I raced the 45th Annual Bob Cook Memorial Mt. Evans Hill Climb in the SM 3′s. This was my last road race in America in the 2010 season so I wanted to end it on a high note. I will be attending the USA Cycling Junior Men 15-16 European Race Camp in Izegem Belgium August 3-24. I was kind of wary about my race because although I have won more races than I could count this year, I wasn’t totally convinced I was going to win. Earlier in the season I was winning almost every single hilly road race or time trial but, I had not won a race since the Rist Canyon Hill Climb on June 6th. A big demoralizing moment was during the Mike Horgan Hill Climb on July 3rd when I was dropped on the Sugerloaf Road climb by the 1st and 2nd place in the race and that almost never happens.
The weather wasn’t great actually a little bit chilly at the start. We started at 8:35 and there were a lot of clouds and fog. We rolled out of the start at the school in Idaho Springs at a good tempo pace which lasted for awhile. I really didn’t feel the best at the first 7 or 8 miles of the race, my legs were kind of heavy feeling from a hard training day on thursday. The field wasn’t huge but still around 40 or 50 riders. We let a breakaway go with a CU guy and this triathelete. The CU guy launched the other guy and the tri guy put some time on the field. I actually didn’t think we were going to catch him. I surged and picked the pace up to catch the CU guy. We caught him right before Echo Lake at about 12 or 13 miles. The pace got harder after Echo Lake because the guy in the breakaway was gapping us. We kept a steady tempo until about mile 4 after the pay station.
The front group was now 5 riders. This is right after the road reaches the tundra. The other riders were starting to fade other than myself and a rider on CU. We were starting to pull more than the other riders because we knew that we had to catch the solo break. The gap had grown all the way to 1:20 and we had to bring it back.
We finally caught the guy off the front on the steep straight climb after the flat section at Summit Lake. The CU guy and I rode right past him and dropped the other guys in our group. We were clear at Mile 10, about 4.5 miles from the summit. I was setting a very fast pace, trying go clear alone. This didn’t work my accomplice was too strong. We reached the final switchbacks in the last 2.5 miles and I just sat behind the other guy in the breakaway. I was waiting to make my attack because I didn’t want to go too early. I waited until about 1km to go and I made an attack. But, our lead car and several other racers were in the way on the switchback and it stopped my attack because the other rider got on my wheel. I put in another vicious attack shortly after and one at 500m to go, which was much farther from the finisher than it seemed. The finish was about 50m past the last switchback. Since I kept attacking I was first wheel into the finish. I surged out the last corner and kept a 5m gap on second place winning the State Championship. Of the 3 other state championships I have won, this is the first one in an adult category. I did the epic climb in 2:00:43 just over my goal of sub-2 hours. The race was still success in every aspect though. I finally got the 9th win of the season that kept alluding me and I won my most important race of the year. I ended my American road season on a high note before my trip to Belgium.
Great Success!!
