Sir Isaac Newton really isn’t an angry fellow. But, he’s still upset about the apple. Not just that it landed on his head and gave him a nasty lump. But because all anyone ever remembers is that he fell asleep under a tree and got conked on the noggin.
“I wasn’t napping!”
Sure, you weren’t.
In his defense, ol’ Isaac was a pretty smart guy. Optical theory. Differential and integral calculus. Method of fluxions. And, a whole bunch of other genius-type stuff. But, the one he’s most remembered for is his universal law of gravitation. Go ahead, hop on your bike and try to pedal up hill for almost 8 miles and see if he was wrong.
What? You’d love to?
Once a year, he gives you that chance–Newton’s Revenge. It’s a bike race up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, and Isaac is pulling out all the stops. It’s long, it’s steep and it’s really hard. Are you up for the challenge? Sir Isaac is waiting.
June 8, 2011 Hamilton’s and Jeanson’s Times Dropped from Auto Road Records
Organizers of the two highly popular bicycle races up the Mt. Washington Auto Road announced this week that the times ridden by Tyler Hamilton of the United States and Genevieve Jeanson of Canada in the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb will no longer be considered official records for the all-uphill course. This decision follows the recent confirmation by Hamilton that during his professional racing career he regularly used performance-enhancing drugs, as well as Jeanson’s admission in 2007 that she did the same for virtually her entire career.
“These races are held independent of any other governing body, and we have never conducted drug testing for them,” said Mary Power, director of the Hillclimb and of Newton’s Revenge, the other bike race held each summer on the 7.6-mile Auto Road. “However, following the revelation by Tyler, as well as Genevieve’s earlier confirmation that she used banned drugs from the age of 16 until her retirement ten years later, we are respecting the rulings of national and international cycling federations, and we are no longer recognizing any of their times here as records.”
The bicycle ascent of the Mt. Washington Auto Road is regarded by cyclists as being at least as difficult as the hors categorie (“beyond category”) climbs in the Tour de France. Since 1973, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb has annually drawn licensed amateur and professional riders, as well as other well-trained cyclists and extreme sports enthusiasts, to test themselves against the Auto Road’s 12 percent average grade and Mt. Washington’s famously unpredictable weather.
In 2006, to accommodate increasing demand for entry into this event, the Auto Road company created Newton’s Revenge as a second race on the same course. Official open and age-group records for the bicycle ascent of the Mt. Washington Auto Road can be set in either race.
As a result of this week’s announcement, the biggest change in the Auto Road’s record books is that former French cycling star Jeanie Longo retroactively regains the women’s open record here. In 2000, her only appearance at the Auto Road, Longo made the climb in 58 minutes 14 seconds, nearly four minutes faster than the then-record time of 1:01:57 that Jeanson had ridden in her Mt. Washington debut in 1999. Jeanson returned in 2002 and beat Longo’s time with a 54:02, then won again in 2003, her last appearance here (59:58).
Hamilton won this race four times, surpassing the existing course record in his first appearance, in 1997, with a time of 51:56, then returning in 1999 and lowering the mark to 50:21. He also won in 2005 (51:11) and 2006 (52:21).
In 2002, 24-year-old Tom Danielson of Connecticut became the first and, so far, only person to ride up Mt. Washington in under 50 minutes, clocking a time of 49:24 to better Hamilton’s performance. While Danielson’s 2002 time is the men’s open record, Hamilton’s 2006 time had remained the record for men aged 35-39, until this week’s announcement from Power. Now the men’s record-holder for that age group is Mike Engleman, who, at 39, finished second to Hamilton in 1997 in a time of 53:53.
Reinstated as the women’s open course record, Longo’s 58:14 continues to be the record for women aged 35-39. The Auto Road now recognizes Kimberly Bruckner, who finished second in 1999 with a time of 1:03:50, as the record-holder for women aged 20-34.
Jeanson’s 1999 time of 1:01:57 had been the record for junior female riders (19 and under). That record now goes to Anneke Reed of Vermont, who completed the race in 2009 in 1:48:32 at the age of 16.
Held each year in August, the Hillclimb is the primary fund-raising event for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Albany, N.H. Held in July, Newton’s Revenge similarly generally attracts a smaller field, but top riders (including Danielson) have competed in both events.
