Thanks for the photography Ron
2:01, 3rd overall, 1st Willesden
With thanks to the lovely man Digger, for not encouraging me to stay for drinks too much, I managed to get up on time and make it through the thick fog to the bottom of Windsor Hill. Without too much time to spare before the start I didn’t bother riding up the hill pre-race. I know it well enough now anyway. Tony, riding his first hill climb (I wonder if he’ll be back for more?) and his daughter Kirsten let me use their car to stow all my warm kit. Cheers guys! A brief roll around the block (I’d call it a warm-up but think it actually made me colder) and then back to the start line ready to roll.
Little ring, smallish sprocket so I don’t have to use the front derailler or spin too fast off the line and get my HR high too early. 30.. 15.. clip in.. 10.. 5.. go!
Using my light-weight Ksyrium ES’s instead of the Zipp 404 Powertap wheels meant the bike was probably >500g lighter but I had no power for pacing the effort. With this in mind I tried to ride conservatively early on the hill, knowing it ramped a lot near the end. Around the first corner I was already going for easier gears as the all-too-familiar rapid and heavy breathing kicked in. Dropped another gear here and then as it kicked I climbed out of the saddle to get some more speed into the ascent.
Seeing the finish is a nice bonus here and I was out of the saddle again to impress the fans 🙂 I heard some cheering going on (thanks Gladys and Ron) and crossed the line, gasping for air. Considering I could barely move after having done these previously, I was happy to roll down the road for 30s and then have enough in the tank to turn around and cheer on Tony and Kirsten and the last rider off, 29. I’m not sure what happened to Pete – he was going to be my main opposition for the club HC trophy this year.
In the end, I came in 3rd overall doing a 2:01, which oddly enough is 1 second faster than I did on this course 2 years ago. I was sure I was going to be a lot slower, owing to all the LSD I’d been doing (that’s Long Slow Distance not Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). Pretty happy with that – though I reckon it’s down to that 500g and not my (relatively poor) training lead up. 2nd did a 2:00 and the winner, Joe Holloway(?) did a 1:44. Not sure of the Savage duo’s times, they’ll appear on the blog soon, no doubt. Thanks for the gels Gladys. Found a quid on the way home too. Bonus. 🙂