This summer, looking for a training goal, I signed up for the 2011 Mt.Greylock Hillclimb. Since my daughter, Monya, and I had done a couple tough, hilly rides (me on my geared 29er unicycle, and she on her mountain bike) in the late summer, I asked her if she was interested in riding in her first hillclimb race. She accepted with part trepidation and part “bring-it” attitude. Roland Kays, my fellow unicyclist and training buddy, was also racing, and so it was that the three of us left chez-Relles at 7:15AM, Sept 10, 2011, bound for Heritage Park, the race’s starting point in North Adams, Massachusetts, with two unicycles and one mountain bike.
Last year (2010), the inaugural year of the event, our Rhode Island pal Eric Scheer set the bar for unicycles, with a strong finish in 1:07:22, and Roland and I were both out to beat that mark. My machine is a Kris Holm 29” (KH29), with a Schlumpf 2-speed, geared hub, and Roland has the same hub on a slightly smaller KH26. He was hoping the 26” wheel would allow him to climb the steeps faster than me on my 29er, and I was hoping my bigger wheel would allow me a higher top speed in the flats.
Arriving in the parking lot, Monya commented on how “professional” everyone looked. Our fellow competitors were clad in sponsor-spangled spandex, warming up on rollers, and wearing serious kill-faces. Tooling around the parking lot, we met up with Alan McCabe, the third unicyclist entrant, from Springfield. Alan just started riding a uni in February, and was a trifle nervous about riding in his first uphill race. This race is a time trial format, with racers starting every 30 seconds, and Roland had the first slot of the three of us, at 9:27, me at 9:29, Alan at 9:33, then Monya, at 9:46.
The day had started out with low fog which quickly lifted, leaving us with absolutely perfect weather, blue skies, light breeze, and temperature in the mid-60s. After getting our race numbers, taking a pee-break, and riding a couple laps around the parking lot, it was time for Roland and me to line up at the start. Roland tore up the starting hill, and I moved up, after a couple intervening bikers, and got ready to mount. The first hill was decently steep, but short, and led to a policeman stopping cars, and directing us left. As I turned I saw Roland grinding out of view on the next steep pitch, and I had a fleeting hope of catching him.
It turned out that hill where I’d spied Roland demanded a standing, stair-step cadence. Slowing to a crawl and mashing upward, I realized he was at least maintaining his two minute head start and the slower pace is what had given me the misconception that I might be gaining on him. As I put my head down and gutted through the incline, feeling my breathing accelerate, I checked my GPS watch to see that I was a mere four minutes and two-thirds of a mile into the race. Great! Not even a TENTH of the way there! I silently vowed not to check my watch again for a long time.
After this first stiff climb, the road flattens for a bit, and I heel-clicked the hub’s button, shifting to the unicycle’s “high” gear of 1:1.5, attempting to make up some time on Roland smaller wheel, and on Eric’s 2010 singlespeed record. Of course, this being a hill climb, the road quickly steepened again and I downshifted back to my 1:1 gear ratio, trying to remain seated and spinning, delaying the slower stand-up pedaling as long as possible.
The next series of ascents are brutal, with a long 14% grade, a brief, flattish section, then a sustained 17% grade. Here, the first biker caught me, followed by another two. Inspired by their passing me, I bore down on my pedals and managed to stay with, and then overtake two of them, at least for a little while. Blown out a bit by this effort, I stayed in low gear as I spun through the next brief, flat section.
Next we came to the switchbacks, a long series of hairpin turns, banking back and forth as the road climbs up past Mt. Williams. The outsides of these turns are less steep than the insides, but, since the road is open to auto traffic, cyclist's must stay right and are forced through the steeper insides at each right hand turn. Without exception, these bits required me, and most bikers I saw, to utilize the slower, stand-up pedaling techniques.
The course continues to undulate, with short, punchy climbs, some more gradual gradients and even a couple short downhills which allowed me several more high-gear speed bursts. Toiling ever upward and getting passed periodically by bikers, I was just trying to maintain a steady cadence, as close to my aerobic threshold as possible. At one point, as we wound around Mt. Fitch, a stunning view of the summit of Mt. Greylock opened up to our right. Though still a couple miles distant, and several hundred vertical feet away, it gave me a burst of energy to see the final goal.
Passing the one-mile-to-go marker, a glance at my watch told me I would not be able to beat last year’s record, but it was only a flicker of disappointment, insignificant when riding high in the mountains on this bluebird day. Wrapping its spiral around the top of the mountain, the summit road offers stunning vistas of the surrounding, lushly wooded, green peaks and valleys, fading to gray-blue at the infinite horizon. On the last curves there’s a spectacular view of North Adams, where we’d started our ride. The mountainside falls so steeply here that I couldn’t see its slopes, and the town appears to be directly below the road, a dizzying feeling, especially teetering beside the low guardrail on a unicycle.
I received another nice distraction as Judy, Roland’s wife, drove past in their CRV, on their way to the summit, her two boys and my own son, Denali, cheering crazily out the window. With one more focused effort, I passed a race volunteer informing me that I had only 100 meters to go, and I could hear Roland’s voice from above shouting encouragement. I spun up into the finish area, with blinding sunshine glittering off a million spokes, and tired, smiling bikers, clad in every color of lycra, lounging on the grass, sharing war stories. Neither my official time of 1:11:35, nor Roland’s 1:08:32, broke Eric Scheer’s 2010 record of 1:07:22, but both of us were close enough to want another shot at it next year. I was pleased to have ridden the whole distance without a dismount, and to be so close to Eric’s time, and Roland’s, for that matter.
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| Finishing on the summit of Mt. Greylock - photo: Mike McCusker |
The third unicyclist in the race, Alan battled leg cramps for 2.5 miles, before he’d finally called it a day, rode back down (steep downhills on a one-wheeled, fixed gear machine are brutal), and drove his car to the top. As a new rider, he’d climbed and descended the steepest hills on the route, a remarkable feat, which only unicyclists can fully appreciate.
After I’d had a brief rest, Denali and I walked down the hill a little way, in time to see Rose, my better half, driving our car up to the top. We jogged over to the summit parking lot to meet her, and then Rose and I hiked back down to the road to wait for our 14-year-old daughter to finish. Monya, ever the non-conformist, was riding, in sandals, on a knobby-tired mountain bike, and she soon pedaled into view. Our wild cheering was rewarded by the quintessential teenage eye-roll, but we persisted anyway, whooping and hollering as we followed her to the finish line.
We high-fived, chugged some of the race-swag energy drinks, and Monya easily convinced us to buy her a well-earned ice-cream from the summit lodge concession. Then we drove down to the party and requisite awards ceremony, where ate our post-race beef stew, and those of us who were of-age got to enjoy a locally brewed BBC Steel Rail Pale Ale (or two). The race volunteers were numerous, encouraging, and just generally wonderful, so I personally say a big “thank you” to them, and to the race organizers.
Roland and I both felt we’d have a shot at Eric’s record if we ride it next year, now that we know the course a bit better. Of course, Eric may come back again, too!
links:
Kris Holm Unicycles - there are none finer!
KH/Schlumpf hubs - the only commercially available geared unicycle hubs
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