Newton’s Revenge will be held this year on Satuday, July 9, with a possible postponement date of July 10 if the weather on the 9th creates hazardous conditions on the mountain. The Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb will take place on Saturday, August 20, with a similar weather-alternative date of Sunday the st. Each race starts at 8:40 a.m. with the Top Notch (elite) group, followed by three successive waves sorted by age group at 8:45, 8:50 and 8:55 a.m.
Information about these races is available at www.tinmountain.org and www.mtwashingtonautoroad.com/events.
HISTORY
Completed in 1861 as the Mt. Washington Carriage Road, the winding all-uphill Mt. Washington Auto Road holds a perennial appeal for athletes with a taste for challenges. Each summer since 1973, cyclists have converged at the base of the Auto Road to contend with what professional riders have called the toughest hillclimb in the world.
By 2006 the original Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb became so popular that the Mt. Washington Auto Road company created a second race on the same course – Newton’s Revenge – to accommodate the excess demand for this opportunity to test one’s pedaling strength against the Auto Road’s 12 percent grade. This year’s Hillclimb filled to its capacity of 600 almost as soon as on-line registration opened at the beginning of February.
BIKE UP the MOUNTAIN POINTS SERIES
Newton’s Revenge and the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb are part of this series of nine uphill bike races, which begins on June 18 at Whiteface Mountain in New York State and includes ascents of Mt. Ascutney in Vermont, Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts, and other uphill races, concluding with the Allen Clark race in Vermont on October 2. Shea is the 2010 women’s B.U.M.P.S. champion. (See www.hillclimbseries.com.)
ENTRY FEES AND PRACTICE RIDE
The entry fee for Newton’s Revenge is $300. That fee covers the cost of substantial logistical support, food, commemorative shirt and other expenses involved in staging the event, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the educational programs of the Mt. Washington Observatory. Riders who are already registered for the Hillclimb may enter Newton’s Revenge for $150.
Anyone registered for Newton’s Revenge may also register for the Practice Ride, which will take place on June 5 between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. There is no additional fee for the practice ride, but the number of riders is limited to 300, and the ride is open only to riders who are already registered for Newton’s Revenge. Registered participants will receive Practice Ride registration instructions via email.
The Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, which also serves as the major annual fund-raising event for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Albany, NH, will be held on August 20 (with a possible weather postponement date of the 21st).
Tom Danielson Just Misses Record in 2010
Tom Danielson, who eight years ago set the bicycle record for the climb up the Mt. Washington Auto Road, returned to the White Mountain this weekend to try to improve on his time and missed by just eight seconds. On a clear day with only a slight wind, Danielson pedaled up the 7.6-mile Auto Road today in 49 minutes 32 seconds, agonizingly shy of his 2002 mark of 49:24.
Danielson was riding in Newton’s Revenge, the first of two bicycle races held each summer on the ultra-steep Auto Road. He set his still-standing record in the older race, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, and repeated as champion in 2003. Behind him on the same course today were nearly 200 other cyclists, including Marti Shea, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, who won the women’s race as handily as Danielson won the men’s.
At the 6288-foot summit of the highest peak in the Northeast, Shea clocked a winning time of one hour 9 minutes 36 seconds, well ahead of runnerup Dominique Coderre of Montreal (1:21:03) and third-place Carol Meader of Raymond, Maine (1:21:48). While Danielson, a world-class cyclist whose specialty is hill-climbing, was in a class by himself, a close battle for second in the men’s field finished with Charles McCarthy of Middlebury, Vt., breaking away from Gerry Clapper, of Avon, Conn., to finish in 1:01:27. Clapper was third in 1:01:58.
“I was on a perfect pace,” said Danielson as he cooled off at the summit. “But it can be tough when you think you know what you’re doing. I wish I’d gone eight seconds faster, but I overanalyzed it.”
All in all, the 32-year-old pro from Boulder, Colorado, was pleased with his performance, especially since it came only a few weeks after a training-ride crash in which he had broken one vertebra and damaged his pelvis and one shoulder. He said he feels ready for the Tour of Poland, which he will race next, followed by the Vuelta a Espana, a 21-day stage race involving most of the same teams that compete in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, including Danielson’s team, Garmin.
While Danielson just missed matching the record he set in his first ride up Mt. Washington, the team of John Bayley and Kristen Gohr smashed the existing record for tandem bicycles. Bayley, 41, originally from Dublin, Ireland, but now living in Watertown, Mass., and Gohr, 33, from Reading, Mass., shot forward with the leaders at the starting cannon – they actually led Danielson at one point — and rode an impressively strong and steady race, finishing in 1:06:32. That time was nearly six minutes faster than the old tandem record of 1:12:20, set by Dave Lamb and Freemont Matthew in 1997, and it was good enough to place them 11th among all finishers.
