37th Annual Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb

July 31, 2009 Pinkham Notch, N.H.

Phil Gaimon, of Tucker, Georgia, will return to the White Mountains of New Hampshire on August 15 to try to win the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb for the second time in as many attempts. Given his experience in the past year as a new professional cyclist after outstanding performances as an amateur, and given his familiarity the ultra-steep Mt. Washington Auto Road, Gaimon is the likely favorite to repeat as Hillclimb winner this year. However, he will have to withstand challenges from Nico Toutenhoofd, the runnerup here last year, and by Colorado hillclimbing veteran Kevin Nicol.

Currently training in Gainesville, Florida, Gaimon, 23, is enjoying a racing year that has included the Tour of California, a rugged stage race at Himalayan altitudes in China, and other professional competition in the United States as a member of the Jelly Belly professional racing team. He got his first look at the Auto Road in July 2008, when he was runnerup in Newton's Revenge, the other summer bike race on the same course, beaten only by seasoned pro Anthony Colby. Immediately appreciating the technical and physical challenge of riding 7.6 miles up an average 12 percent grade, Gaimon came back five weeks later to win the 2008 Hillclimb in 54:57, more than a minute faster than he had ridden the Auto Road in similar conditions the previous month. (He reported having learned a great deal about the special gearing that Mt. Washington demands.)

Toutenhoofd, 41, was a promising rider in his teens and twenties, including seasons on the 7-Eleven development team and the U.S. Junior National Team. After college he resumed amateur racing and won time trials in several states. After taking five more years off with a new family and a new business, Toutenhoofd returned to racing again last year, winning the Colorado masters time trial and finishing second to Gaimon in the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, in 56:40.

This year, however, Toutenhoofd says he thinks his friend Kevin Nicol, 42, will win here. Nicol, who will see the Mt. Washington Auto Road for the first time over his handlebars this August, won the 2008 Mt. Evans Hillclimb in the Rockies, a race that gains 6575 feet in altitude over a distance of 27.4 miles. (The Mt. Washington race, shorter and steeper, gains 4650 feet in 7.6 miles.) Perhaps not coincidentally, the course record at Mt. Evans is held by Tom Danielson, who also holds the men's course record for the Mt. Washington course 49:24, which he rode in 2002. For the past three years, Nicol has been the Colorado Best All-Around Rider in the pro category.

The women's race features the return of diminutive Brazilian cyclist Flavia Lepene, defending the title she won last year in her first Mt. Washington appearance. Lepene, 32 years old, five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, lives and trains in Blacksburg, Virginia. She led all the women at the Hillclimb last year in one hour 8 minutes 52 seconds.

That time is well off Genevieve Jeansson's surreal course record of 54:02 -- but very close to the time in which Marti Shea, of Marblehead, Mass., won Newton's Revenge this year (1:08:42). The 45-year-old Shea, who also won Newton's Revenge in 2006 and 2008, is attempting to win the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb for the first time.

What makes the women's race more difficult to predict is the addition of former Canadian road and cyclocross champion Lyne Bessette, of Middleton, Massachusetts. Bessette, 34, returned to competitive cycling last winter after a brief retirement. Originally from Knowlton, Quebec, she was the Canadian Cyclist of the Year and also North American Cyclist of the year in 2001, as well as Woman of the Year in the demanding sport of cyclocross.

Bessette won a 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze medal, the 2004 Canadian national road championship, and the Canadian (2005, 2006) and U.S. championships (2006) in cyclocross. In 2002, she was a distant second to Jeansson at Mt. Washington, but her time then, 1:04:30, gives Lepene and Shea plenty to think about.

Another top female rider to watch is 47-year-old Karen Smyers of Lincoln, Massachusetts. Originally an outstanding collegiate swimmer at Princeton, Smyers is an American legend in triathlon competitions, having won the U.S. national title in that sport every year from 1990 through 1995, and then, also in 1995, winning the World Ironman Championship. Last month she came to Mt. Washington for the first time to race in Newton's Revenge. She finished second behind Shea, and, after all those 112-mile bike races in Ironman competition, was impressed by how difficult it is to ride up the Auto Road.

