OK - I have few minutes before I hit the road back home.
The forecast was perfect. Weather at the base was mostly sunny and 65, summit was in the clouds (shocker) and 48 degrees with 10 -25 mph wind. Trust me, I came here last year and we had 75 mph winds with hail at the summit - no race
I really focussed on the warmup (for a change). Did a little pace then some moderate hill and finsihed with a sprint uphill to get my HR up to 175 for a few seconds. I did this three times. The race went off like clockwork. I finished my warmup, rode up to line with 5 minutes to go and bam (i mean bam - they fire this canon with shogun shells - loud as hell).
About 75% of my group had done the ride before, so everyone went out pretty conservative. Two or three guys shot off the front right away.
start - You roll into the climb pretty easy. There are a couple of 12% pitches but all real short. Kept a nice cadence, felt great, HR around 170 at first 2 or 3 minutes.
1st mile - Hooked up with another guy in my group who was moving strong. We both moved through the field, until we settled in about 25 yds behind the leader. Chatted for a couple minutes, gave each other some encouragement and kept it going through 2 mile. Now the road starts to go up. HR under 170, just keeping a good pace.
2nd mile - OK now we really have something. just about 2000 ft in gain. Some pitches get real steep. I lost my riding partner around 2.5 and caught the leader as well. I felt really good and thought I should start to ramp it up now. mile 2 to 3 was about 10 minutes and I knew to make my mark I would have get on it some more.
3rd mile - Mile 3 to 4 is beautiful. The scenery is gorgeous, the smell of the pines. THe road is fairly straight up to 4 mile. I knew it would really go after 4 mile so I was still keeping it conservative. HR is finally up now around 180. I know red for me is over 185, so I felt comfortable keeping here.
4th mile - Mile 4 to 5 is where you earn your wings. You make a left hand switch back with mind blowing views, the tall tree line ends and you have entered the alpine zone. Oh yeah the road turns to a hard packed clay at this point. Still keeping pace, get out of the saddle once in a while to stretch, legs feeling good. HR 180 +2/-5 through this zone.
5th mile - So I says to the guy, "is it dirt all the way up?" He says to me, "naw it gets back to tah soon nuf" what??? Oh New Englanders. It wasn't soon enough. It must have been right around 6 where it went back to pavement. THen came the head wind. If you look to the left you can see the top. I think normally I would be like, "holy crap - look at that climb" It didn't even register. I just looked back at my HR monitor and kept it going.
6th mile - Now I'm starting to wonder if I should have gone harder, I feel too good. The road flattens out (thats all relative mind you) and I see the impending entry into the clouds. Just before the 7 mile I get passed - first time. I resist the urge to jump on since I have been riding so well and just maintain the same pace.
7th mile - Now its windy, wet and much cooler. I am beginning to see more and more people lining the roads. I can hear the cheers of the crowd; I know the summit is close. Left, right and holy shit it's a friggin' wall. Fortunately I felt great still, I just jumped out of the saddle and punched it the last 100 yds.
Finish - You land on these carpets, and like four people grab you, cut the timing chip off your bike, throw a blanket over you, give you a medal and some water. It was surreal - you're in the clouds with like 25 ft visibility, you just rode up this monster and I thought I won my class. I didn't know what to do. I think I cried for few seconds. I waited two years to do this and I finally made it and even had respectable results.
Some links:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6227668
http://www.mountwashingtonautoroad.com/Photo-1613.html