Climb to Kaiser 2010

Post Race Recap: 6/26/2010 Climb to Kaiser

The Climb to Kaiser is an epic ride that starts and ends in Clovis, CA. The ride goes from the valley into the Sierra National Forrest with an absolute elevation gain of over 8,000 feet. This is more than any top bike ride in the continental US. Kaiser Pass, the highest point of the ride, is reached via six different climbs but just to mess with you they throw in three small climbs on the way back creating a strange sense of going up hill both ways around Huntington Lake. It took me 12 hours to complete the 155 mile, 13,900 foot of elevation gain climb! Its the phycoligical stuff you contend with spending a twelve hour day on the road.

3:30 am the alarm goes off. We rented a cabin at Shaver so I slept at high elevation and have an hour drive to the start in Clovis. I enjoyed a cup of coffee with my sponsors Odwalla bar to put food in me first thing for fuel. For the drive, I also had an Odwalla superfood drink.

5:30 am the race starts. Along with my friend Kevin we follow the CVC jerseys pulling the peleton and remain toward the front of the pack. We fly through town around 24 - 27 mph. The head of the pack whips it around corners to break up the pack but by popping an interval out at race pace around each corner, you get to recover in the slipstream during each straight away. Kevin asks me if the start seems slower this year, I reply no, your just faster.

Mile 23 we enter the foothills and begin the Wildcat Climb & Burrough Grade. At this point, Kevin sends me off as the pack riding together on the flats breaks up on the hills. The first group consist of about a dozen and I find myself in the second group taking turns leading pulls.

Mile 40 the next two climbs (really one long climb), Tollhouse Grade and Pine Ridge Grade, lead up to Shaver Lake/Hwy 168. During this climb I catch the back wheel of several CVC jerseys and pushed my threashold to eventually max out just in time for the Shaver Lake rest stop. Fortunately this was the point of the ride where my brother Luke meet me to pace with for the climb.

Mile 58 Big Creek Climb (steep & winding) gains 2,000 feet of elevation in less than 4 miles and leads to Huntington Lake. The average grade of this climb is 10 percent, the worst half-mile grade is 15 percent, and the steepest grade is 20 percent!

Mile 72 Huntington Lake Bear Cove (lunch). Up to this point, at each rest stop I have consumed a V8 and refilled my bottles, one with pertepium and the other with heed. However, my brother knows me too well and from going out hard, he notices that I am a little faded "like Davey Jones Locker" so we stop and have a sandwich for lunch which makes me feel much better.

The last major climb winds up Kaiser Pass, Mile 82. This is an out an back so on this road you get to see the fastest rider gracefully hugging the corners on their descent.

Mile 90, completing the loop around Huntington Lake on 168 is a kick in the moral with three final climbs before proceeding on the treacherous mountain roads for a 35 mile descent. As you hug the corners on this route, your in between trucks hauling boats and vivid sierra vista cliffs and mentally must be 100% alert, its a hair raising descent.

Mile 116 Eventually the route leaves Highway 168 and continues on Auberry Road all the way back to the outskirts of Clovis. Back in the Valley it gets hot. The valley in the afternoon is substantially hotter than the cool sierra's so those electolyte pills I consumed at the last rest stop are going to work. I pair up with one other rider to take turns pulling and the interval sets on rollers and flats feel so good to what I am used to that we pass several riders who deem as downhill freaks.

Mile 142 is the Millerton Store providing the infamous popsicle for anyone contending with the heat. Not me, I transitioned through this stop in minimal time.

Mile 155 and I am finished at the Alta Sierra Middle School. As difficult as this climb is, the rest stops made all the difference in the world and its amazing the endurance you can sustain for hours when they keep feeding you. At each rest stop, I was meet by a Fresno Cycling Club volunteer asking what do you need, can I get you ice, soda, hammer strength which was outstanding support. Each of the 300 participants on this ride have a passion for cycling and curiosity to test ones self. After all, life should be an adventure and for me this 12 hour bike ride was of epic.