Mount Hamilton Road Race - May 24, 2009

Photo by Michael Robertson - http://www.velodramatic.com/

It's funny how things work out. In January I took a look at the race calendar, penciled in a few races I was interested in, and even laid out a skeleton of a training plan. Nothing was set in stone, but I was pretty sure I wanted to "peak" for the Mount Hamilton Road Race, since its known as one of the classics in the Bay Area. Fast forward to May - the race is a few weeks away, and the perfect storm of too much work, lots of weekends out-of-town, and the flu have combined to blow my training out of the water. I thought about ditching the race, but the lure was too great - I'd only ever ridden over Mount Hamilton once, and never from the San Jose side. So I decided that I'd go, even if it meant soloing much of the way.

Fortunately, whatever strength my legs had lost through lack of training, they had also gained in recovery. Granted, I was not pushing the pace at the front of the race, but I did feel much better than I expected. This was one of the best-organized and supported races I've been too - kudos to the San Jose Bike Club. We started right on time, there was plenty of water as promised at Mile 25, good warning signage on sketchy corners, there was food at the finish, and results were posted within hours!

The race itself lived up to its reputation - the climb started almost immediately, and other than 2 quick descents, it didn't let up for 20 miles. Our group (Cat 4) hit it not quite full gas, but pretty hard. Hard enough to string things out and shed some guys. I had no ambitions of going with the lead group, so I settled into a group that swelled and shrunk between 8-12 guys. I was hurting on the 2nd of the 3 mini-peaks that made up the full climb to the top of Hamilton, but recovered and felt strong on the final push. My group splintered, and I went with about 6 guys who were surging past us. The 6 of us strung out as we approached the summit, and I was happy to have some space on the long winding downhill - managed to pass 2 or 3 on the way down, but then wished I was with a group again on the backside where things flattened out.

My wish came true - some of the guys I had pulled away from near the top of the climb caught me - I wasn't pushing full-steam, and even if I had been, I eventually would've been swallowed up. We worked relatively well together, although it was one of the most "surgy" pacelines I've ever been in. As we picked up stragglers up the road, our group slowly grew. Just as we hit the 2nd main obstacle of the day it became every man for himself once again. I was tired as hell, but my legs were cooperating and I passed a few riders going up the (comparatively) easy climb. The final 15 miles or so were fast and fun, except that I was dying for another bottle of water (I'd gone through 3 in the first 50 miles). When it came time to sprint, I had nothing.

I finished almost exactly midpack - 34th of 71. Nice to feel that racing adrenaline rush once again.