esammuli

Looks like UC Santa Cruz increased the laps for all the fields this year. Last year I collapsed at the line after doing 13 laps in the B's. This year the B's are doing 15 laps and the A's are doing 20!!!!! The course is 2.6 miles /400 ft. of climbing per lap. That means we'll be doing 8000 ft. of climbing in 52 miles with 5 KOM laps.

michaelmc

Death March indeed.

merlinextraligh

perspective.

https://www.everestchallenge.com/

esammuli

I'm very aware of the difficulty of EC. This a different sort of pain. UCSC is basically a 5 minute interval competition. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that less than half of the A's will actually finish the race.

snoboard2

Sounds familiar. The SECCC conference championships (can't wait, i love pain) are on a 10 mile loop featuring 1500 feet of climbing a lap. A's do 6 laps = 9k feet up in 60 miles . I think i'll be racing B's (just 4 laps)

flaco

Where is the course?

esammuli

It's on the Santa Cruz Campus.

Toporoute
Flier

joecool2727

Wow this race sounds awesome, racing on campus you say? And i was already looking forward to the hill climb TT. How exactly do they do the KOM's?, is it sorta like a prime lap in a crit, only with hills?

esammuli

Yeah, the KOM's are just like crit prems. The hill is a bit steep at the bottom, flattens out in the middle, then kicks up to about 10% at the top. The finish line is about 2 minutes from the bottom and the KOM is at the top.

The HCTT is an awesome course. It's very steep for the first 2/3 then it flattens out a little at the top. You're right in the middle of a forest.

merlinextraligh

any race with tough competition, regardless the course can be very hard.

But 52 miles, 400 vertical a lap is not a death march.

esammuli

You're probably right. Maybe 'intervals from hell', 'vo2 max nightmare', or some other descriptor would have been better. It's not a very long race distance-wise, but damn if it doesn't feel like an eternity.

They also use this course for a usac race during the summer. The pro/1/2 race is also 20 laps. This is a big step up in race difficulty for me. It's almost 3000 ft more climbing than the last time I raced here.

jmechy

Holy crap, its going to be brutal even for C's. Damn, yet another race I don't have a slight chance of winning.

esammuli

The C's do one less lap than the B's did last year. Cheers.

michaelmc

It's still 154 vertical feet ascended/mile. Compare that to EC: 129 vertical feet ascended/mile on the first day, 158 on the second. It may be 1/4 as long as the EC, but those are still some seriously strenuous laps, period.

grebletie

Sorry, it is.

You really have to race it to understand how challenging this course is.

UmneyDurak

That race course is tough.

fuzzthebee

The shorter the climb, the higher the pace. Funny how it all evens out that way.

OTB

Ditto that. I completed Everest Challenge, but DNF'ed the University RR (same course on UCSC campus).

esammuli

From the WCCC list:

"Hello everyone,

For our Bonny Doon Hill Climb on sunday, we will be holding a team
competition. The team with the lowest average time on the climb, will
win. ( we will throw out the slowest and fastest times)

The prize? A ham. maybe 2 hams depending on budget. But thats not all!
Our sponsor shop, Sprockets, has graciously donated some gear so the
winning team doesn't just get a ham. Or 2. and some hard boiled eggs.
maybe.

This competition spans all categories. A through D. Participating
teams will need to have a minimum of 8 riders entered in the HCTT in
order to be eligible for the competition. We all want that ham."

Classic. Gotta love collegiate racing. I want that ham!!!!!!!

joecool2727

I would def love that ham but i dont think our team will even have 8 people there. Too many people on our team are afraid of hills. I am really lookin forward to it though, its my second weekend racing B's and i think i'll do a lot better than last weekend, although i havent been able to ride a lot with finals and my new bike has been in the shop all weekend getting new cables and housing.

Essamuli, you ride a systemsix no? We're gonna have identical bikes, powertap too, prolly same sizes too (54?), wierd. Cant wait to ride it for the first time tomorrow and then at Santa Cruz.

esammuli

Yup. '07 Systemsix-3 54cm. Its a solid bike.

Pizza Man

I love that course.

kudude

get to bed early tonight, gentlemen (and ladies).

cmh

I think this post says it all.

voltman

Any special gearing considerations?