Carb-Boom Palomar Challenge

On the same day the men's Olympic triathlon was contested a group of fifteen or so cyclists started up San Diego's Palomar Mountain. Half race, half bar bet, most of the contestants were foreigners who roam San Diego's inland hills in the weeks prior to — and in preparation for — the Hawaiian Ironman.

Yes, there was money, but that was hardly the point. $400 was to go to the winner, and down a C-note for every place through 4th. To illustrate how much of an afterthought the cash was, all the favorites first took part in the Swami's ride.

Every vibrant bike-racing community has its big weekend ride, and Swami's is San Diego's version. It starts at Swami's beach — this beach deserved a name because of it's very good surf break –and is so-named because of the Sikh or Hare Krishna (or other) mosque on the cliff it overlooks (Slowtwitch hasn't yet done the research on which eastern religion owns the mosque). There's even a Swami's cycling team, and it is San Diego's best.

The Swami's ride is a tour which may cover as much as 70-miles on its own right, and Germans Jurgen Zack and Norman Stadler were among those in the group. As the ride wound through North San Diego County's inland hills, the Germans, and certain others, peeled off and veered toward Palomar. This would be a long day. Probably 150-miles and 9-hours in the saddle by the time it was all over.

It was also hot. San Diego is in the middle of a heat wave, and by the time the riders started up Palomar, at just after 11AM, the thermometer read 95-degrees. On the road it was hotter. I've ridden Palomar many times, and I've not only never ridden it in this sort of heat, I never would.

Riders were queueing up at the store at the bottom of the hill (the traditional start), refilling bottles with cold water. I asked Zack for a picture of him re-filling, and he went straight for the beer aisle. But I know that was in jest, because day-before-yesterday was the traditional Zack alcohol-swear-off-bash, and he's now officially tee-totaling through October 14th.

The starters included Stadler, winner of this year's Ironman Australia; Zack, who needs little introduction to Slowtwitch's readers; Paul Thomas, former pro duathlete and elite runner, and the promoter of this event; Mike Nichol, pro triathlete from South Africa here for pre-Ironman training; pro triathlete JT Quann, and a handful of others, including local bike racers.

This event is reminiscent of an earlier one that really was a bar bet. Spencer Smith and Zack raced to the top for $1000, and Smith got there in 58-minutes, 1-minute ahead of Zack. This event was slightly more organized, with the company Paul Thomas promoted — Carb-boom — doling out the cash. But there were no ads, no permits (that I know of), and no entry fees.

Craig Turner, owner of Nytro Multisport, set up a scale at the store at the bottom, to see who was showing up with excquisitely light machines. Zack had a Softride that, at 21-pounds, was quite light, considering what it was. Its carbon beam is built here in San Diego by ex-pro triathlete Doug Roberts, at his carbon manufacturing facility called Quatro Composites.

There were a few in the 19-pound range, and perhaps a tad lighter, and I think my 61cm Yaqui road race bike, which I loaned to local bike racer Mike Martin due to an equipment failure on his bike, was probably the lightest of the bunch.

At the store, before the ride, the would-be climbers ran into Paula Newby-Fraser, Heather Fuhr, and Roch Frey, riding in from the other direction. Paula is doing Kona again, and I'd heard reports from cyclists out on the road who'd seen Paula riding that she was the fittest and fastest she's been in years. Do not assume this is the Paula who's waltzed through several races at half-speed the past couple of years. I suspect she's going to be a bit more reminiscent of the old Paula in this year's Kona race.

Palomar is a nasty climb even in good weather. It is just a little bit too steep. 6% would be nice, 7% liveable, but this hill averages 7% and has quite a few 9% spans. It rises just about 4000' vertically from its start at about 1200' above sea level. The entire distance of the climb is 11.7-miles.

Those of us who climb this mountain a lot know that climbing it on a weekend has a particular challenge to it: Motorcycle cafe racers love this climb, and scream up and down its hairpin turns all morning long. It is not unusual to get to the store at the top and see 50 or 60 of these bikes in the parking lot.

Norman Stadler was one of the few who actually chose to do this on his tri bike. I thought that was going to be a telling mistake. But he expoded up the hill right from the start.

Oleander bushes line this road for the first mile and three-quarters, and this is a deceptively steep part of the climb. In fact, it is the steepest part until you get to the 4000' elevation sign, two-thirds of the way up. If somebody is in front and pulling away by the end of the oleanders you can bet they're strong that day. Stadler was already 40-seconds up by this time.
Norman Stadler used to be primarily a duathlete, and during the mid '90s was much-feared. In recent years he's given that up for triathlon, mostly long-distance. He was 5th in Ironman Switzerland 2-years ago, and 4th last year. Earlier this year he beat back the field at Ironman Australia for the win, but apart from Chris Legh, who had an uncharacteristically bad race, the field was light compared to the IM fields in Europe. He's an unknown quantity coming into Hawaii. But he looked very smooth, and very strong, now.

Coming through next at this point was Zack and Paul Thomas, who hasn't done much racing this year, but was obviously fit, or very foolhardy, to be up with Zack this early on a hot, hard ride.

The road makes a "Y" 4-miles up. Go right and you head past Lake Henshaw toward Santa Isabel and loop back through Ramona and to points coastal. This route, done backwards, is the famous "Henshaw loop" that has gotten Zack, Wolfgang Dittrich, and whomever else could hang, ready for Kona for the past decade. Veer left and the Palomar road snakes through the trees, performing many 200-degree plus turns that cyclists — and cafe racers — love so much (particularly on the descent).

As riders climb this hill the temperature cools — on most days. This as one of those rare days, though, when it's almost as hot on top as down below. In fact, the temperature at the top would be 91-degrees when the racers finished.

Stadler was keeping the pressure on. He'd only been up Palomar one time before, and during the ride he asked a couple of times how much farther it was to the top. It's difficult to keep track which S-turn it which until you've done this hill several times.

A couple of spaghetti bends below Thomas was dropping Zack. Zack's tempo was labored, slowing to about 60-beats a minute. Thomas was keeping a good cadence of perhaps 85 or 90. Yet further below riders were running out of water and beginning to question the wisdom of climbing this hill on this day.

Stadler hit the top in 56:50. There is no official record for this climb. Only urban myth. I've never seen anyone climb it any faster than Spencer Smith did on the day when he went mano-a-mano with Zack. So as far as I can tell, this is the record until I hear irrefutable evidence to the contrary. But for those who are sticklers about such things, this ride ended about 50-meters from the stop sign. The ride is officially supposed to stop at the store at the top, which is about 40-meters past the stop sign. On the other hand, the ride started at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill, just prior to the store itself. This almost offsets the clipped finish. On balance I'd say add 10-seconds and make it 57-flat for an official time.

Everybody returned down the hill, and the money was handed out. Water bottles were re-filled, and riders started off back toward the coast — with several more hills to climb along the way, and 100-degree-plus temperatures to weather until the riders picked up the coast breeze.

I don't know if this portends anything for Hawaii. Zack will certainly be there, and be ready. But Stadler was inhuman on this day, and smart money says he's off the bike and onto the run with the lead pack. But that's beside the point. This ride wasn't about presaging the Kona bike segment, but about a small group of people coming together to do a very difficult thing, regardless of sponsor dollars or TV-time or event registration numbers or spectator friendliness. After the Carb-boom Palomar Challenge I sped off toward my computer so as to cover the Olympic men's triathlon. No disrespect meant to that fabulous race which was to take place in 2-hours, but don't ask me to choose which of today's races best represents the spirit of triathlon.