Palomar mountain was part of the final stage of the Tour De California. It is 13 miles, 5000 feet straight up, turn around and straight down. I was not looking forward to this and in reality psyched myself out.
It started by leaving the house at 5 am to drive out to the start-- no Starbucks open at 5 am in my "hood"! -- I then left my water bottles in the fridge at home - duh! - Vikki from CAF saved me on that one as she had spares!
So we started and I had read ( I should say mis-read) Mari's analysis of the climb and one word came through -- PAIN! -- She divided the climb into 3 sections-- well I missed the start of section 2 and kept thinking this is only going to get worse. The whole group structure fell apart as everyone got strung out on the climb, so there were parts where it was a lone struggle.
The climb was hot -- temps in low 80's by 8 am and there was very little shade on the climb-- great if you are a grape -- but as a fair skinned English man-- it don't get much worse than that .
Heart rate was high a few times so took a few rests and kept grinding my way up. There was a constant parade of motor cyclists who race up there on the weekends and don't give cyclists a lot of room. For my English friends it would have been like cycling round Brand's Hatch while the race was on. I was hating every second of it as some of them would do wheelies past you to try to freak you - -it was working. The irony of last weeks ride where cops in San Clemente were ticketing cyclists for not putting their foot down at a stop sign vs what was going on with those motor cyclists on that mountain - was not lost on me.
We then came around the bend near the top to find one of the radio contestants had done an "end do" after his tyre blew at 35mph on the downhill - one of the dangers of downhill is riding your brakes so much they heat the rim and blow the tyre. We waited with him until the paramedics arrived and then rode on. At this point I was riding with Julie from Gp4 and we were both determined to make the top before the cut off. We were one bend short before the cut off and both opted to take the SAG waggon down. Mentally I was done in by the motor bikes, the heat and the site of the crashed rider -- I can't afford to be off work with that kind of injury.
As we descending in the van, he was on the back board as the paramedics loaded him up. It turns out that he broke his collar bone, separated his shoulder and had a fair degree of "road rash". There was also another hit with one of the guest riders being clipped by a motorbike and having to go to the ER room with a large bruise on his ankle.
One ride I was glad to have been a part of -- as we came down what we had climbed was amazing - but one I was very happy was over without me getting hurt. I was also glad that both of those guys were ok.
Turns out Palomar is a 3.4 classification in terms of TDF and is as steep as one of the TDF climbs this year-- so I didn't feel too bad!
It started by leaving the house at 5 am to drive out to the start-- no Starbucks open at 5 am in my "hood"! -- I then left my water bottles in the fridge at home - duh! - Vikki from CAF saved me on that one as she had spares!
So we started and I had read ( I should say mis-read) Mari's analysis of the climb and one word came through -- PAIN! -- She divided the climb into 3 sections-- well I missed the start of section 2 and kept thinking this is only going to get worse. The whole group structure fell apart as everyone got strung out on the climb, so there were parts where it was a lone struggle.
The climb was hot -- temps in low 80's by 8 am and there was very little shade on the climb-- great if you are a grape -- but as a fair skinned English man-- it don't get much worse than that .
Heart rate was high a few times so took a few rests and kept grinding my way up. There was a constant parade of motor cyclists who race up there on the weekends and don't give cyclists a lot of room. For my English friends it would have been like cycling round Brand's Hatch while the race was on. I was hating every second of it as some of them would do wheelies past you to try to freak you - -it was working. The irony of last weeks ride where cops in San Clemente were ticketing cyclists for not putting their foot down at a stop sign vs what was going on with those motor cyclists on that mountain - was not lost on me.
We then came around the bend near the top to find one of the radio contestants had done an "end do" after his tyre blew at 35mph on the downhill - one of the dangers of downhill is riding your brakes so much they heat the rim and blow the tyre. We waited with him until the paramedics arrived and then rode on. At this point I was riding with Julie from Gp4 and we were both determined to make the top before the cut off. We were one bend short before the cut off and both opted to take the SAG waggon down. Mentally I was done in by the motor bikes, the heat and the site of the crashed rider -- I can't afford to be off work with that kind of injury.
As we descending in the van, he was on the back board as the paramedics loaded him up. It turns out that he broke his collar bone, separated his shoulder and had a fair degree of "road rash". There was also another hit with one of the guest riders being clipped by a motorbike and having to go to the ER room with a large bruise on his ankle.
One ride I was glad to have been a part of -- as we came down what we had climbed was amazing - but one I was very happy was over without me getting hurt. I was also glad that both of those guys were ok.
Turns out Palomar is a 3.4 classification in terms of TDF and is as steep as one of the TDF climbs this year-- so I didn't feel too bad!
Don't sell yourself short. Palomar is easily a Cat 1 climb. Compares favourably to Alpe d'Huez.
ReplyDeleteGood job on your first attempt. You clearly would have made the time cut if you had not stopped to lend a hand. That's more in keeping with the spirit of this ride, IMO.
Would love another shot at it -- in the week though .. weekends too crazy !! Thanks for encouragement JW :)
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