A couple weeks ago, I headed over to the west side to take part in Ride 542, which is a recreational ride/race up the Mt. Baker highway from the town of Glacier to Artist's Point. I've done this event the past two years and have always enjoyed it a lot and have found that its mix of recreational riders and hard core racers make for a relaxed vibe that is a really enjoyable way to close out my road season. The past two editions had been blessed with spectacular weather and this year was no different with temps in the upper 70s and plenty of sun.
The first part of the course is kind of rolling with a couple short climbs while steadily gaining elevation. This first part is about 14 miles or so. Then, the final 10 miles are the serious climb broken only by a short flat section in the vicinity of the Mt. Baker ski area. For me the question is always do I push hard and burn matches trying to hang with the front group for the first 14 miles and hope I have something left for the "real" climb or do I throttle back a little and ride with a smaller group so that I know I have something left for the climb.
The first year I did this event, I eased out of the back of the pack almost immediately and found a small group to ride with for the first part of the course. This seemed like the safest strategy seeing as how I had never ridden the climb before and I wanted to make sure I wouldn't blow before the top. Last year with the confidence of a successful first year behind me, I fought to stay in the main bunch and then got up the climb with what I had left. Having turned in a slightly faster time with last year's strategy, I decided to try and hang with the bunch again this year.
I got lined up a little too far back in the pack and in a group of 260 or so that can make a big difference. I spent a lot of energy early closing gaps and moving around slower riders to maintain contact with the group. On the Powerhouse climb (the longest of the climbs in the first part of the course) I finally lost contact for good. I rode alone for a mile or so, caught in the no man's land between groups, and then was finally caught up by a group of about ten riders. We continued to make a good pace and soon we were at the base of the main climb with 10 miles to go.
A couple riders in the group continued to push the pace and I decided that their tempo was more than I was going to be able to sustain. I let them and the remnants of the group go and settled into my own rhythm. I caught and dropped a couple of them a few miles later when the aggressive early tempo turned out to be too much for them. One of these riders would catch back to me later and we would swap positions the rest of the ride with neither one of us ever getting more than a couple hundred meters on the other.
Once through the "flat" at the ski area, the final five kilometers are marked with signs and the road is steeper and even features numerous switchbacks just to make it interesting. If you're into that kind of thing, there are even spectacular views of the surrounding peaks. I continued to try and maintain the fastest pace that I thought I could hold. The kilometer signs slowly counted down, and I must say I did not feel as bad at this point as I had the previous two trips up the climb. Soon I was in the final kilometer and round the final switchback and digging towards the finish. As I rounded the last bend and headed for the line, I was annoyed to find that nearly the entire road was blocked by a race vehicle attempting to get parked just shy of the line. I had to slow slightly, but the situation was an annoyance and not a serious time loss.
I crossed the finish and had recorded a time of 1:45:24. Again, I was just over one hour and 45 minutes. I have done this event three times now with three different approaches and all my times are within a span of 23 seconds. I'll continue to try and break the 1:45:00 mark. This year I struggled a bit early, but definitely felt the best of the three attempts on the main climb. Next year, I'll be back to give it another shot.
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