@run/bike 176525 wrote:
Congrats Bob on the victory! I tried to close the gap in this final week (and let’s be honest, final hours…), but you were not to be outdone with your 15+ mile hill repeat rides. You’ve more than earned that craft beer prize (think of it as calorie replacement after 114K feet of climbing
)!
Thank you sir J.C.! I was hesitant to claim victory as I saw you mention a possible strava/bafs connection failure. Hope (or maybe don’t hope!) that got sorted out. Hey regardless of the outcome that was a heck of a comeback. I actually thought you’d win .. but I think you must have seen my comment on my hill repeats, they were a desperate attempt to stay on top. And far more frantic than usual there the last couple days. Also, I got sick and was out for about 6 days prior to that weekend, that helped open the window.
My saving grace was the hill behind where I live. I never thought I’d use that sucker. It’s 22% at the top, maybe much like the hill from Chain Bridge, but lots shorter, like each trip to the bottom and back up was ~.1 miles. Slow going. I rode 18 miles of that sucker. Jeesh I rode that hill about 180 times. The dog with alzheimers kept forgetting who I was and couldn’t stop barking (finally just fell asleep)! The worst part was I’d have to stop at the bottom and ride back up, not a “roller” type hill (not that there’s anything wrong with rollers, I used another hill repeat for the same reason). Anyway, that hill was well over 300+ feet per mile.
I did see the wisdom of your riding, I’m glad you didn’t start the hill repeats until the last week or two (whew), maybe thanks to our mutual friend Brad G.’s advice (right Mr. G?)? Well done sir. I would like to check out that hill you used over there, Quebec? Just not anytime soon though.
And I have to thank Brad because really he was one of the few persons that tried to compete, honorable mention to Alan A. Alan, you just had way too many miles in the tank but seem to be one of the strongest climbers around. Anyway, if it weren’t for Brad I’d have slagged off. i think you were always poised to take the lead but I was intent on the hill repeats, I think I used hill repeats rather often. Which makes for another point – this pointless prize is hindered by riding miles (which IS the freeking point of FS, right??!). As pointed out in an earlier part of this thread, you were the dark horse to win this thing.
All you guys that competed are way faster climbers than I (hey, I saw all the KOMs) but I guess I like to climb, especially in winter months. If you aren’t climbing you aren’t working that hard.
I am planning on making the HH. Beer is incentive. But riding a “normal” bike ride will be sweet also.
Bob