The Ross' Challenge Hillclimb - Ardell gets 4th!

By Jon Ardell:
I moved up to the Masters 1-3 class and despite feeling pretty good I
still got more or less smoked on the Hamilton climb by about 10 guys.
It was a wake up call to something I already knew- this is a tough
class!!

That was 2 weekends ago. I went in to my 2nd race last weekend with
less lofty goals than a podium finish- I was thinking about top 10 or
20...

I didn't catch his name but a Pro rider from the Scott team had a
killer trick he shared with me- he glue sprayed his # to his jersey
with some 3M product (duh, I can't remember the name of the crap). He
needed me to pat it in to place and in return we repeated the trick on
my jersey. I think it may have helped me move up a spot or two if not
because of the wind factor then because it must have earned me some
cred with the Peloton...

Speaking of which a shout out goes to the Z Team which put about 15
guys in front of the race for the first 7 miles of flats (they
combined the 4/5 masters w/the 1/3 masters), and they put the hurt on
the group a bit, which probrably helped me. I did a few pulls to do
my part and in return I think they were ok with me rotating in among
them. Their best rider wasn't doing any pulls though, and in
hindsight I might have been smarter to catch a free ride, its hard to
say. Their rider (i think his name is Chris Phipps) wound up smoking
me up the hill by a lot, and in fact he had by far the best time of
the day and the new course record.

Anyway the race was only 18 miles but the last 11 climb up about 3500
feet, and the last mile is by far the steepest. Think Bayview trail
to Nike Site above China Camp, but much longer. Had I known what
lay in wait I may not have paced up the first 10 miles of hill as fast
as I did, it was the hardest last mile I can ever recall (although the
Lemurian was close). I led out at the bottom of the hill hoping to
shake loose some challengers and this seemed like a great tactic until
Roger Bartels from Gianni and 3 other guys including Z Team Chris
ripped past me. My only hope was to pace up as hard as I could, and I
was stoked to be able to overtake first Roger and then another dude
right before it got steep. On the steep section it was all I could do
to stay on the bike, but somehow I managed to keep it ticking over and
thankfully the #4 rider never made any real attempt to bridge.

The race was not only fun but the vibe was great (band and barbecue
included) it was a benefit for a young man's rehab from a near fatal
car mauling and I think we all need to support and enjoy this race
next year. It was in Geyserville, only an hour away.