Words and photos by John Prosser
I don’t normally wake up at 5.30 am on Jan 1st feeling so good. This was a good job as today; I had selected to race my bike up a mountain near San Francisco.
Like many of my fellow competitors I tend to race my bike when I can. I no longer have the luxury of being able to dedicate several months to a structured training program. I know January is meant to be for base training. Long steady miles before harder efforts can be added latter once the foundation of one’s fitness has been laid. Well in my world I race when I can, even if it’s straight up a big hill on New Year’s Day!
So on a wet overcast day we packed the car, wife, 6 month old son and my weapon of choice - my NeilPryde Diablo mountain climbing machine!
We traveled the short distance from Marin to Brisbane located near to San Francisco International Airport and about 9 miles south of downtown San Francisco. This year’s opening event would be the Mt Bruno Hill Climb promoted by Peninsula Velo Cycling Club.
Not knowing the course I quickly assembled the bike and rode most of it before continuing to warm up. The race was basically a 20 minute maximum effort from the get go so you didn’t need to be just warm, you had to be at boiling point! After completing a 45 minute preparation with a few closing efforts at 90% I was finally ready.
As we lined up it was time to check out all the new 2011 team outfits before we got under way! With the different categories setting of in 1 minute waves it was soon our Masters 35+ Cat 4 group turns to start the Year off with a bang! Our small peloton of around thirty riders soon started to disintegrate as the road headed up a nice dual carriageway section at about an 8% grade. I found myself following an early acceleration which dragged around 7 or 8 of us off the front.
As I approached my threshold I slipped to the back of this group and tried to hang on. The group swelled as a couple of riders made it across to us. As I looked behind the rest of the bunch were almost out of sight, obscured by the morning fog. I started to struggle to hold on as the new guys pushed the pace just that little over my limit. I stood up and immediately felt the bike respond with acceleration-nice!
The effort tipped me over that line towards blowing up and I sat down. The road flattened as we left the nice dual carriageway and headed into the San Bruno Mountain State Park and onto a narrow rough and steeper road at about a 10% grade.
As we headed into the fog and towards the final mile I was drifting off the back and losing contact. I was contemplating another out of the saddle acceleration but hesitated in fear that it would result in me blowing up and losing more places in the final tough section. In the post-race analysis I played around in my head on our journey home, I knew I should have gone for it. The Diablo was so responsive I should have stood up and stamped on the pedals and “danced” up that last section. Instead I just sat down and rode through the fog to finish in 11th place.
The bike was more ready than the rider today but the flag as gone down on the 2011 season and I am looking forward to all the excitement sure to follow!
Follow the ride on MapMyRIDE