Hill Climb 'World Championships' - Santa Barbara, CA - October 26th, 2018

2nd Place Junior - 35:14

Man, I am so happy to be racing again! The past seven months have been quite the emotional (and physical) rollercoaster. At the end of April at the Sea Otter Classic, I had a very bad crash descending a rough road descent at 40 miles an hour, which put me in the E.R. with a screwed up wrist, a whole lot of road rash and a chunk of my elbow missing. About a week after, I was back on the bike on a recovery pace ride to get my legs back after the time off. Thirty minutes into my ride, I was car doored by a car parked to the right of me, and crazily enough it cut my right index finger off as well as separating the AC in my shoulder to the point that my entire right arm was immobile. This is a very long story, and if you desire to read about it, you can find my story here: LINK.

Getting my finger sliced off meant that I had no choice but to take a few months of of the bike. The same months as the pointy end of my season, in which I had key races to be attending. It was a very long and rough road to recovery, but on June 29th I was able to complete an hour stationary ride without any extreme pain or discomfort. On July 15th, I completed my first ride back after the injury.

Davenport, California. First ride back post-injury.

Since then, I have begun working with Chris Burnham. Over the past months since my injury, my fitness has been on the up and up, fortunately - thanks to Chris!

Throughout the recovery process, I was unsure when the next time I would toe the line would be. However, by mid October, I was feeling pretty good, and decided that Phil Giamon's 'Hill Climb Worlds' would be my first race back.

Santa Barbara has always been one of my favorite places, and luckily I am very familiar with Gibralatar Road, the climb that is used for the race.

Gibraltar Climb

The race starts at Ledbetter Beach, but it is a nuetral roll out until the base of Gibraltar - when the racing actually begins. The group rolled slowly up to the base of the climb, and then from the gun, Nicholas Forno attacked, pushing 350 watts for the first five minutes of the 35 minute climb. The group dwindled down due to Forno's attack, and by the 8 minute mark we were left with only five or six riders. Unfortunately, Nicholas had a mishap and dropped off the group, leaving even less riders.

The next twenty or so minutes were not very eventful, but the pace was far from uneventful. We kept a consistent power output going the rest of the climb, and by twenty five minutes in, there were only 3 of us left in the front group: Cameron Stewart, Tydeman Newman and myself.

I initiated an attack on the other two, just before Flores Flat. I was able to get away from Cameron, but Tydeman stuck on my wheel. Just as I returned to an even and sustainable power output, Tydeman counter-attacked me up the steepest portion of the climb, immediately following Flores Flat. I tried to hang on his wheel, but with the fatigue in my legs from my attack seconds before, I was not able to hang on.

At this point, there were less than ten minutes of the climb. I gave it my all to catch back up to Tydeman, but I was unable to close the gap. The gap stayed relatively linear the rest of the climb, but Tydeman crossed the line about thirty seconds before I did. Though I would have loved to take the win, I am very happy with how the race went and how the post-injury fitness is coming along. Now for some work before the 2019 season begins!

It's going to be a good one!