“That was the one thing that surprised me in the race,” said Danielson, smiling. “Those guys who passed me on the tandem!”
“We just thought we’d show Tom how it’s done, y’know?” Bayley quipped. “And actually, it put some pep in our step.”
The other tandem team, Christopher White and Jackie Gallant of Windham, N.H., finished in 1:40:04 and drew considerable cheering for riding the entire way while both wearing pink chiffon ballet tutus.
A few other riders tried to keep Danielson company in the early going. Jean Sylvain, 32, of Morin Heights, Quebec, sprinted off the starting line and led the pack up the first few yards of the Auto Road’s 12 percent grade before being joined by Clapper, McCarthy, Ian Gordon of Wakefield, R.I., and 20-year-old Paul Runyon of Philadelphia. By two miles up the road, however, Danielson was already 90 seconds ahead of Runyon, who held second for a while before being overtaken by older and more experienced riders. Erik Vandendries, 45, of Chestnut Hill, Mass., moved steadily forward to finish fourth in 1:02:19, and Judson Cake of Bar Harbour, Maine, came from farther back to take fifth (1:02:50). Runyon and Sylvain dropped back to finish 10th and 18th.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, July 10, the race had been postponed by one day because Saturday’s thunderstorms created dangerous conditions on the road. Sunday’s weather was mostly sunny, and the dry pavement worked to everyone’s advantage.
“I was ready yesterday,” said Shea, “but I’m psyched that we didn’t have to do it (in the rain and lightning). Today is so much nicer.”
Shea, 47, a former All-American cross-country runner at Boston University, took up cycling later and is a Category 2 rider, the second highest level in amateur cycling. She has won Newton’s Revenge in each of the four years it has been contested, going back to 2006. In 2007 the race was canceled by severe weather the entire weekend.
New for Shea this year was a lower gearing ratio on her bike – a 34-tooth chain wheel, instead of her usual 39, so that she could ride up the mountain’s severe grade while not having to stand up in her pedals as much. “I was experimenting to see how it felt,” she said. “It felt good, but it was hard to tell if I was going faster.” In fact her time was 50 seconds slower than in 2009.
Since Shea wears white cycling shorts and was sitting down most of the race, she rode with her old, cracked saddle, which is white, instead of a new black one. “Black gets your clothes all dirty!” she said, laughing.
Dominique Coderre, 51, followed Shea up the hill as she has followed her in many other hillclimbs. A former member of the Canadian national water-skiing team, Coderre turned to cycling as a way of exercising when she injured her knee while skiing, and she has hardly looked back.
“I rode better today than in the last Newton’s,” said Coderre. “And it’s early in the season. You’re supposed to peak later.” Like Shea, and like several other riders in today’s race, Coderre competes in the Bike Up the Mountain Series (BUMPS) of nine Hillclimb races around the Northeast. Shea won the 2009 series, while Coderre was second overall and first in the age group for women 50 and older.
The youngest rider in the race today was 15-year-old Chad Young, of Newmarket, N.H. Young rode while wearing the blue and white team jersey from his high school, St. Thomas, and finished in 1:16:34, placing 30th overall and third in the junior age group (19 and under) after Ezra Mullen, 17, of Nottingham, N.H. (1:09:18) and Ryan Harned, 18, of North Hampton, N.H. (1:13:08).
The oldest was Ray Gengenbach, 75, an artist from Amherst, Mass., who rode his bicycle to the Auto Road, a six-day trip during which he camped each night. He finished in 2:40:29.
The newest things in the race this year were a pair of “Elliptigo” machines – mobile two-wheeled versions of the elliptical trainers found in most gyms. Their team leader, Bryce Whiting, traveled from Solana Beach, California, to demonstrate the use of his machine on a steep uphill and was waving cheerfully as he made his way up the slopes in 1:54:22. Elliptigo co-founder Bryan Pate, 37, of San Francisco, finished in 2:01:55.
For their efforts, Danielson and Shea each won $1500. Had Danielson broken his record, that prize would have increased to $5000. The women’s record for this course is 54:02, set by Canadian champion Genevieve Jeanson in 2002.