Stage 1 - Saturday, Sept. 24
89 miles of racing + 28 miles return trip to cars
M55+
Place: 1st of 17 starters
Time: 6:21:02

Stage 2 - Sunday, Sept. 25
65 miles of racing + 23 miles return trip to cars
Place: 2nd of 14 finishers, 2nd GC
Time: 5:14:27

Summary:  It became evident on the first climb that the race was between myself and two other riders in the 55's.  This was the first year I really had to race the Everest Challenge and I added preparation with 2.5 weeks of training in Bishop.   The first descent showed me descending is almost as important as climbing.   I managed to bridge back on the first day and then out paced my rivals by over 10 minutes to win the first stage.  But the pattern of losing time on the descents continued the second day giving the third place rider from day 1 a platform to gain an insurmountable lead to the finish. I had to console myself with my stage 1 win, the first of my racing career.

Prelude -  In the months before the race, I knew I would have a chance at a good result if I trained right.  I knew my contenders were the newest 55+ riders.  One Mark Hamlin had pressed the contention after his long solo ride for second at Mt. Hamilton.  And my old teammate from Webcor/AltoVelo, Kevin Keenan, had ridden significantly faster times than me at the Everest Challenge in the 45's.  So I cleared my schedule after Labor Day and took up my friend Scott Busby's offer to visit him in Bishop for some altitude training.  You have all witnessed the training that took place prior to Labor Day.  The extended stay in Bishop made me fall in love with the area.  I did some oil painting in addition to some great riding, including the annual Fall Century on 9/10 (www.fallcentury.org) - 95 miles with about 6800 feet of climbing - not exactly on par with the EC, but it had great terrain and support.  I also punished myself on consecutive days of training on the climbs of the race and, more importantly, worked on the long, fast descents.

Stage 1: The 55's started with the 60+ and 70+ riders at 6:30 am.  A small group of the mixed fields took turns pacing climb #1 to South Lake.  We whittled the lead group to 5 when the grade turned to 8% and Kevin, Mark and I dropped the two 60+ riders once we turned onto South Lake Road.  I stuck with them on the first, flatter part of the descent, but was not able to keep their draft pointing the bike down the 8% grades.  I got up to 53-54 mph but had to back off when little gusts of wind made the front end of my bike start quivering.  At the bottom I was about 30 seconds behind and chased across the flats where the gap opened to more than a minute.  At the start of climb #2 Mark and Kevin stopped to hand off clothing to Mark's wife.  With a few good surges I was able to bridge.  We kept a steady pace for the rest of the climb with Kevin doing most of the leading.  The second climb is less steep.  So I was able to hack the descent speeds. Kevin set most of the pace on the flats and first part of last climb past the little town of Paradise and up to Tom's place on Lower Rock Creek Road.  Mark Hamilin was complaining of cramping.  After negotiating crossing the 395 highway twice, I set what I thought was the same pace we had been going only to look back and find Kevin and Mark well off my wheel.  Storm clouds loomed over the Rock Creek canyon and it looked like it was snowing at the top.  I kept my fast cadence pace against a strong head wind and just a bit of drizzle.  I thought the P12's should have caught us.  As I crossed the finish line Nate English came up on my wheel.  It seemed like just a couple of minutes when Mark, then Kevin came by the food tent which was set up 250 meters below the finish line.  Recovery food included chicken soup, coca-cola, peanut butter sandwiches, spinach black bean quesadillas, cookies, recovery drink, and more coca-cola.

Stage 2:  Same early start.  When I signed in I learned I had a 10.5 minute lead over Mark Hamlin and 11.5 minutes over Kevin Keenan.  I set the pace up the first climb to Glacier Lodge.  We shed riders in the same fashion as Day 1.  I attacked near the top hoping to get a gap for the descent.  Mark and Kevin were right on me.  They bolted down the twisty road at the top and gapped me quickly.  With no wind, I had more nerve to hold my speed up the same 53-54 mph as Day 1.  It was a bit nerve wracking to blast straight toward cars coming up and going around packs of riders ascending.  Again I was about 30 seconds back at the bottom and only 39 at the start of the second climb. Then Kevin dropped Mark and when I bridged to Mark he had about 1:30. The chase was on.  Although I picked up my pace, he kept gaining time.  At the top of the second climb he had more that 2.5 minutes. I descended as fast as I could on this 5-6% grade, putting in high cadence spins to get my speed up.  I thought I could pull Kevin back when we got to steeper climbing.  Up the first part of the last climb there was a rider in sight who I was almost certain was a non-competitive rider.  I kept pushing the pace knowing that I had to save some for the really steep sections at the end.  This last climb rises from 3700 to 10,039 feet in 23 miles.  It has a flat section in the middle and then rises about 3000 feet in the last 10 kilomters - kind of like doing two Diablos back to back.  I started getting time splits first from Mark's wife who gave me a water feed: 5.5 minutes. Then 6.5 minutes.  Then 7 minutes from Steve Barnes, the race director, at the 10K mark.  All I could do was stomp on my pedals to get up the 10-12% switch backs and grind in the saddle where it was less steep.  Nate English came by me making it look too easy.  I tried to follow the wheels of some of the other P12's as they passed working much harder.  I pushed the last few steeper sections with the intention of sprinting the last kilometer, to avoid losing by a little margin like 10 seconds.  The finish snuck up on me.  So my sprint was feeble.   Same food as the day before.  Chatted with Kevin and Mark.  A long wait.   The EBVC tribe was getting restless.  Kevin and I bugged Steve Barnes for results in the 55's.  Kevin had pulled and incredible 14 minute lead over me, with a remarkable time of 5:00:30, and thus winning by 2.5 minutes.   My time for the second day was still a personal best.


Thanks for reading, Jamie