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New series offers Northeast mountain goats a lofty goal. Or nine.

by VeloNews.com

• July 10, 2009
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By Brion O’Connor

BUMPS: Phillip Gaimon on his way to the win at last year’s Mount Washington Hillclimb

Photo: Al Hospers

New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb has long enjoyed the reputation as the toughest hour (or two) on two wheels. The race to the top of “The Rockpile,” rising an unrelenting 4,720 feet in 7.6 miles, with an average grade of 12 percent and some hellish sections as steep as 22 percent, is the ultimate test of legs, lungs and willpower.

Now, double that effort. Better yet, how about tackling nine races, in four different Northeast states, totaling 27,000 feet of climbing?

If you can imagine that, then you’ve got an idea of what the new BUMPS Challenge is offering hillclimb specialists this summer. The inaugural Bike Up the Mountain Points Series is taking nine classic Northeast climbs – including Mount Equinox in Vermont, Whiteface Mountain in upstate New York, and two races on Mount Washington – and combining them. The result is a series to tax even the most hard-core climbers. Overall winners will be crowned the King and Queen of the Mountains.

“A few years ago I was thinking it would be great if there was some sort of championship series,” says Doug Jansen, who is currently leading the competition after the first two installments, Whiteface on June 20 and Okemo in Vermont on June 27. “It’s going to provide a lot of extra motivation to people to see what they can do. There’re a lot of people out there who’ve done two or three (of the individual races), and now they’ll be enticed to do a couple more.”

Jansen is clearly a fan of this excruciating discipline. He hosts the most comprehensive Web site on New England hill climbing (northeastcycling.com), and is thoroughly familiar with each of the nine courses.

The BUMPS concept snowballed after Burke Mountain race promoter Keone Maher came on board in the winter of 2008. Mary Power of Mount Washington and Andy Holtzman of Equinox had been talking about the possibility of a hillclimb series for several years, but when Maher entered the discussions, the three found they reached critical mass.

“I think that Mary just needed a little help,” says Maher. “Plus, I think she liked the BUMPS name. You’ve got to have a name to generate a little excitement. So when we came up with the name and the logo, she loved it. So we went for it.”

The BUMPS Challenge is based loosely on the Northeast’s Sise Cup masters ski-racing series. A racer’s top five scores count toward his or her overall rank (with Mount Washington, Equinox and Whiteface races garnering extra points, due to their difficulty).

There is no minimum number of races required, and competitors are automatically entered into the BUMPS Challenge when they sign up for an individual race.

Next year, Maher would like to see BUMPS incorporate the Mount Mansfield, Vermont, race (rising 2,550 feet in 4.3 miles), which would bring the Challenge’s total elevation to more than 29,000 feet, or the equivalent of pedaling up Everest.

Jansen heads into the Challenge’s third event – Newton’s Revenge – with a 5-point lead over Jeff Johnson of Vermont. On the women’s side, Ann Howard of Vermont holds an 11.5-point gap over Dominique Codere of Quebec.

Tim Johnson, a previous Mount Washington winner and with the OUCH-Maxxis squad, says the BUMPS concept is “awesome.”

“You’re literally taking that niche and taking it to the next level,” says the Middleton, Massachusetts, native. “For someone who’s only done Washington or Greylock before, that’s a hell of a way to expand their pain and suffering threshold. And it’s a great way to forget about the recession.”

Johnson’s wife, former pro rider Lyne Bessette, is taking aim at the Mount Washington Hillclimb this year, and may sprinkle her schedule with a few additional BUMPS events. She says the series is a terrific avenue for uphill specialists, especially those who like setting goals.

“For these riders, just to have one hillclimb is usually not enough,” says the 34-year-old native of Quebec. “People like to practice, getting ready for the big one. So I think it’s great.”

Still, competitors won’t be bored with their selections. Although every one of the nine races point up hill, each race has its own personality and its own “profile,” says Bill Dunkerly, a racer from Amesbury, Massachusetts, who sits in 16th place.

“Compare Okemo and Ascutney, which are very similar in length and elevation gain. I like the steepness of Ascutney a lot better,” says the 45-year-old. “I like to maintain a high cadence and steady heart beat. On Okemo, there are a lot of switchbacks and a lot of changes in pitch. You’re shifting a lot, and your cadence changes a lot. A lot of people find that’s easier, because they can take breaks. I don’t take breaks.”

The hillclimb profiles range from the short but brutally steep 1,600 feet of the Allen Clark Time Trial up Vermont’s Appalachian Gap to the 4,720 feet of elevation gain at Mount Washington. There are also the vagaries of the notoriously fickle New England weather to deal with (both Newton’s Revenge and the Mount Washington Hillclimb were canceled in the summer of 2007 due to freezing rains). Add the change of seasons, with the series running through mid-autumn, and the BUMPS Challenge offers racers a true panorama of the Northeast cycling experience.

“It’s almost a spring, summer, fall kind of thing. It’s going to be much different going up Greylock in mid-October compared to Ascutney in mid-July,” says Gordon R. Hall, 52-year-old from Nahant, Massachusetts.

“I don’t know why I’m doing” the series, says Hall, laughing. “I guess it’s because I’m obsessive-compulsive. But I like to pursue things with a focus. And there’s enough time in August to relax a little bit before the races in October.”

Hall and Dunkerly also expect to see a few familiar faces. “The people who do hill climbs are the people who do hill climbs,” says Dunkerly. “When you get to Mount Washington every year, you see the same 400 racers out of the 600. So why not tie all the hillclimb races together? It’s a good idea that somebody should have had a long time ago.”

Better late than never.

For details on the BUMPS Challenge, visit hillclimbseries.com