There’s only one number that counts, right? The time up Kings. And it was becoming clear pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be anything great this morning. Marcus, George & Kevin all rode away from me pretty early up the hill. George said he was beat and was going to take it easy, but his version of taking it easy just barely kept him in sight on the longer straight stretches of the climb.

To get under 30 minutes, you really need to be right at 20 (or less) with 1.41 miles to go (the long wide section, where there’s plenty of room for cars to park on the side). I was at 20:10 or so. Not quite yet ready to give up on the idea of 30, but it was fading as I continued. I really felt like I should have been faster, and was more than willing to blame things on the Hydroxyurea I’m taking, which is the opposite of the EPO that cyclists have used to enhance performance. In fact, I even named my Strava entry accordingly, but the reality was different from both the feeling and the time up the hill, as Strava showed a weighted average of 206 watts for the ride, just a few watts short of the 211-212 I get on a “good” day. So maybe this was one of those “high gravity” days? Yeah, must be it.

Kevin was riding considerably faster, getting something like 26:05 on the climb. I can still remember days like that, but they’re about 10 years past. I’m better at the long game now; the Sequoia 100 mile ride a couple weeks ago was pretty easy. But I do miss the fast game.