37th Annual Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb

Pinkham Notch, NH—Anticipation of a tight bicycle battle to the summit of Mt. Washington jumped last week when former World Mountain Bike champion Ned Overend joined the field for this year’s Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. Overend, now 54 years old and still dominant in open competition, finished fourth in his first appearance at Mt. Washington in 2005, then came back to the White Mountains a year later and placed second. His return this year ensures that the younger men at the front of the pack will face one more challenge: how to stay ahead of a legend who still has the legs that made him one of the most admired athletes in the sport.

Those younger men are defending Hillclimb champion Phil Gaimon, 23, of Tucker, Georgia, Christopher Hong, 20, of Lutherville, Maryland, and two Rocky Mountain-trained cyclists who in other circumstances would look like the veterans in the race, 2008 runnerup Nico Toutenhoofd, 40, of Boulder, Colorado, and 42-year-old Mt. Washington newcomer Kevin Nicol of Lafayette, Colorado.

In his 2005 Mt. Washington debut, Ned Overend finished just eight seconds behind Anthony Colby, who beat Gaimon in Newton’s Revenge last year. (Colby is not racing in the Hillclimb this year.) The following year, the only person who beat Overend was four-time winner and Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton – and Overend actually led Hamilton at the end of the opening sprint before the steep ascent begins.

Currently training in Gainesville, Florida, Gaimon last year competed in both bike races up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, finishing second in July in Newton’s Revenge behind Anthony Colby, then winning the Hillclimb five weeks later in 54:57, more than a minute faster than he had ridden the Auto Road in similar conditions the previous month.

Hong made his Mt. Washington debut in this year’s Newton’s Revenge, finishing second in 57:24 behind Colby, who won in 53:50. Toutenhoofd, 41, a former member of the 7-Eleven development team and the U.S. Junior National Team, resumed serious amateur racing last year, winning the Colorado masters time trial and finishing second to Gaimon in the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, in 56:40. Nicol, 42, won the 2008 Mt. Evans Hillclimb in the Rockies, a race that gains 6575 feet in altitude over a distance of 27.4 miles. (The Mt. Washington race, shorter and steeper, gains 4650 feet in 7.6 miles.) For the past three years, Nicol has been the Colorado Best All-Around Rider in the pro category.

A point of comparison: Mt. Washington Auto Road course record-holder Tom Danielson (49:24) also holds the course record at Mt. Evans, where Nicol won last year.

While the men’s race has added a senior rider who can beat competitors two or three decades younger, the women’s race has lost the cyclist who occupied a similar position in the field. Former World Ironman Champion Karen Smyers, 47, of Lincoln, Massachusetts, got a taste for this race – professional cyclists regard it as more difficult that the steepest climb in the Tour de France – when she finished second last month in Newton’s Revenge, the other bike race up the same course. However, a foot injury has forced Smyers to withdraw from this Saturday’s Hillclimb.

That still leaves a two-way contest for the women’s top prize. Defending champion Flavia Lepene, 32, a Brazilian rider lives and trains in Blacksburg, Virginia, led all the women at the Hillclimb last year in one hour 8 minutes 52 seconds. That time is very close to the time in which Marti Shea, of Marblehead, Mass., won Newton’s Revenge this year (1:08:42). The 45-year-old Shea, who also won Newton’s Revenge in 2006 and 2008, is attempting to win the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb for the first time. While the course is the same, the Hillclimb tends to attract a larger field.

Each year the Hillclimb welcomes several junior riders, i.e., riders 19 years old or younger. This year’s junior field includes, for the first time, female competitors, 17-year-old Isabella Di Rado of Scituate, Massachusetts, and 16-year-old Anneke Reed. The 14 young men in the group include James Wronoski of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, now just 14 years old but already a Mt. Washington veteran, having placed 278th here last year in 1:35:27; and Jonah Thompson of Albuquerque, N.M., who, 10 years old, is the youngest entrant this year and one of the youngest ever.

The oldest rider this year is Ray Gengenbach, 74, of Amherst, Massachusetts.

The course -
The Mt. Washington Auto Road rises at an average grade of 12 percent, with a 22-percent grade in the final yards before the 6288-foot summit. The challenge is increased by Mt. Washington’s famous high winds and frequently bad weather. In some years the winds have blown riders off their bikes on the upper slopes above the tree line; in others, rain, fog and general chill have made the experience all the more unforgettable. Twice in the 1990s, when the race was held in September, and again in 2007, the Hillclimb was cancelled because severe weather on Mt. Washington made the course unsafe. (Newton’s Revenge was also cancelled in 2007.) Entrants are advised in advance that the possibility of a weather-cancelled race exists, but the Saturday race date also includes the option of a weather postponement to Sunday.

BUMPS -
Along with Newton’s Revenge, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb is a prime event in the recently established Bike Up the Mountain Point Series, familiarly known as BUMPS. The series also includes Mt. Ascutney in Vermont, Whiteface Mountain in New York State, and four other uphill contests. Riders win points based on their finishes in five of these races, and at the end of the season the overall points winners are crowned King and Queen of the Mountains. Marti Shea currently leads the women’s standings in the series; the men’s leader is Douglas Jansen. The Mt. Washington races are the only races in this series on hills rated “hors categorie.” For further information see www.hillclimbseries.com.

Tin Mountain and sponsors -
Sponsored by Polartec, with additional support from international corporations as well as local businesses in the Mt. Washington Valley, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb is the primary annual fundraiser for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Conway, N.H. For the opportunity to pedal up the unrelenting grade, elite and amateur cyclists this year have paid an entry fee of $350, from which all proceeds go to the educational and environmental programs of the conservation center.

That fee is up fifty dollars from the $300 it was for the previous seven years, and the increase is understandable and inevitable: Costs of presenting the event and conducting environmental education programs at Tin Mountain have risen substantially, while the current economy has cut into the endowments of non-profit organizations such as Tin Mountain. The increased fee will allow the conservation center to continue its support of school programs that reach nearly 4000 students, nature camps for over 300 children, a large series of community nature programs, and other educational and environmentally helpful events.

The appeal of the Hillclimb -
The fee has not kept riders away. Cyclists recognize the ride up Mount Washington as more arduous than the most difficult climbs in the Tour de France, and they enjoy the bragging rights that come with simply finishing. This year’s Hillclimb field reached its limit of 600 riders in less than two days after online registration opened.

The Hillclimb's popularity is due also to its being an open event, which means that amateur riders can compete along with professionals, and it has served a career step for the top finishers. Winning the Hillclimb last year helped Phil Gaimon secure a spot on a professional team for 2009.

The size of the field is limited by the ability of the road crews and race officials to monitor the safety of all participants, and by the number of vehicles that can be parked at the summit to bring cyclists back down the hill after the race.