by Adam Switters This year, the Redlands Bicycle Classic decided to mix things up and moved their prologue from downtown Redlands up to Big Bear. The course changed from a mostly uphill battle of fitness to a flat and technical battle of altitude acclimation (The tt was at 6800 ft).
It would have been ideal to pre-ride the time trial in the days prior to the race, but no longer being professional athletes and holding down day jobs didn’t allow us to get down to the race till the afternoon before. Pre-riding the course would have been a huge advantage as it was surprisingly technical and rolling.
Team Mike's Bikes p/b Incase rider Daniel HollowayThe course was only 6.8 miles long with a headwind on the outbound leg. It was imperative to go out hard, but with the altitude, that might come back to bite you in the butt. I went out a little too hard in the first mile and from there it was survival. I tried to make up some ground on the technical turns, but fell apart a bit on the way back and came in 71st out of the 190 or so starters. Roman Kilun had a great ride and finished 26th for the team, giving us good position for the caravan the next day.
