I started out this morning with the plan to drive to Hollister and meet Russ and Sheila for a ride. We were going to bike over to Panoche Inn and meet up with a club ride. As I was leaving Gilroy it started to rain and half way to Hollister it was raining a lot more. The clouds down there looked dark. I called them and let them know I was changing plans and would go north (where the sky looked clear) and do the Low Key Hill Climb race up Quimby. I have not had a chance to climb this hill at a fast pace for many years, but only part of a long ride, so I was anxious to see how I could do compare with many years ago on the Quimby Mauler.

Quimby is a very steep hill, with grades on the switchbacks of around 20%. Even after the switchbacks the grade to the summit averages 13% with some as much as 15%. I had taken my old bike with a triple crank because this the steep grades. I usually climb this hill with my double crank, but wanted the lower gearing for racing. I ended up using the lowest gear for the entire top portion.

After 10 am, the racers all started from the high school on Ruby up to the race start location at Murillo. On the honk of horn, we all took off, maybe about 100 racers. The lower portion is not that steep so the speeds got going fast, but as soon as the grade increased, we started to thin out.

My final time was 27:20 (see results). That put me a bit faster than the median time of the 58 male racers and faster than anyone over 60. I wanted to see how that compares with my times in prior years. On those years I measured from Ruby so after the race I timed myself from Ruby to Murillo and that took me 4:18. Adding 4:18 to my race time I get 31:38, which is more than 3 minutes faster than my best time from Ruby before set back in 2003. So I was happy with my time. I was climbing at an overall rate of 62 feet / minute.

Wondering about the jersey I am wearing. It for the Everest Challenge. Here is a photo taken today before the race.

Categories: Cycling Racing
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