1st up the hill!

To the victor, the spoils
Two tiers for one climb
Without a doubt, the best prize I've recieved this year

I know everyone was expecting a report on the new Tour of the Battenkill Valley course, to be raced in 2009, but I've got to put that off for one more day, because I've got some exciting news.

After a whole season of failed attempts, I've finally won a race!

This morning, a cross section of Saratoga riders braved the freezing cold (life, mid-40s) and lined up for the annual Lake Desolation Hill Climb. As you know if you read this blog regularly, Lake D is the closest "epic" climb to Saratoga. It's 4 miles long with ramps up to 18-percent. It's not really long enough to be considered epic, but it's still a tough climb, and is a training staple for most cyclists in the area.

It starts out with a 1.5-mile false flat, then gets steep for 2 miles before finishing with .5 mile section of rollers before you get to the lake at the top of the climb. The course is traditionally run from a bridge at the bottom of the climb, to a bridge just beyond the climb's summit.

The annual hill climb is a very chill race. It's not sanctioned, and draws all sort of people, from mountain bikers, roadies like me, and recreational cyclists.

I'm not sure if I've written about Jamie before, so I'll introduce him now. Jamie is a pro mountain biker who trains a lot on the road. He's a friend of mine and I rode with him regularly through the summer. Now that it's fall, and I'm finally back on the day shift, I'm looking forward to riding and racing 'cross with him. Anyhow, Jamie won the last edition of this race, and, as far as I know, holds the record for the fastest solo Lake D climb, having posted 17:45 earlier in the summer.

Going into the race, he was certainly a favorite, but I knew he hadn't been riding much in the past few weeks. Jamie and I rolled out of town to make the 10ish mile ride to the climb. We climbed up it to register at Tinney's Tavern, whose owner, Aaron Miller, runs the race. After sitting around for a while, and trying to stay warm inside the building, registering, and mounting frame numbers to our bikes, the 20 or so sompetitors rolled back to the bottom of the hill, where we stood around for a bit until our legs were nice and chilled.

Eventually, we all lined up along the side of the road, and then started rolling. The stopwatch started when we hit the bridge. The race started at a moderate pace, until Jamie attacked. He never got more than a few bike lengths ahead of the lead group, but his "odd-surge" dropped about three quarters of the field. I was in a group of five behind him. We caught Jamie a bit later on, and continued to rotate through in a paceline. It was mean, but I was pulling through much harder than I needed to, in an effort to soften up the other four still in my group.

At the base of the first steep section, John Onderdonk, who is super-fast climber, put in an acceleration. I sat on his wheel Cadel-style. With me sitting on, he dropped the other four. jamie was the last to go before it was down to John and I.

Going over the top of the last steep pitch, John was still in his little ring, so put it in the big ring, got out of the saddle and attacked up the first of two rollers. At first I was worried that he would catch back on, but it quickly became apparent that the race was mine for the taking.

I crossed the second bridge and put my hands in the air, stopping the clock at 18:03, a minute faster than my previous best time up the climb. For my effort, I was rewarded with a humongous trophy, which, I have to say, is way more exciting than getting envelope of cash. The trophy is now on display with my Empire State Game medals... what me? Brag? Never. John held on for second, while Jamie crossed third.

After the race, we all enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches at the finish, courtesy of Aaron Miller. Pig hs never tasted so good! I saw someone taking photos, and I'll post some here if I find them posted anywhere.

So that was a lot of fun. I'm already looking forward to trying to defend my title in '09... although I'm sure the competition will be much harder then.

Come back tomorrow, I'll have the Tour of the Battenkill Valley route up for real.

P.S. As you've probably noticed by now, I put a new header on the blog over the weekend. It's nice to spruce things up every once in a while, and when I stumbled on the photo by Patrick Littlefield, I knew the time was right. Besides, this one's a little more seasonal, don't you think?