Mt. Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the northeast United States. The privately owned Mt. Washington Auto Road climbs 7.8 miles to the top of the mountain, rising at an average grade of 12-percent, with a 22-percent grade in the final yards before the 6,288 summit.
Sounds like the perfect venue for a bike race, right?
Except for the fact that Mt. Washington is also famous for its dangerously erratic weather. The highest recorded wind gust ever measured was on the summit of Mt. Washington–231 mph recorded on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.
That’s where Polartec® comes in. As one of the official sponsors of the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, Polartec® provides warm, luxurious fleece blankets to all the finishers of the race. It’s become a signature part of the event, and in some years the blankets have become a real life-saver as racers have battled fog, snow, rain and wind strong enough to knock them off their bikes.
10-old-Jonah Thompson hammers up the final 22% grade. (The spectator in the foreground is wearing his post-race Polartec® blanket)
At the race this past weekend, the weather was pretty mild by comparison and near perfect for racing–60 degrees at the summit and only a 20 mph headwind.
In the race, 23-year-old Phillip Gaimon defended his title to win the men’s division and Canadian Sue Schlatterer easily won the women’s division. Notably, 54-year-old cycling legend Ned, “The Lung” Overend finished in second place, just 16 seconds back. On the other end of the age spectrum, 10-year-old Jonah Thompson was the race’s youngest finisher.
VeloNews has a race recap and a great race slideshow here.
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