a bit too safe. I was so worried if I could do the climb, that I held back a bit too much. I was SO worried, in fact, I thought that I may DNF. But in all reality, it wasn't as hard as I feared. I never really suffered that much.

The race is amazing. You move through the desert heat at the beginning, to forest, to down right chilly temps at the top (over the 5350 feet of climbing - over a vertical mile!) The desent to get back to the car was scary fun... SO fast. On the other hand, the course is relentless. There is only on section that's a couple hundred yards long that's downhill. Otherwise, it's all up. It plays tricks on the mind as well. You see a "summit" and think when you get there, you will have a chance to rest, but it's a faux summit. It really just pitches from 8% down to 6% so it looks like a peak, but it's not.

As a side note, someone even did it on a unicycle (the local cycling nut). He even beat my time!

Understand the course. Maybe do a pre-ride or two.

Nothing really... Just some easy spinning down to the food tent.


Being unfamiliar with the course.

Oh yeah! How about lose some weight! I bet if you made a chart graphing finish time with body weight, the times would go up as body weight went up. In fact, several of the people I was passing were as big, if not bigger than me. I was the tallest for sure, but there were some stocky boys out there.


Great race! Challenging and beautiful course! Cheaper entry fee as well! Everyone should try it if they want a fun challange.