Winter Park MTB Hill Climb

Saturday was the kick off race of the 2011 Winter Park Mountain Bike Series which featured a hill climb with the following stats:

Distance 5.2 miles
Start Elevation: 9,080 feet
Highest Point: 11,142 feet
Total Climbing: 2,062 feet

Although I live at an elevation of 5500ft, it doesn't even compare to 11,000+ when you're riding a bike, and boy could I feel it! The Pro and Expert Women began together at 10:14am and with all MTB races, the start was an absolute sprint for position. Since the climb was on fire road, I wasn't sure why it went out so hard but I stuck to my game plan of pegging my HR where I knew I could keep it and just staying steady. After the first 10min or so, I found myself in 8th but quickly began picking off riders within the next 15min. I eventually positioned myself into 3rd and never looked back. I could see 2nd place about 30 seconds in front of me the entire second half of the race but couldn't quite catch her.

As you can see, my HR went from 109 to 180 in the first 45 seconds and toggled between 180 and 190 the entire 44min race! Ouchy...

I have to say that I'm beyond ecstatic with my performance and so excited to finally see that my fitness is turning around. Not very many mountain bikers enjoy riding up dirt hills without single track but at least we had unbelievable views from the 250% average snowfall from this past winter :)

It's been a while since I've been on the podium so I was all smiles! Sara and Cait have been cleaning up in the Pro MTB races this year so being as close as I was to them today should give me a huge confidence boost for my upcoming races!!!

A big congrats to Luisa for wining her age group and Josh for sticking it out since going up hill isn't really his thing. We had a great time cruising around the mountain after the race and lots of good laughs. Below is a short video to show you what the course looked like and how much snow the mountain still has in mid June...it's ridiculous!