The Ultimate Challenge (road cycling) This was my second year in a row doing the Ultimate Challenge. Although the course was much different than last year, this year's installment did not disappoint. It was super fun. The fact that it happens the same day (and just hours before) the Tour of Utah riders ride it really adds to the excitement and atmosphere. This year, the course started at Snow Basin and featured climbs up to Guardsman Pass via the Park City side and Little Cottonwood to Snowbird (113.8 total miles officially, but 115 according to the bike computer). For those of you familiar with the Ragnar Route, the first ~66 miles follow exactly Van 1 and Van 2's second legs. Last year, the course started in Park City and climbed Alpine Loop, Suncrest and Little Cottonwood (~102 miles). I think this year's version was harder. This year there was 12,381 ft of climbing, whereas last year was around 10,000. The climb to Guardsman's was very challenging. Let me make it clear that this was a ride, not a race. So I don't have an official time or finishing place. There was somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-600 participants who started the day. I'm not sure how many finished and there were options to cut it short at 76 or 104. I would assume most folks went for the full length, but its hard to know. There were open starts every few minutes between 6:30 and 7 AM. I started at 6:35 and based on what my mom/dad said I was the 17th finisher. My time was ~6 hours 37 minutes. My strategy for this ride was similar to last year. Let it serve as a good training ride for LoToJa. Take the early part real conservative, ride with groups of other riders as much as possible, draft, and put the hurt on during the later tough climbs up Guardsman and LCC. Things went largely according to plan. The first 40 miles were pretty uneventful. Just rode easy with other rider through some really really pretty scenery in the Wasatch Back. Last year I had to take potty stops at both mile 20 and ~40. This year I made it to 40 just fine, which was a good place for a stop. From mile 40 to the next stop at 78, I road with an awesome train of good riders. The time just flew. It was really good riding with them. After the stop at mile 78, the climb of Deer Valley/Park City/Guardsman (whatever you want to call it) started. I expected it to be steep, and it certainly was, and long. We also had a healthy headwind to contend with. I went into low gear mode and soon found myself at the front of our group and pulling away with one other dude (skinny, young, talented climber. I later saw him at the finish and learned that he is just 16 years-old!). He hung with me as we gapped everyone else in our group and slowly picked-off other riders ahead of us. The young dude stayed right on my back wheel and I was waiting for him to try and surge around me. He never did. He hung onto me for about 2/3rds of the climb and finally started to fade. I realized early on in the climb that I was working real hard. Harder than I had hoped to at that stage in the ride. I wanted to save something in the tank/legs for LCC, but knew that I was working and that I'd likely pay for it in LCC. I'm not real familiar with the climb up Guardsman from that side. At one point I thought I was getting close and then I saw the sign the said 5k to the top. I was thinking to myself, "you have to be kidding me!" I pressed on, still moving pretty efficiently, but working. There was a lot of dancing off the saddle. Alas we hit the upper switchbacks and then the last couple miles (on steep crappy road) to the top of Guardsman. I passed several folks on the climb up and didn't get passed, but I suspected I had overdrawn. I stopped briefly at the the rest station at the top of Guardsman to refill my bottles and get some food. I didn't want to stop again before the finish. This rest station was right where I usually ride to on my BCC/Guardsman 50 mile rides. The rest of the ride was on what I'd consider to be my "home turf" given how frequently I ride Big and Little Cottonwoods. I wanted to take the descent down BCC with some other riders, but my group was back quite aways and there were only a couple other riders at the station and they didn't look like they were in a hurry to get rolling again. I didn't want to waste much time at the station, so I took off alone. The story going down BCC was headwind. Not terrible, but I had to work all the way down and I was solo. I didn't see anyone else who was part of the ride until after the "Sev Gut-check" (see Strava) on Wasatch. Once on Wasatch, the day was definitely warming up now. The rider were all spread out. There were some riders up in the distance. LCC was looming a few miles away. I had already passed the 105 mile mark. I past the 104 mile early stop (for the wusses who didn't want to brave LCC :) j/k. While on the ascent up the Sev Gut-check, I met up with a non-Ultimate Challenge rider who had ridden from Salt Lake and was heading to LCC for what sounded like his first time (he asked me how many miles it was to the top). He knew I was part of the UC and commented that I still looked pretty good for having already ridden as far as I had. He had no problems sticking with me up Sev Gut Check through about the first mile of LCC, then he dropped back. Now LCC. I'll admit I had a cocky attitude about this part of the ride. I knew I'd be tired by this point, but so would everyone else. I envisioned myself schooling everyone up the climb. Well... I didn't quite happen that way. As we started the climb I was concerned that I had overspent going up Guardsman. The first couple miles were okay. Much like last year, I just spun up the mountain in low gear picking off folks here and there. My parents passed me during the second mile and they saw me. They pulled over a couple times to cheer. I didn't want them to annoy me playing leapfrog so I asserted that they go wait for me at the top. I wasn't in the mood to negotiate. Then things got a little ugly. I basically bonked. The cadence went way down and my pedal strokes became labored. I was constantly changing my hand positions, out of the saddle for a few strokes, back in for a few, then back out again. Getting pretty uncomfortable. Thinking to myself, I would like to just stop. I never did, but the thought crossed my mind a couple times. Last year's ascent up LCC wasn't this hard. A couple thoughts on this: (1) I worked harder leading up to LCC this year than last year. I my opinion, Alpine Loop and Suncrest are cake compared to Deer Valley/Guardsman; (2) Given the recent injury, I'm not in as good of shape this year compared to last year. Notwithstanding, I knew I only had a few (hard) miles to go to Snowbird. I was still passing (a few) people. A mile or so before Tanner's Flat, two dudes flew right past me. One said to me, "just keep it steady." I recognized one of the guys from the group I had ridden with from 40 to 78. He looked good. I never caught him. I did catch the other guy though at Tanner's Flat later on because he stopped. The rest of the way, I think two other riders passed me (not terrible, but a little disappointed it happened). There were a few times where I went over to the other side of the road and rode down for a few seconds just to give the legs a rest. It worked, because when I started ascending again, I felt stronger. I saw some spectators give a Coke to their rider and thought to myself how good that looked and wanted one. I was tempted to ask for one, but didn't happen. Fortunately, there were other nice people handing out water and I got a couple bottles, chugged them and poured the rest down me. I choked down a granola bar and that seemed to help. I felt better for the last third of the climb. It felt like an eternity, but eventually I passed the 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k, and 500m to go signs. I was never so happy to reach Entry B at Snowbird. Then it was just 300m downhill to the finish. I crossed the line at 1:12PM. The first few minutes afterwards felt much like how it feels after a marathon. I recovered fairly quickly though. In retrospect, the LCC climb wasn't a disaster. I was actually still pretty good, especially after having already ridden 110 miles before doing it. It just felt like hell. I'm happy with the effort. I'm sure it took more time than last year, but I doubt it was much more. I met up with my folks and my kids (my wife was working today). We grabbed lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather and fun Tour of Utah atmosphere. There were a bunch of people there. We watched the first few professional riders finish around 3:40'ish. Then we headed down the canyon and home. Long-and-short, mission accomplished for the day. I'm hoping this serves as a good stimulus for LoToJa, it should. I'm happy with how things turned out. Really had a lot of fun doing this ride and look forward to doing it again.
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