Ross' Epic Hill Climb

Profile of an Epic. The last steep stretch is somewhere in the realm of 20% and the climb totals 3800' over just 14 miles.

Those who have done it before rarely return. Those who haven't but have heard the tales are sickly drawn. David Van Orsdel and Kris Lunning braved the wall of tears that is Ross' Epic Hill Climb and came away in 3rd and 4th, respectively.

Lunner and VanO turn off the 4 mile flat lead-up and into the hills!

Here's what they had to say about it:

"an epic kick in the face.....6 little climber dudes and one mountain gorilla lined up at the start....small field.....I new i most likely wasn't going to beat chris phipps.....but sometimes i can be a little delusional........I thought about trying to gain an advantage from the gun, but we were cruising with a tail wind at 25-28 mph so I figured I'd just hang as long as I could on the climb and get gapped off on the steepest part......For the first couple miles of the climb....i couldn't even tell we were going uphill.....we were cruising and I felt good.....I was patient. Then Orsdel raged up the road. Phipps chased him down with a z-teamer and me on his wheel.....Chris then set tempo...untill Orsdell shot passed him again...This scenario repeated itself quite a few times....Its was weird to watch....Its was like I wasn't even part of the race, just a spectator....These little 135lbs micro bike racers would just rocket up the road for 50 meters...then slow down...look at each other and do it again...." -Lunner

The self-styled mountain gorilla in his natural habitat

"Completely contrary to my plan of staying as cool as possible until the second half of the climb, I started attacking as soon as the road tilted up," said Van Orsdel. "I was feeling great, my accelerations didn't feel that hard, but I dropped a fair number of our small group on the first one or two attacks. Encouraged by these results, I continued to trade punches with Chris Phipps throughout the first half of the climb until he hit me hard two or three times in a row after a hard attack of my own. This popped me and I was in a bad place until after the downhill section. Lunner blew by me right before the downhill section. I couldn't even grab his wheel. Fortunately, I felt ok on the steep section, despite doing a lot of traversing the narrow road to keep my 34x23 ticking over. I tried to regather myself to catch 2nd place, but I had lost too much time being in "a spot of bother". Not a bad result, but what was I thinking starting off the hostilities so early???" --Van Orsdel

Van Orsdel... almost done

Lunner describes the final stretch: "I come around a bend and see the steepest road I've ever been on.....Phipps is near the top....The Z-teamer is weeble wobbling all over the place and I'm about to enter a world of hurt. I felt good at the start of the steep section.....but turned to stone near the top....turning 40 rpms and 375 watts for 1:30 i traveled a whopping .13 miles... at this rate it would take me almost 20 min to complete two miles. luckly it was less than two miles and not steep the whole way....I was clawing my way inch by inch up this monster of a road ...Then I hear this noise like a panting camel and this shadow is zigzagging all over the road behind me like a fly on crack. Its Orsdel!!!!!!!!....I yelled at him to go crush the z-team guy and as soon as the road eased up Orsdel gave chase. he eventually ran out of road and came in a few seconds back to claim 3rd place and I drug my sloth like self up to finish in 4th....." -Lunner

Until next year...