Mt. Diablo Time Trial

[CyclerJohn]

The Low Key Hill Climbing Series does a different timed Bay Area
climb every Saturday in the months of October and November. Last
Saturday I did my first Low Key climb up the
North side of Diablo:

http://www.lowkey.djconnel.com/2009/week7/results.html

The climb from the North gate ranger station to the summit parking
lot is 10.75 miles and I have seen claims of 3400 to 3600 feet of
total climbing. The 1st 1.5 miles is a rolling, mild ascent before
the real climbing starts.

I am considering starting racing next year so I wanted to see how I
measured up against the local climbers.

137 of us showed up for registration in Walnut Creek and made the
$10 ride donation. New riders are assigned a number sticker which
they placed on their handlebar stem. Riders speak their number to the
timers at the start and finish.

We made are way up to the starting point which was about 50 yards
passed the North side ranger gate. The organizers asked that the
slower riders start first. Every 15 seconds a rider was sent off up
the climb.

Having done a test climb the previous Saturday and holding back just
a bit gave me my bench mark time of 1:07:20 with a Junction time of
36:05. My goal was to finish 30-60 seconds faster.

I needed some warm up riding so I ended up starting 4th from the
last position. Within the first 2 miles the 3 guys behind had gone by
me and one of them smoked by going at least 20% faster. At this point
I was a bit mentally rattled and pushing to high of a pace so I eased
off to find a more manageable effort. Soon the riders who had passed
me disappeared out of site and I was totally alone on the climb.

The situation reminded me of Phil Liggett's quote from the 96 tour
when a shattered Indurain was climbing on his own to the finish at
Hautacam: "He looks around, he's alone, he's a lonely man."

My outlook began to improve when I started catching slower riders
just before reaching the Junction with a time of 35:20. That was
20-30 seconds better than expected but I had suffered a lot in the
beginning for it.

In the 2nd half of the climb I managed to maintain most of my
earlier pace and was able to pass a bunch of slower riders. About 200
yards before the summit wall(15%+ grade) I slowly caught and passed
another rider who turned out to be a Cat 5 racer. He must not have
been impressed with how slowly I passed him as he immediately lifted
his pace and passed me back which is usually a mistake to make when
approaching the wall to the finish.

I made the same mistake in a Diablo Challenge several years ago and
blew up on the wall before nearly passing out on arrival at the top.
Sure enough the rider who had passed me also cracked half way up the
wall and I passed him again finishing the last 40 yards out of the
saddle with a time of 1:06:21.

The 59 second, 1.5% improvementin my time over my test run was
painful as I suffered much more and my legs were sore for a few days
after.

The annual Diablo Challenge in October is another timed Diablo climb
but that race is up the easier South side and the riders are sent off
in large groups so there is a lot of drafting going on.

Another annual Diablo race they do is the 10K Mt. Diablo Hill Climb
Time Trial in June from North gate to about 1/4 mile short of the
Junction. In 2008, 52 year old mountain bike legend Ned Overend won
in a near record time of 23:40:

http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2008-1608

- Diablo John