Low-Key all-time bests: Soda Springs & W84-WOLH

Last time I showed the most-popular Low-Key climbs as determined by number of finishers were Hamilton, Montebello, then Soda Springs a surprising third. Soda was used in three of our very popular years: 1997, 1998, and 2009. We had some issues this year with a local resident who thought we represented a lot of traffic, which we were. But I hope we can work things out with him and return there in the future.

Another popular climb I haven't posted results here for yet is the combination of Highway 84 and west Old La Honda Road. This is a route rarely if ever timed by solo riders: it's somewhat artificial. But it gives people a chance to show off their flatland time trialing before the serious climbing begins in La Honda. And west Old La Honda is one of the prettiest climbs anywhere, without a doubt. It was used in 1996, 1997, and 2006.

On Soda, Tracy Colwell's 2007 time is the best, one second faster than Chris Phipps' result from this year. On the women's side, it's another dominant Low-Key record for Laura Stern, an accomplished cross-country skier and holder of one of the best women's time in the Terrible Two double century. Both of these times are from the '90's; indeed most of the top results are from that decade.

For WOLH, Tracy might well have had that record as well, but he flatted in 1996. Tim Clark has the best time, from 2007. Kristen Neubauer has a solid hold on the record from 1996.

In both 1996 and 2007 we recorded split times as riders passed through La Honda. This provides a fun comparison of flat time trialing versus climbing speed for each rider. The correlation is actually quite strong. People with more power/mass on the climbs also tend to have more power/cross-sectional-area on the flats.

Soda Springs
Men
rank year(wk) name                       time  %median
   1 1997(5)  Tracy Colwell              30:03 138.602
   2 2009(4)  Christopher Phipps         30:04 128.875
   3 1997(5)  Craig Schommer             31:28 132.362
   4 1997(5)  Eric Albrecht              31:38 131.665
   5 2009(4)  Eric Balfus                31:44 122.121
   6 1998(3)  Eric Albrecht              31:51 125.955
   7 2009(4)  Dan Connelly               32:06 120.707
   8 2009(4)  Ciaran Byrne               32:12 120.37 
   9 2009(4)  Ammon Skidmore             32:14 120.19 
  10 2009(4)  Mark Edwards               32:15 120.165
  11 2009(4)  Clark Foy                  32:17 120.053
  12 2009(4)  Tim Clark                  32:23 119.664
  13 2009(4)  Dominic Pezzoni            32:30 119.204
  14 1997(5)  Michael Matthews           32:39 127.565
  15 2009(4)  Geoff Drake                32:44 118.397
  16 1998(3)  Curt Ferguson              32:48 122.307
  17 1998(3)  Tim Clark                  32:50 122.183
  18 2009(4)  Tom Gardin                 32:59 117.482
  19 2009(4)  Laurent Pfertzel           33:20 116.272
  20 1998(3)  John St. Denis             33:24 120.11

Women
rank year(wk) name                       time  %median
   1 1998(3)  Laura Stern                37:25 124.454
   2 1998(3)  Cornelia Fletcher          38:40 120.431
   3 2009(4)  Janet Martinez             39:47 119.084
   4 1998(3)  Janet Ekstrom              40:47 114.181
   5 1997(5)  Julie Colwell              40:53 123.604
   6 1998(3)  Colleen Farrell            42:15 110.217
   7 2009(4)  Mary Ellen Allen           42:53 110.46 
   8 2009(4)  Lisa Gordon                42:59 110.203
   9 2009(4)  Leah Toeniskoetter         43:00 110.151
  10 1997(5)  Cornezia Fletcher          43:14 116.885
  11 1998(3)  Phyllis Olrich             43:32 106.968
  12 2009(4)  Christy Cowley             43:33 108.773
  13 1997(5)  Caroline Stronck           43:35 115.946
  14 1997(5)  Janet Ekstrom              43:39 115.769
  15 2009(4)  Lucia Mokres               43:46 108.243
  16 2009(4)  Lyresa Pleskovitch         43:49 108.128
  17 1998(3)  Meg Geherd                 44:48 103.943
  18 2009(4)  Laura Schuster             45:47 103.472
  19 2009(4)  Cathy Foy                  45:50 103.344
  20 1997(5)  Andrea Ivan                46:02 109.776

Mixed Tandem
rank year(wk) name                       time  %median
   1 1998(3)  John Serafin               43:09 104.674
   1 1998(3)  Lisa Antonino              43:09 104.674
   3 1998(3)  Mike Jensen                44:12 102.187
   3 1998(3)  Liz Borra                  44:12 102.187
   5 1997(5)  Liz Borra                  45:07 92.3162
   5 1997(5)  Mike Jensen                45:07 92.3162
   7 1998(3)  Tom Lawrence               46:08 97.9046
   7 1998(3)  Sarah Beaver               46:08 97.9046
   9 1998(3)  Dick and Roxanne Robinson  50:35 89.2916

Tricycle
rank year(wk) name                       time  %median
   1 1998(3)  Joe Lansing                56:08 100


