Marg, Heather & Pepper - photo Al BlackIt feels different to climb this hill in a race situation with strong racers. It's a 3-up time trial format. Pepper, Heather and I were seeded together as the top riders from the previous days's road race. From the start, I let the race unfold and followed Heather with Pepper glued onto her wheel. I actually lost my normal drive to scamper up. Just different focus for me in a group than challenging myself alone.
The climb goes up the road in Canada Olympic Park 1.3 km and 345 feet elevation gain. The pace dropped slightly halfway up. I took the lead maintaining the same pace stand-climbing.
On the final corner which is the steepest of the course, I heard what sounded like an engine revving up! Off goes Pepper gutting it out to the top. Cool, I thought and had no desire to challenge. At that point it's all a mental game to go through the lactic acid build-up. Been there, done that!
Racing at 7:30 pm gave shadows ahead of me from the riders behind me. Made sure I kept Heather's shadow behind and rolled to the finish. It was awesome to see the focus Pepper raced with.
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