January 1 - San Bruno Mountain Hill Climb, Brisbane
Race website, results and photos

Elite 5 report by Matt Leonard    Master 45+ report by Jens Heycke

Matt Leonard of Team Wrong Way

Men's Elite 5 report by Matt Leonard, Team Wrong Way

Well, I had a mellow New Year's Eve with my wife and my brother's family. So I got up around 8:00 and was on my bike by 8:30 toward the San Bruno Hill Climb. I'm not sure if the 7 mile ride to the race was harder, or the actual race itself. I had a pretty good headwind with sand and dirt blowing in my face the whole way to the race.

I showed up in the parking lot at about 9:00 and was surprised by all the people already there. I signed up and rode around for awhile trying to stay warm. It was pretty obvious that riding for an hour and a half the day before wore my legs out. Oh well. I had a good time riding around San Francisco, Twin Peaks, Mt. Davidson and out to the ocean.

So I lined up at the mass start and the whistle blew, off we went up the hill. I kept telling my legs to go, but they didn't want to cooperate. As I struggled through the first of 3.5 miles, I passed a friend from Vello Bella and asked her how her New Year's Eve was, she said she may have had a little too much fun. I tried to keep up with the first 100 riders or so, but they were gone after the first mile, so I just tried to pass one person at a time as my legs warmed up more. The description of the race on the website was a little deceiving. It made it sound like it was constant uphill. But there were several flats where I was able to recover a little and practice my drafting skills a little. At the end, I passed four or five people, even a couple in my category, so that felt good. All in all, I had a good time. I got to the top in 22:14, good enough for 33rd out of 43 in the Elite 5 category. I was hoping to break 20 minutes, but that will have to wait for next year.

Men's 45+ report by Jens Heycke

My computer put the length of this course at 3.67 miles. With about 1180 feet of climbing, the average grade was roughly 6.1%.

Like just about everyone else, I blasted up the first grade way too fast. The SRM tells me 400+ watts for the first 90 seconds. On a watts per kilo basis, that's roughly what Lance did up Alpe D'Huez. Of course, I'm no Lance, so that power lasted for only 90 seconds and not 40 minutes. And even during that 90 seconds, the lead group still blasted away from me.

So does it help to draft in this race? A little. Assuming no wind, at the winner's pace, roughly 15% (55 watts) of your power is used against air resistance on this course. Reduce that by a quater, and you could take about 20 seconds off your time.

I averaged 333 watts for the race, which mustered a 17:22 time and second place in the 45+ category. I did a poor job of drafting.

What did it take to win? Assuming the rider and bike weigh about 173 lbs, and ignoring drafting benefits: about 380 watts. Can you hold Lance's Alpe D'Huez power/pace for 15 minutes? That's what it would take to finish under 15 and win the $100.

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