Mt. Tam Triple Crown, Mountain Stage

[Jim Hewett]

I felt pretty good as I rode over to Ross through Deer Park to start the mountain bike stage of the Mt. Tam Triple Crown.  I was excited that I was not too fatigued from Saturdays road effort and, of the three ways to climb Mt. Tam (road bike, mountain bike, on foot), climbing Eldridge Grade on a mountain bike is my preferred mode of ascent.

I have done about 6 good attempts at time trialing from the start of Eldridge (Phoenix Lake intersection, bottom of Fish Grade) up to the gate at the pavement before East Peak.  This is a good way for me to judge fitness and a pretty consistent course for calculating improvement.  A couple of years ago, I recorded 34:16 - a personal record I have not been able to beat since.  Last year I rode this stage of the Triple Crown and clocked in at over 35:00, though I was definitely not training at the time.  This year I am trying to come into some fitness for 'cross, so I've been putting in some hours for the last two months.  I've not yet begun real intensity training, though, and I didn't anticipate a personal best time, though I did expect a high finish in the field and to increase the time gap for tomorrow's foot race.

I have decided that the ultimate Eldridge climb bike is my Superfly with a rigid fork.  I've got it set up for 'cross with a Niner carbon rigid fork, 1x10 (35x11-36) and Stans race wheels.  I threw on some 2.0 Crow tires at 21psi and weighed it on the scale at 16.5 lbs.  I posted my sub-34 minute split times for each landmark on the toptube, to control the pace early and push it up higher.

More people showed up for this stage than yesterday's road stage.  I talked Jack Ketcham from Summit into doing it, and Dario Fredericks (overall Triple Crown winner from a couple of years ago) was there as well.  Of course, Steve, Kevin, Den and the other "Triplers" were there to improve their standing.

We rolled out neutrally from Breakaway Bikes and regrouped at the base of Eldridge.  Computers were reset, and...they're off!

I have done intervals on this first section up to the left turn at the water fountain, and, while it can be done in 3:30, 4:05 was the time on my split list for a sustainable pace.  I moved ahead of the rest of the guys pretty quickly and made this split a second or two fast.  So far so good, as I did not feel I had dug too deeply.

I continued through the steepest of the climbing and made my split at Lakeview Fireroad intersection at 11:45 on the dot.  I looked back a few times to see Dario in the distance, and I expected he might kick it in and catch me if I slowed, so I kept on the gas enough while keeping the heartrate around threshold

The fireroad is pretty smooth up to the Indian Fireroad intersection and I made good time with a consistent effort.  I reached this point right on time at 18:15.  More than half way and I was still on track for my PR.  I started believing that this could be the day and that gave me a little more oomph! as I pedalled into the rockier terrain above Indian.  My  longest stretch between splits is from there to the Northside cutoff, which can cause a pacing lapse, but I was relieved to reach this spot still on time for a sub-34 minute finish.  At this point I could no longer see Dario behind me, but I knew it should be 7 minutes to the top and I knew I could keep up this pace for that long.  I pedalled through the rockiest of Eldridge Grade on my rigid, speeding across the rocks with my supple tubeless tires.  I got to the last steep section to the gate in just under 34:00 and gave it all I had to finish with a time of 34:03.  I guess I lost concentration for a minute somewhere on the last section, but I was still happy to finish with a personal best time.  Dario came in soon after and just behind him Jack rode up.  Great finish for Jack, who would have been quite a bit faster if he had been on my much lighter and faster-climbing bike.

Tomorrow is a bit more of an unknown - my first time running up Mt. Tam and my first running race ever!