Provincial uphill Road Bike Championships- Welcome back to the "hurt box"
By: Matthias Purdon (2011/09/22)
Last Friday the Ontario uphill road bike championships rose from the ashes like a phoenix of explosive effort and pain to the worthiest of venues in Ontario: Scenic Caves Road. Making for a tough 3km ride this particular stretch of road climbs 275 meters up the Niagara Escarpment at an average pitch of 9% maxing out at 15%. Accommodating the schedules of working people the race began at 6pm, the sun already set behind the "mountain", it felt dark and a little chilly at the start line.
Adding an element of excitement to the event was the chance, if you made the top 16 finishers, to compete in a televised TIMEX vertical challenge the next day with 6000 dollars in prize money. Saturday's TIMEX event featured a new format looking much like a sprint ski race with heats of 8 racing up the hill with the top 4 advancing to an 8 person final. The whole thing will be aired in what is sure to be a very dramatic TSN sports special. Darned if I wasn't 17th! With no expectations going in I was really happy with this result. Pretty excellent training too! (I substituted this workout for a zone 5 interval session). I think skiers have potential to make a mark in the road bike world in an event like this. We should try to make ourselves known next year. I know I will be back.

Here is a nice photo of view and the steepest part of the climb. (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/38478935)

Here I am starting out. Thanks to Jane Thomson for the Photo.
thanks for reading!
Adding an element of excitement to the event was the chance, if you made the top 16 finishers, to compete in a televised TIMEX vertical challenge the next day with 6000 dollars in prize money. Saturday's TIMEX event featured a new format looking much like a sprint ski race with heats of 8 racing up the hill with the top 4 advancing to an 8 person final. The whole thing will be aired in what is sure to be a very dramatic TSN sports special. Darned if I wasn't 17th! With no expectations going in I was really happy with this result. Pretty excellent training too! (I substituted this workout for a zone 5 interval session). I think skiers have potential to make a mark in the road bike world in an event like this. We should try to make ourselves known next year. I know I will be back.

Here is a nice photo of view and the steepest part of the climb. (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/38478935)

Here I am starting out. Thanks to Jane Thomson for the Photo.
thanks for reading!
Interesting Reading. . .