7/21/07 - Mt. Evans Hill Climb - Jose Castilleja

So here's what I was seeing out there today.

After jamming 200mg of caffeine and a ton of B12, I'm lining up and see the boys except Austin. 5 of us line up together and I'm talking away mostly gibberish as I recall.

...And we're off. The guys that lined up at the front jammed off the start and tried to put big gaps already. I was feeling really good so I wasn't sweatin' it. Around mile 3.5, the front guys throw in a surge and the front group thins into a single line. The pace comes down and we bunch back up. All this time I'm 4 rows from the front, just chilling.

Then we approach the 120degree turn and I am THERE. The move goes, a selection is formed and I am there. I'm barely hanging on, but I am there. As the spindley guys put in big surges, I come off the back but I don't let up. I keep my tempo as high as possible. In the process, I pick up two guys and we start working together. A couple of miles go by and I notice we have like a 8 man paceline and decide I'm not pulling all these guys. I'm dropping to the back of this line and guess who I see at the back.....Austin!!!! And he's trying to chit chat with me while I'm trying to catch my breath.

I tell Austin to get up and stay in line when some guy at the front puts in an accelaration. This dropped me, but Austin went straight up there and matched the move. He took one or two guys and then there were a few in front of me. I don't let this get me down though and I keep my effort as high as possible.

I hit the gate at 1hour!!! My best time to the Mt. Evans paybooth was 1h 10m and I shredded that by 10 minutes. I was so happy about that. It gave me motivation to keep trucking. I'm hurting and can't keep pace with some of the guys coming from behind, but I just keep on it and try to make the best of it. Time between the gate and Summit Lake was 50 minutes which has been the same since forever and then from Summit Lake to the top was 30 minutes which was also the same. The biggest difference about the last split time was I was really suffering, but I kept pushing myself beyond what my body wanted to do. Every time I saw the speed go below 8MPH, I give it another push and get it back up.

My final time was 2h 21m (or 22m). Austin clocks a beastly 2h 12m!!!! In my opinion, definitely the ride of the day for the Team.

You learned a lot from last year, right Austin?

On the descent, I see the crew pushing it with all their might! A good turnout for the Team and a great day for Austin! Way to go man!