Originally Posted by calamarichris

Jesus. A beast marries a beast. I wish I could have seen that GWBR presentation. I must have been in the Army then.
I've done Solvang 3 times and the Prelude once with my Pa. One was my best ride ever. I finished in 5:00:47, because of an unlucky stoplight near the finish line. It was great: there was a CHP cruiser waiting with a smiling cop in mirrored sunglasses just waiting for me to run it, and my whole bike shuddered at the braking force.
But the best part was on Foxen Canyon Road: the swirling headwind was fierce and no one (out of about 20 riders) wanted to help up at the front; just sat on me. I was in the honeymoon phase with my powermeter, so I ignored them and just focused on the HR and Watts.
Kept working and focusing on balancing the two. Hurt longer than I'd ever hurt before, just keeping my HR at a steady 175 climbing up the hill against that gd wind. But then Foxen started steepening and so did my HR. Focused on breathing, fluidity, and it helped to ignore the guys back there. Even though I eased off lightly to control my HR, no one came up to help, and my HR continued to climb.
When it gradually got up to 192, I finally pulled to the side: Dudes, I can't pull anymore. Someone get up here please.
Nobody there. Looked back down the road; nobody there either. Rode them all off my wheel.
I know it's a petty, vain thing, but that was one of the triumphs of my life. And it turns out I had a genetic heart defect when I did it. (Oh, wait... still do. )