Race Report Conquer The Mountain: Harding TT Race Report

No results posted on the official site, but Strava has some new best times... 54:47 by "Johnny-O'RokForm.com" and 1:02:46 by Sarah Jansen--congrats, Sauce.

54 minutes = 10mph up Harding truck trail...ouch...:clap:

 

freakin' perfect day!

could not have been better. cool temps and sunny, no dust, short sleeve jersey, cut off gloves and one small poly bottle were plenty.

set a high water mark for Harding, multiple sub hour times.

great event and best/most interesting/fun raffle ever!

 

That is crazy fast, especially for a 50 year old.

 

Not just any 50 year old. After retiring from being a World Class Motocrosser Johnny was a World Class MTB'er, racing on the MTB World Cup Circuit. He's also a multi National MTB champion.

 

Yup - that was me - Sarah Jansen. I think they recorded my time as 1:03. Strava records gate-to-gate (hence 1:02:46). They recorded gate to Four Corners.

Honestly, the race was great. The organizers clearly put a whole lot of effort into it.

Pete Smith won with a gate-to-Four Corners time of 54-something.

 

It was a great race. Thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors! It was beautiful yesterday, and Harding was in great shape. Very cool to see everyone giving their best up a tough climb.

 

I think its safe to say that when 15 of the top 20 (and all of the top 10) times on Strava for such a popular and well regarded climb get set in one event, it was quite a barnburner.

Great weather, course, and atmosphere. All the miles were marked, and with a trail of riders powering up the mountain, it was an infectious atmosphere. I'm not sure about anyone else, but for me, seeing those checkered flags snapping in the wind up on four corners, gave me the little boost I needed to finish strong. The after event at Cooks was a bit of an odd juxtaposition (bikers and bikers), but those things are just gravy anyways. I'll definitely sign up again next year.

A couple of photos from the top:

 

Had a great time on a great day. The event was very well organized and I had no problems going back down Harding afterwards. Had a blast at the festivities at Cooks as well. Will I do it again next year? Not sure, as a casual MTBer such as myself doesn't stand a chance to be competitive. I beat my own best time by about 10 mins (so I'm happy about that) but I'd need to improve my time another 20 to 30 mins to have a chance to place in the top 3. I had a lot of fun, but we enter a race with hopes for a chance to win, right?

 

Yes, it was a great day for harding! no wind until four corners, cool temps, and I beat my last time by over 15-min. This was my 1st MTB race and I was jacked up at the start and thought I was going to drop at the 1st mile from hyper breathing... Finally focusted on slowing my breathing and cadence and got into a good flow about the 4-mile mark. Learned alot for my 1st race and will be better prepared for the next race. Never thought I could be able to do this at 52 years of age, but I'm improving each week! I never could have finished this 6 months ago.

 

Results:

http://www.hardingtt.com/pdfs/HTTresults2012.pdf

74 riders - nice!

 

Very cool video of the time trail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BymMn66coNE&feature=youtu.be