Originally Posted by OC Roadie
Please share your experience and any tips. I know a handful of you have done this
I did it a long time ago as a Cat 4...
It was cold and drizzling at the start... and snow was reported to be falling at the top. I wasn't expecting this of weather, so all I'd brought from So Cal were arm warmers and an undershirt. I started in the back of a full field, but the field split in two almost immediately. I bridged up to the front, and when the climb really started, there were only 7 of us left. Pace was a little high for me, but I was able to hang with this group for the first climb, the first descent, and most of the main climb. The higher we went the colder it got. The rain stopped, but then it was foggy... thick fog... like you couldn't see more than a few dozen feet up the road.
As we got closer to the summit, the pace increased, and I watched my companions disappear into the fog one by one. I was last... and struggling at this point. I didn't know how much longer the climb was, but it seemed to take forever. It was surreal... just chugging along on the wet roads in the fog... another switchback and another... getting blasted by the wind, and then entering a sheltered calm spot, then getting blasted again. It was cold, but I didn't feel too bad because I was climbing.
After the summit though, it was *really* cold... teeth chattering, hands too numb to grip the brakes kind of cold. That was a painful experience. I just took it slow... I really didn't want to crash. I was by myself anyway, so there was no one pushing the pace.
Down in the valley I slowly got some feeling back and just rode as hard as I could to the finish. I never saw another rider in my race, though I passed a few stragglers from the 3s. When I got to the finish my buddy was there from the Cat 1,2 race... blood caked to his arm, hip, and leg. He had crashed on the descent, but had gotten up and managed to place anyway... so he was in very high spirits.
This was a point to point race and we had no ride back to the start. After begging unsuccessfully for a few minutes, we went out to the highway and hitched a ride in the back of an open pickup. It was drizzling again and none too warm... it was certainly not a comfortable ride, but it got us close to where we needed to go.
Ain't bike racing fun?