The inaugural hill ride went off today, and i have to say, it was quite fun. Graham, Isaac and Andy all showed up. Graham is something of a known quantity, coming off a summer in Colorado, finishing very strongly on the hill at Jamestown, and generally being a pretty good climber. I’ve ridden with Andy enough to know - no disrespect - hills aren’t exactly his forte, but he’s a good sport about it. I’ve ridden with Isaac one other time back in May, when Radu gave me a thorough thrashing. That time he showed himself to be very strong, and finished solidly in third on (i think) just about every climb of the day. So here’s how it went down today (we’ll get to the tally afterwords. 1. Limerock - Graham put in a pretty tough pace the whole way up, into a head wind. I was hesitant to attack, because I figured he was holding back, but with the wind, I think he was feeling the pressure, so I was able to come around just before the top to take the KOM points (10). Isaac was third. 2. Cullen Hill Road - Graham and Isaac were both riding conservatively at the bottom. Andy gave it everything he had, and we all wisely decided not to follow. He cracked and I decided to have a go. I opened up a pretty decent lead, which I was able to protect to the top. Isaac finished strongly and I could see him making up ground, but it wasn’t enough. (30 more points for me) 3. Wilbur - No chance for me on this one. Graham set a really tough pace and I lost his wheel. I was still hurting from Cullen, so I was unable to grab Isaac’s wheel when he came by. Graham easily took that one (30 pts) followed by Isaac and then me. 4. Capron - Graham started things off again, but this time I had his wheel. Just before the top of the first section I attacked and opened up a gap. I kept a hard enough pace over the flat section to keep my lead. Then a car pulled out in front of me. It shouldn’t have been a problem. But the driver was like 1000 years old, so they pulled into the road and pretty much just stopped. No problem, I’ll just go around on the right. But because the driver was 1000 years old, he decided to pull over into the shoulder and run me off the road, so I had to come to a complete stop. Meanwhile Graham passed the old fart on the left and was first to the top. Graham graciously gave me the win (which is fair since I don’t think there was any chance he was catching me without the intervention of the driver), but we could also neutralize the hill. (We’ll just have to see what the tally says, and whether I can win without it!) So either another 20 points for me, or none for anyone. 5. Burlingame - let’s just say this wasn’t my best result. Isaac took it, after we had dropped Graham, who easily passed me in the last section after I cracked. 6. Mountaindale - That bottom section is really steep! I decided my best bet was to give it everything I had there. By the top of the steep section I had a sizable lead, but not enough to relax. I kept my pace up to 15mph-ish, but saw it keep dropping as I approached the final kick-up. Isaac was coming fast and I felt like crap. I hit the crest with about 10 meters on Isaac, but I was barely moving. Another 20 meters of climbing and he would have had me. 7. Whipple - I tried “the old Cadel Evans.” I sat on Graham’s wheel for the first section. Then Isaac came by on the left and I hopped over to his wheel. I should have stuck to the plan, but I decided to try to come around and ride Isaac off my wheel. I barely had my front wheel past his when I felt my legs cramping and gave up. I did manage to hold off Graham.
So, to the tally. Based on wins, I won with 3 (or 4 with Capron), Isaac was second with 2, Graham third with 1. KOM points (for first places only): I had 10 (Limerock) + 30 (Cullen) 20 (Mountaindale) = 60. Isaac had 30 (Burlingame) + 20 (Whipple) = 50. and Graham had 30 for Wilbur.
Things get a bit more interesting if you start trying to figure 2nd’s and 3rd’s. I had been thinking that with fewer than 5 riders or so, it’s pretty silly to keep track of anything but wins. But since we were all pretty evenly matched, it makes more sense. I never really though about how to assign points for 2nd, but here’s a consideration: 2nd place on a 30 pt climb has to be worth less than 1st on a 20 pt climb (so it can’t go 30-20-10), but it has to be enough to not to be completely negligible. Maybe the following: 30pt climbs: 30-15-7, 20pt climbs: 20-10-5, 10pt climbs: 10-5-2. That makes each place worth about 1/2 of the place above it. By that scale, today I would have 84, Graham would have 69, and Isaac would have 92. I’m a little bit ok with that, even though I had the most 1st places, since Isaac was probably the most consistent. Plus if you add Capron, then I would have 104, Isaac 97, and Graham 74.
So even though this probably won’t count as part of the series, I’ll just go ahead and award myself the victory. Anyone else want to dispute my logic?