Saturday morning was the rescheduled Snowbird Hill Climb race out here in Utah. It was pushed back a week due to snow. I haven't ridden the course in the real world since the 2008 race (1:18), but was clocking in 1:15 in the simulator. Sorry, no video as my
gopro was acting up -- don't ever stick an exfat formatted memory card into a gopro...
Turnout was very low... 20 years ago we'd see ~350 riders. I'd estimate ~250 in 2008 and records show 160-ish in 2014/2015. Saturday morning I'd have to guess it was < 100. No evidence of sponsors this year and minimal support from Snowbird and Sandy City. With the weak turnout there's *far* fewer riders to chase or passing, so it felt much more like a solo morning ride up the canyon. When combined with the wind I ended up with a fairly disappointing 1:28.
There's still real world riding to do out here, but the window for big climbs is closing fast. I've still got a fighting chance at 1:25 on my benchmark ride (which shares much of the Snowbird Hillclimb route), but finding windows of opportunity to ride it is the hard part. In fact, it's snowing in the canyon right now...