Raced the Porcupine Hill Climb up BCC. Since I am not a licensed rider I had to ride with the "citizens" who all started 30 mins before the CAT riders. Three of us went of the front from the beginning and black shirt young guy and I dropped the other guy as we went Storm Mountain. From there black shirt young guy and I traded off the lead every couple of miles. As we approached Silver Fork restaurant I decided to take the lead and put in a few hard surges. Unfortunately black shirt young guy countered all of them and held tight to my wheel. He stayed on my wheel right up to the Guardsman turnoff then sprinted up the hill and gapped me by about 10 seconds. From there it was only .5 miles to the finish and I didn't have the legs to counter. He ended up just under 1:12 and I finished in about 1:12:25. In hindsight I probably should have let him pull some of those last few miles. What make cycling different than running is times really don't mean anything. Wind conditions and race tactics can completey change from year to year so all you can really do is compare your time to the other racers on that day. For example, last weekend I did this same ride by myself slightly faster only because there was a much stronger headwind today.
After finishing I road most of the way up Guardsman then decided that was enough climbing for the day. Road down the canyon with lots of riders then hung out for the awards. Since I won the 30-39 age group I oddly ended up with the same awards as the CAT category winners, i.e. a Porcupine Growler, Jersey and a $20 gift card. I did finish second but my time pales in comparison to the CAT riders. The winner finished in 1:01. I probably could have been a couple of minutes faster riding with a larger group, a larger rear cassette and a $2,000 wheel set but I am still way off. If anyone wants a good beat down/humbling experience, jump in a bike race. All in all, I still had a fun time and it was definitely a good workout.
Total ride was 56.5 miles in 3:16 with about 6,000 ft. of climbing.
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