NCC Mount Greylock Hill Climb

[PJ McQuade]

I've always wanted to give this one a shot but it's scheduled pretty late on the calendar and it's hard to keep the road fitness up to the level necessary for tackling a mountain TT. Greylock is one of the few BUMPS events I can take on with my limited gearing range. It's steep at times but there aren't many sustained steep sections like Ascutney or Washington, making it do-able with a standard crank and a 28. I didn't do any real training but had some good volume in August and rested for a few days before.

It was cloudy and cool at the start with fog, strong wind (head winds!) and temps in the low 40s on the mountain. We were lucky there was no rain. The time trial starts from the North Adams side, good for 9 miles of close to 3,000 feet of climbing. The opening mile is the hardest part with some steep pitches of close to 20%. I have a bad habit of going out too hard on long climbs and made sure to keep the watts in check for the first mile. Actually my goal was to stay within my FTP for the whole time and hit a time of 45:00. In groups rides on Greylock I've been right around 50' so I figured this was a realistic goal.

There's no strategy to a Hill Climb other than "race yourself" so pardon the lack of details but I passed a lot of dudes, never caught the mountain goat Finkcraft rider in front of me, paced myself just as I'd planned and ended up with a time of 45:37. Worth noting: I hit several power PRs in this race including 20' and 30'. I was just off the podium for my age group; overall I was 12/170. I'd like to do this again next year and maybe add some other Hill Climbs to the mix, assuming I modify my gearing.

[JeremyC]

Nice PJ. There's nothing better than TTing, especially when your going slow! No seriously, that's some solid climbing. And you came in 12th, right in your wheelhouse.

[KTeves]

That's a very impressive time PJ! I did it last year, and it sounds like the conditions were similar except the roads were wet for me from early morning rain. You destroyed my time.

[rusto]

Nice job, PJ!

[jraguin]

Great work. I have done that climb twice during the Berkshire Boondoggle rides. I could definitely see overcooking it early and then suffering on the false flat long stretch near the top.

[argus]

Way to go PJ!

[pcollins]

Great job PJ!

[Len_E]

Nice work PJ. It's a hell of a climb and riding within yourself is hard in these races. Great stuff.

[Smudger]

Guess your new name is Froomey.

Great result.

[PJ McQuade]

Thanks, y'all. Yeah Smudger, looks like they bumped me up a slot in the results. They used chip timing but it seemed iffy.