Race Report: San Dimas Stage Race - Stage 1: Glendora Hill Climb Time Trial

15m06.03s, 25/114 @ 43.24 s.

The Sam Dimas HCTT featured about 1350 feet of climbing over the course of just under four miles. This meant 5 to 8 percent grades, many switchbacks, and winning times of about 14 minutes in the Cat 2 field. I did a pre-ride of the course this morning, in order to watch Jane finish, and I'm glad I did. I discovered, quickly, that a good choice of line would be crucial to performing well on the course.

I need to work on my pacing. Due to a number of colluding factors, I did not have a power meter for this race. I used heart rate and RPE for pacing. My heart rate was pinned at 175 BPM for almost the entire climb. I thought I paced myself well, but that I could have pushed just a tiny bit harder, especially at the end.

My time was just over 15 minutes and 6 seconds. My guess was that the winning time would be 14m20s - and I was right! Unfortunately, there are plenty of people up top. I'm currently in 25th place out of 115 riders, and 41 seconds behind. There are some opportunities to gain time in primes tomorrow and Sunday. I need to work very hard, as I won't get any points at all unless I'm in 15th place or higher! I want to place in the road race and crit, and take a few primes if possible.