Hwy 84/WOLH
Men
rank year(wk) name                      time   %median
   1 2007(5)  Tim Clark                 43:24  120.161
   2 1996(5)  Mike Podgorski            44:33  117.247
   3 1996(5)  Glenn Chadwick            45:04  115.902
   4 1997(4)  Michael Podgorski         45:13  124.806
   5 1996(5)  Chris Crawford            45:17  115.348
   6 2007(5)  Mark Edwards              45:30  114.615
   7 2007(5)  Rupert Brauch             45:35  114.406
   8 1997(4)  Michael Denardi           45:36  123.757
   9 2007(5)  Peter Mehlitz             45:44  114.031
  10 2007(5)  Geoff Drake               45:47  113.906
  11 1997(4)  Tracy Colwell             46:07  122.371
  12 1997(4)  Eric Albrecht             46:31  121.319
  13 1996(5)  Daniel Connelly           46:51  111.491
  14 1996(5)  Tracy Colwell             46:59  111.174
  15 2007(5)  Brian Edwards             47:06  110.722
  16 2007(5)  Bill Lloyd                47:08  110.644
  17 1996(5)  Lorin Hawley              47:09  110.781
  18 1996(5)  Ted Jaworkski             47:32  109.888
  19 1997(4)  Kevin Fox                 47:33  118.682
  20 1996(5)  Richard Long              47:42  109.504

Women
rank year(wk) name                      time   %median
   1 1996(5)  Kristen Neubauer          50:54  117.42 
   2 2007(5)  Janet Martinez            52:13  123.428
   3 1996(5)  Lisa Antonino             53:33  111.609
   4 1996(5)  Liz Benishin              54:05  110.508
   5 1996(5)  Charlotte Jacobson        55:11  108.306
   6 1997(4)  Julie Colwell             56:12  119.024
   7 2007(5)  Margie Biddick            58:36  109.983
   8 1997(4)  Lisa Antonino             58:39  114.052
   9 1996(5)  Julie Colwell             58:53  101.5  
  10 1997(4)  Cornezia Fletcher         59:17  112.834
  11 1996(5)  Phyllis Olrich            59:46  100    
  12 1996(5)  Lisa Curran               59:48  99.9443
  13 1996(5)  Cheryl Herms              60:27  98.8696
  14 1996(5)  Pat Baenen                61:02  97.9246
  15 1997(4)  Mary Caragio              61:46  108.297
  16 1997(4)  Mickey Weinberg           62:22  107.255
  17 1996(5)  Julia Jung-Ames           63:07  94.6924
  18 2007(5)  Kelly Kasik               63:39  101.257
  19 2007(5)  Carole Sykes              63:56  100.808
  20 1997(4)  Phyllis Olrich            64:40  103.441

Mixed Tandem
rank year(wk) name                      time   %median
   1 1997(4)  Liz Borra                 55:45  101.226
   1 1997(4)  Mike Jensen               55:45  101.226

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
December 9, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marin Avenue (Berkeley)

Image
On Saturday, I got an email from Tim telling letting me know that Murphy's Spring Classics was going to start up Marin Ave. I'd missed that. Murphy announces his courses the day before, and indeed it was already well into the night before when the course announcement went out. I'd skipped over the details, jumping straight to middle and end games. Marin? I laughed at the irony, because not long before when he'd told me he was choosing to repeat the Nifty Twn Fifty which we'd done together last year versus selecting Murphy Mack's Stage Mullett two-day, I responded I didn't think I had it in me to ride Marin Ave two years in succession. Well, so much for that. I was committed, so I went downstairs to swap my 11-26 cassette for my Recon 12-27. The name is easily overlooked: "Marin Ave" fails to strike the same impression as, for example, "Redwood Gulch" or "China Grade". But among those in the know, Marin Ave is infamous i
Read more

hummingbird feeder physics

Image
I couldn't figure out how the hummingbird feeder worked. Why didn't it overflow? Forces need to balance, of course. Neglecting surface tension, there liquid level is higher in the inner reservoir than in the feeding chamber, so there must be a corresponding pressure difference. Suppose the pressure in the inner chamber were zero. Then the column height difference would need to be atmospheric pressure / (density of liquid × gravity). But this is over 9 meters! Obviously the height difference is only approximately 1% of this. So the pressure difference inside versus outside is only approximately 1%. The inside is only slightly below atmosphere. So air is getting in. How? Does it diffuse through the liquid? If this were the dominant mechanism, it wouldn't take long for the pressure inside to go from 99% to 99.3%, for example, which should be plenty to push the column of liquid down in the inside chamber and thus push liquid out through the holes. It would over
Read more

Gallium Pro geometry

Image
On Caltrain yesterday, I was surprised to see among the usual set of commuting bikes a SRAM Red-equipped Argon Gallium Pro. The bike immediately stole your attention. The design was one which has been trending: clear-coated carbon with plenty of text detail so the viewer is sure to realize he's gazing upon the result of advanced, proprietary engineering and not at yet another paint job on the same old OEM frames being pumped out of the same old Taiwanese factories. But it worked: the bottom bracket area was huge, the downtube a large-diameter "inverted Kamm tail" design seemingly designed to maximize wind resistance, the top tube a broad, eccentric shape which screamed "vertically compliant yet torsionally stiff". All it lacked were the pencil-think seat stays Cervelo popularized, but this was a machine designed for stiffness over anything else. It seemed dramatic overkill, since the bike was small (the Argon "XS" I suspect). There wasn't muc
Read more