You can’t teach an old dog new tricks but you can grab a beer and watch that old dog do the same stupid thing over and over again, which is almost the same as a doing trick. On an unrelated note, I find myself, for the third year running, staring down the business end of the week approaching the Climb4Cancer time trial up Zoo Hill in Issaquah, Washington.
Zoo Hill is perhaps the most diabolical climb I know of, and I include in that statement the various cobbled bergs we tackled in Belgium this year, as well as the considerable heap of climbs around the US and Europe that I’ve had the great pleasure of hauling my too fat to climb carcass up. The trouble with this particular climb is the ferocity of the lower pitches which give way to a dead-straight final section of road consisting of ever-steepening rollers.
There is no keeping the powder dry on the ramps that litter the bottom half of the climb; this is an á bloc, stay-alive effort which serves to mop up speed and morale in equal measure. By the time you make the right-hand turn onto the sinister second half of the climb, your guns are fried and lungs hemorrhaging V resin. This section of road is nearly straight (which Science has proven is the most annoying kind of road to climb) and consists of a series of rollers which gain in gradient and culminate with the longest and steepest of them. This section is made physically daunting by the already-blown guns at your disposal, and mentally devastating by the fact that even if you could remember how many rollers there are in total, there is no way you can remember how many you’ve already sorted. (The answers are always “too many” and “not enough”, respectively.)
Riding this section during recon, it’s tempting to imagine moving Sur La Plaque and using the momentum from the short descents to fly up the next roller and thus dispatching with this comparatively easier section without much ado. Arriving here during the race, however, one faces an alternate reality consisting of legs reduced to quivering lumps of useless flesh, and rather than slipping into the big ring, ghost-shifting into a non-existent lower gear.
I look forward to my next attempt at bettering my time up Haleakala in Hawaii, which represents an unrelenting 60km ride from sea level to 3,000 meters, dished out in a massive four-hour helping of serial suffering. But I find nothing but dread in my heart when I cast my mind to the quarter of an hour of comprehensive pain I will endure on Saturday.
Donations Update
This event is organized to support cancer research with donations going to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The Climb4Cancer Charity has arranged for donation-matching; for those of you who donated prior to the event, your contributions were given in the name of the Velominati Community. Thanks to you all for your support.
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Kudos to y'all! Good job!
@Mikael Liddy
So it seems like I was right about scraping in under 14 but gave the man too much credit!
2 Velominati in the top 25 sounds like a pretty good result. Chapeau to James for the top 10.
Frank your a beast, great time. Really have to respect you for laying it out there so publicly and comming through so consistently and looking good all the while!
Nicely done gentlemen.
@James
@frank
Good job men! Now what's next?
OK, you guys have laid it on the line and publicly to your peers. While it is a little while until the provincial uphill TT, I am committing to do it right NOW. (Fuck, I had better check when the hell it is....) As well, I haven't done a +200km ride in a few years. Like a FEW years. So, when I get back from the business trip I am on now, I will head out to do just that. First week of August, my VMH has put aside a day for me (I gotta check). On vera.
Chapeau!
@James
James, I hate you for climbing that hill so fast. OUTSTANDING EFFORT! Amazing.
I squeaked by with 13:59, falling short of my personal goal of going between 13:47 and 13:52, but at least it was sub-14. I'm sure glad I buried the pin on the last roller to eek out that last second. 14 flat would have sucked.
Strava was fucked because it had me sitting on the start line for two minutes and the time is jacked because of it, but if I figure out how to fix it, I'll post it up.
Re: QR position. Rule 43 clearly states: It is acceptable, however, to have the rear quick release tighten upward, just aft of the seat stay, when the construction of the frame or its dropouts will not allow the preferred positioning.
This is in fact the situation with the R3's construction and the skewers I use; that as high up as they go. Even with the Campa skewers on my cobbles wheels, the skewer has to sit in this position, alas.
Next year, I aim to remember about this event more than a week in advance and train specifically for it. If I was going to pick an event that I am least naturally inclined to perform well in, it would be a short, steep, uphill ITT. Which naturally means I'm obsessed with this fucker.
Some photos from the ride.
[dmalbum: path="/velominati.com/wp-content/uploads/readers/frank/2012.07.22.15.55.51/"/]
Great job Frank and James, thanks for sharing the ride with us, what with the high probability of ridicule if you failed badly.
If anyone is looking for another hill climb TT in a few weeks, you should check this out: http://www.consystency.net/OBRA/OUCH/
Larch Mountain Time Trial, august 5th - 25k with ~1,100m of elevation. Not a bad grade, just long.
Well done boys.
@Frank Give me a little notice and I'll come do this with you. I think I'll be able to break the hour barrier.