Quoted By:
>Jason Perez won the CTC which has approximately 45,000 feet of climbing spread over three 200 mile races, on his Vendetta V20 Recumbent.
>Starting the climb I dropped down one gear after the other and quickly found myself in my lowest gear looking for another. I watched in my mirror as the group of chasing lights started to fall apart making their way up the climb. Normally a group of 5 or so riders would stick together at the front for a good part of the climb, but I’m sure my fast pace and them trying to chase me had left them all a bit out of breath. I was starting to roll by several small groups of riders from the earlier 4 a.m. start. It’s always cool riding with other people in the dark with only lights to light the way. Many of the riders are surprised to see a recumbent pass them on a climb, but they always cheer me on as I go by. I wasn’t more than 2 miles into the climb before the first rider from the chase group caught me. Derek was the first to catch me, as expected, but I’d hoped to hold him off a couple more miles. I said good morning and good job as he went by but I didn’t get much of a response as he continued his charge up the climb. I assumed he had his game face on. As much as I wanted to go with him, I knew it was beyond my ability to hold such a pace so I watch him slowly walk away. I could see him glancing back for my chasing led every few mins to see if I was still with him.
It wasn’t long before Mark Lowe, the next and only other rider to catch me, pulled alongside. He mentioned he’d had never seen a recumbent go uphill so fast to which I responded, “I do ok.”
