Result: 27/1200
Climbing: 1700m
Temp: 13 avg
Alt avg: 2578m
Speed: 84.3km/h max 30.3 avg
Dist: 76.4
The iron horse road race is a duel between steam train (Iron Horse) and cyclist from Durango to Silverton. The field was over 1200 cyclists in total with separate starts for each category. Two major category climbs confronted the athletes, one at 15km and the other at 40km but it felt like uphill the whole way! The start was at 6500ft and the finish was nearly 10 000ft above sea level with a max altitude on the course of 10 941 ft. The yanks certainly aren't scared to send the riders into the stratosphere! Last year in Europe, the courses contained a lot of accumulated ascent but this is the highest race i have ever done. Black Mountain Pass (Lesotho), which is the highest point on the Trans Frontier Challenge is marginally less at 10,761 ft. Check out http://www.ironhorsebicycleclassic.com/IHProfile.pdf for the course profile detail.
The pace in the Pro category was initially pretty pedestrian. There was a break away bunch of 5 riders within the first 2 miles, I tried to close them down but nobody came through to help me so i sat up and waited for the peleton. Its really difficult to ride smart when you do not know the ability of your competitors... i am now wiser! On the first climb, the pace erupted into an all out sprint - it was insane. We quickly reeled in the breakaway group and the pace just stayed at a blistering 30-35km/h up the 5% grade. For those of you familiar with power, i recon that i was pushing 350-380 watts (i weigh 72kg) so you get an idea of the intensity. Guys were popping off the bunch like popcorn at the movies on a half price evening! I was one of the unfortunate kernels. The lead group was 20 strong with 15 in the chase group. Just after the split, the lead pace slowed and the leaders maintained a 30sec gap on us. There were just not enough legs in the chase to close the gap.
We climbed and climbed up to snow level, then we carried on up and up into the thin air of the rockies - the chase bunch had strung out by this stage and there were bits of road kill lying all over the place, bleeding from the merciless pace set by the lead group.
The decent into Silverton was awesome - the switchbacks claimed a few blurry eyed roadies, no fatalities but plenty of blood. The finish was up the main street which must have made for an amazing sprint finishes - it was a 1km drag up to the finish banner, a fitting end to an awesome race.
