Diablo Time Trial preview

You've gotta love hillclimbs. Just ride up the hill, pure and simple. Fastest one to the top wins.

This Saturday C4 Racing is hosting their annual Mount Diablo Hillclimb time trial: 10 km of pure pain. Unfortunately, they only get to run their race up North Gate Road, rather than continuing on to Summit Road, but still it's a very worthy course. 10 km = 6.2 miles with 1900 feet (580 meters) of climbing. Good stuff.


Profile of the course, with data taken from MotionBased

After licking my wounds from Pescadero with 2 days off the bike and 3 days of recovery rides, I should be ready on Saturday for my best effort, at least relative to my unknown current fitness. It's a tough field in the 35+ 1-2-3: Low-Key legend Tim Clark, Ross' Hillclimb winner in the category Kieran Sherlock, and recent 3→2 upgrade Greg McQuaid have all proven they can out-climb me. Then add former 35+ winner and this year's Mount Hamilton Road Race winner Kevin Metcalf... the field's only 10 strong but it's going to be a super-solid result to crack the top 5. I could easily have a great day and still be tenth.

So the focus here is just on me and the road. To dig deep. Deeper than I want to. Deeper than I think I can. To liberate the mind from the inhibitions which hold us back.... that's what climbing is all about. To go to that place from where an industrial society tries to insulate us. Deep within ourselves, running from that chasing predator, pushing ourselves through the wall of pain.

Thanks to C4 Racing for hosting such a fun event.

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