Webcor Sierra Road KoM 'ride'

Webcor was the title sponsor of San Jose's inaugural Sierra hillclimb which allowed local riders to challenge themselves on a timed 'ride' uphill. This was the first 'timed' ride I've ever done that seemed remarkably like a mass start race..

From a team perspective, we had a number of strategies we thought might help our chances to be first up the hill. We decided to put Petro Hizalev with the best climber in the field- clearly David Rodriguez of Navigators. We had a few treat it like a time trial, like Dominic and Scott Frake. Tracy and I always do better when pushed, so we paired up, starting only a few bike lengths behind James M., David, Andy Jacques-Maynes (AJM) and Petro. After wading through the CEO group + some of our women(no small feat), we established a front group of the above named riders. Tracy must have been chomping at the bit because he quickly took up the head of our small group. After about nine minutes our first casualty was Tracy (due to a family ski trip and cold, wis recovery probably was diminished). Then AJM came off.

Shortly after James then tailed off on a steep pitch. I was gamely trying to hang onto third wheel as only david and Petro were left. On the last 'flattish' section about six minutes from the top, I cracked due to David forcing the pace a bit. I almost put it in cruise mode, but decided to stay within myself as I encouraged Petro from behind. Unfortunately, this probably made David more determined to drop him as I unfortunately watched Petro come unglued through the last Eucalyptus section. I decided to see if I could limit my losses more, and stepped it up again. I started coming back slowly on David but was going to run out of road.....plus David knew he had it. Petro encouraged me as I rode by, and I 'sprinted' across about 15 seconds arrears. Petro followed closely. For me it was definitely one of my better climbing efforts to date, despite not being in tip top shape. Perhaps, I'm learning to be a Tracy? Somehow I think not. Climbing is a necessary evil. I've clearly embraced the 'if you're gonna ride short, make it count' mentality.

Lessons learned: learn to dig a little deeper. It might just be worth a bike.

-Ted