Other elite male riders with previous Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb experience include Mark Schwab, 35, of Boulder, Colorado, who finished fourth last year in 59:44; Ian Gordon, 21, of Wakefield, R.I., seventh last year in 1:02:34; Charlie Casey, 47, of Alplaus, N.Y., ninth last year in 1:04:50; and Doug Jansen, 46, of Pelham, N.H., tenth last year in 1:05:33. Joining them will be Joe Carpisassi, 32, of Greeneville, N.C., who won the inaugural Newton's Revenge in the time of exactly one hour; and Paul Runyon, who, at just 16, was runnerup to Carpisassi in 1:05:16 in that race and presumably is faster at 19.

The course - The Mt. Washington Auto Road rises at an average grade of 12 percent, with a 22-percent grade in the final yards before the 6288-foot summit. The challenge is increased by Mt. Washington's famous high winds and frequently bad weather. In some years the winds have blown riders off their bikes on the upper slopes above the tree line; in others, rain, fog and general chill have made the experience all the more unforgettable. Twice in the 1990s, when the race was held in September, and again in 2007, the Hillclimb was cancelled because severe weather on Mt. Washington made the course unsafe. (Newton's Revenge was also cancelled in 2007.) Entrants are advised in advance that the possibility of a weather-cancelled race exists, but the Saturday race date also includes the option of a weather postponement to Sunday. BUMPS -

Along with Newton's Revenge, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb is a prime event in the recently established Bike Up the Mountain Point Series, familiarly known as BUMPS. The series also includes Mt. Ascutney in Vermont, Whiteface Mountain in New York State, and four other uphill contests. Riders win points based on their finishes in five of these races, and at the end of the season the overall points winners are crowned King and Queen of the Mountains. Marti Shea currently leads the women's standings in the series; the men's leader is Douglas Jansen. The Mt. Washington races are the only races in this series on hills rated "hors categorie." For further information see www.hillclimbseries.com.

Tin Mountain and sponsors - Sponsored by Polartec, with additional support from international corporations as well as local businesses in the Mt. Washington Valley, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb is the primary annual fundraiser for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Conway, N.H. For the opportunity to pedal up the unrelenting grade, elite and amateur cyclists this year have paid an entry fee of $350, from which all proceeds go to the educational and environmental programs of the conservation center.

That fee is up fifty dollars from the $300 it was for the previous seven years, and the increase is understandable and inevitable: Costs of presenting the event and conducting environmental education programs at Tin Mountain have risen substantially, while the current economy has cut into the endowments of non-profit organizations such as Tin Mountain. The increased fee will allow the conservation center to continue its support of school programs that reach nearly 4000 students, nature camps for over 300 children, a large series of community nature programs, and other educational and environmentally helpful events.

The appeal of the Hillclimb - The fee has not kept riders away. Cyclists recognize the ride up Mount Washington as more arduous than the most difficult climbs in the Tour de France, and they enjoy the bragging rights that come with simply finishing. This year's Hillclimb field reached its limit of 600 riders in less than two days after online registration opened.

The Hillclimb's popularity is due also to its being an open event, which means that amateur riders can compete along with professionals. Top professional riders in the Hillclimb in previous years have included world mountain bicycling champion Ned Overend, Olympic gold medalist and Tour de France stage winner Tyler Hamilton, French cycling star Jeannie Longo, current women's course record-holder Jeansson, and men's course record-holder Tom Danielson. Winning the Hillclimb last year helped Phil Gaimon secure a spot on a professional team for 2009. The size of the field is limited by the ability of the road crews and race officials to monitor the safety of all participants, and by the number of vehicles that can be parked at the summit to bring cyclists back down the hill after the race.