May 26th, 2012
Distance
209 Miles
Time
13:39
Route Map/Profile
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| This was the proposed route, but a fire changed the final portion of the ride and we ended up descending Montezuma Grade just as we ascended it in the morning. |
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| The graph doesn't really tell the story for this ride. It was super windy on Montezuma Grade and cold and rainy at the summit in the morning. Things cleared up as the day went on, but the wind was a factor all day long. |
Picture
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| Warm apple pie after a cold & wet morning. |
This was the Borrego Double, the final ride of the 2012 California Triple Crown Stage Race. As mentioned before, I was sitting in 4th place before the ride without much hope of climbing up to third, but with a real threat of dropping down to 5th or 6th. I'm usually a good climber, a bad descender, and somewhere below average on the flats, so my plan was to ride Montezuma hard and have a little buffer built up so that if I got caught from behind I'd have a few guys to ride with during the flatter middle portion of the ride. This was especially important because the forecast was calling for wind and I knew I'd lose a lot of time riding solo on the flats.
The ride started out well for me. I found myself at the front of the climb with 4 other guys, so my 4th place was safe for the time being. The only bad news was that even though it was only 5:30 AM or so, we were already riding against a very stiff headwind. This limited any advantage I have as a climber (I'm good because I don't weigh much, not because I'm strong.) and I was struggling to hold the wheel in front of me. Montezuma Grade isn't that steep of a climb, but with the wind there were a few times when I wondered if I'd be able to keep the pedals turning- all on the same gearing setup I used for the Devil Mountain Double and Terrible Two, which have much steeper sections of climbing. I've never felt drafting make as much of a difference on a climb as I did up Montezuma Grade.
It started raining near the summit of the climb, which wasn't good news for the descent. Fortunately, we weren't going down the full 4,000 feet we had climbed and the road wasn't very steep, so speeds remained sane and I didn't get dropped on the descent. Unfortunately, I ended up getting dropped later on a little bit before the Julian Pie Shop rest stop. At that point I figured my dream of riding with the leaders was over and I'd probably get caught from behind as originally planned. However, when I rolled in the the pie stop the leaders were still there and it looked like the cold weather took its toll on them. I wasn't feeling too cold except for my hands, so I wolfed down my piece of pie and rolled out while the other guys were still warming up.
For an ever so brief moment in time I was riding in first place. I was doing a comfortable pace, just keeping warm and waiting for the guys to catch up. I had visions in my head of sticking with the leaders throughout the flat portion of the course and gaining enough time on the guys behind me to secure 4th place in the stage race. Those visions didn't last long. I was caught at the worst time for me- on a downhill. A gap opened up in front of me and with the wind as strong as it was, that was all she wrote. Dropped again.
I've had a lot of humbling moments on the bike, but this was one of the biggest. I know I'm nothing special as a rider and I only ended up with 6th place in the stage race last year (and whatever place I end up with this year) because a bunch of guys faster than me couldn't ride all 3 stages due to family, work, etc. I try to keep things in perspective, but for a moment there I believed my own hype and I thought to myself that I could hang with the leaders for a day. That thought was ripped away in 10 seconds or less, and I have to admit that it hurt. The fact is that luck was on my side (I was lucky they took a longer break at the pie stop than normal.) and I just wasn't good enough. It was that simple.
From that point on it was just me, 160+ miles, and the cold hard truth that I'm too one-dimensional and not nearly as good as I want to be. I rode as fast as I could, not waiting to get caught from behind but fully expecting that it was inevitable. Somewhere near Oceanside I hit an object in the road on a downhill and came away with a pinch flat. The whole time I was changing my tire I was just looking around the corner waiting for a group to ride past. The group didn't come, and then at some point around mile 111 I was getting confused with the route sheet when we were supposed to go across a bridge that was closed to traffic but my mileage wasn't quite matching up. I didn't get completely lost and I did eventually cross that bridge and get back on track with the cue sheet, but I'm still not sure if I went off course or if my mileage was a little off or what. I ended up with 209 miles instead of the proposed 206, so there's a good chance I did something wrong and I hope nobody passed me at that moment.
Once I got out of the Oceanside area and headed back towards Borrego, I started to believe that I wasn't going to get caught from behind after all. By that point the wind was mostly in my favor and there was more climbing to do. The weather was nice and warm and beating 14 hours was in reach and gave me something to focus on. I made it to the top of Montezuma Grade with plenty of time to spare, so I took it easy on the descent. The tailwind was very strong, so I was on my brakes most of the time looking out for those strong gusts of crosswinds that can be scary at high speed.
I ended up beating 14 hours, but I'm not sure what my official time was. Results haven't come in as quickly as one would hope. I did look at the time sheet at the end of the ride and there was one guy who wasn't at the front of the climb and who I never saw pass me, so I'm not sure if he started at 4:30 or if I did go off course and get passed. I can only wait for the results and hope that my precious 4th place is safe. I'll post an update when results come in.
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