Winter Park Epic Singletrack Race #1, The Hill Climb

The 2011 mountain bike series kicked off with the Winter Park Hill Climb. I was a little uncertain it would happen with all the snow still on the ground in the high country. But this hill climb is on the service road that goes from the base of Winter back up to the top. They ploughed the road to get service vehicles up so we were in good shape. The road was in perfect condition, all the trails however were still under snow or water run off.

The weather was fantastic. Much warmer than I anticipated. I decided to ride the 29er this year because two years ago when I did the race it was on a CX bike. I felt over geared and needed another gear or two smaller. The climb is just over 2020 ft altitude gain in 5.2 miles. That works out to be an average of about 7% but there are a few flat places, a couple of sustained grades around 10% and two pitches over 15%. Therefore I went with the 29er because it had the gears and it's only about 7 pounds heavier.

There were about 26 racers in my category. I got a center front start. At the start a group of about 10 seemed to leap off the front. I settled in behind them hoping the group would stick around a little while. I was wrong, after about a minute the group started to shatter. I ended up riding around racers as they peeled out of the group. Three racers quickly shot up the road and I decided their pace was too hot for me. I was in fourth within the first 4 minutes of the race. I was truly surprised how quickly the race fell out.

Hill climbs, for me, are a lot like a time trial. Just get give it all you have to the top and tactics don't really come into play. About half way up a racer from my group caught me and we stayed within a few seconds all the way to the top. Right at the final 15% climb to the finish I herd another rider behind me. Knowing if I had a rider pass me at this point it wouldn't be good, I gave it all I had. I ended up finishing 5th. The 3 riders that got away early finished 4+ minutes ahead, the 4th place guy I was chasing finished about 13 seconds ahead and the guy behind me was only 9 seconds back.

Two years ago when I did this race I finished in 48:21. I was hoping I could get my time under 45 minutes. I ended up finishing in 44:00. Pretty good! On a side note I think I was abducted by aliens on the way down the mountain. My butt cheeks felt like someone drove nails into them. Poorly executed annal probe? Time to recover.

Check out the new blog header photo taken right at the top, heading up the final 15+% climb. I was way deep in the pain cave.

Improvement.. Maybe

Winter Park Valley Point-to-Point was this past weekend. I've been working on my fitness issues so my expectations were not very high. Basically, if I could have a good clean race without all the agony I had last time, I would consider it a success. It's amazing how relaxing you feel at the start line when your only goal for the race is survive and don't worry about those other guys.



The start is on a pretty good climb. It's a service road used to spread the field out before dumping us into the first single track. Two weeks ago, I knew things were going wrong at this point. This week, I felt pretty good. Hell, I was even moving up... passing people! Sweet. (maybe it helped that I started at the back of the pack this time, I had to pass someone.. right) The first descent I wasn't killing it but I wasn't getting dropped by the guys in front of me. At that point, we started to come across the carnage of the leaders. Dudes off in the trees, crashed or flatted. My teammate Amir off the trail working with his bike, I know he had a good chance to win today but didn't finish.

Across the first long technical "flat" I was hanging "strong", getting passed but also passing folks. Then the yo-yo dropped. I tried to stay calm and just keep pedaling. Get in a short recovery. Food, drink... breath. Things started to turn around. Ok, I started to real back many of the racers that had passed me during my down point. I was right on their wheels during the next big climb. Once over the climb the group in front of me started to pull away. I had never been on this trail before and my courage wasn't supper high. At the next hill I again got within eye sight of my group but the yo-yo feel again, this time on a hill. I didn't see them again.

The last section of the race was on trials I used to ride way back in the day. About 7-8 years ago, we used to go camping up there and ride that area. It was fun, more importantly it was an up section for me. Even after 20 miles of the race, I was going faster over these trails than I used to. When I reach the race finish, I was so glad it was over. Unfortunately I had 6 miles to ride back to the base of winter park and my car. That was like adding insult to injury. I crawled back, passed by some lady on the bike path pulling two little girls in a trailer. I asked the kids if they could push over and let me ride, they looked at me like I was crazy.

Over all, this race was better than the last two. So, while not very good in the results department, I'm calling it a personal ..... better but Improvement Required.

Final stats: 24 miles raced in 2:20. 35 mile round trip back to the car (with warmup). 4948 ft gained, 2694 calories burned!, Avg speed 9.8 mph, max 32.9 mph. Mx HR 174. Oh and the pro that won the race did the exact same coarse in 1:32.. WOW!

If you ever get up to Winter Park for some riding. You have to hit these trails. Phenomenal!


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