Joe Dombrowski Wins P/1/2 Wintergreen Ascent!

Haymarket / HomeVisit's 18 year old phenom, Joe Dombroski won the P/1/2 Wintergreen Ascent with a time of 32:16.655, only 16 seconds off the course record. Joe bested 2nd place finisher Jeremiah Bishop by over 2 minutes.

Results are here.

Here is Joe's recap of the event:

There are certain events, that while they might not hold much significance to most MABRA racers, are important to me. This is usually because they are selective and cater to my abilities, or the races are held on my own home training grounds and I want to win on my home turf. Events like these are the Shenandoah Mountain 100, Page Valley Road Race, Wintergreen ascent or even just trying to throw down a new personal record up the climb to Skyline Drive from my house.

Wintergreen has rich racing history including being a mountaintop finish for Tour Dupont - Lemond and Fignon duked it out up that beast. The record as of 2007 was held by Ian Ayers of Colavita at 33:42. Last year, Jeremiah Bishop smashed that at 32:00 flat. I happen to have a bit of insider information and I know JB did 391 watts to ascend Wintergreen in that time and that he weighed 154 pounds - the same as I do now.

I went into this race aiming to try and beat the record, but knowing that it would be a tall order especially with the sniffle in my nose and the burn in my throat I seemed to develop this week. I started off conservatively, checking the numbers every so often trying to keep my average just over 390 watts. With the last steep kick remaining I looked down at my yellow head unit and saw that I had been riding for just over 31 minutes and had only about 400 meters to go. I kicked it into high gear, out of the saddle stomping up the nasty grade pushing close to 600 watts. By the time I got to the flat 150 meters to the finish I couldn't even stand up out of the saddle to sprint.

Alas, I crossed the line in 32:16. 16 seconds off the course record. Maybe I shouldn't have opened my jersey to let it flap in the breeze, or maybe I should have worn the skinsuit. I could speculate forever, but I do know I'm going to try my best to make that record fall some day.

Oh and for all you watt weenies out there, I ended up doing 390 watts for just over 32 minutes - a not too shabby 5.6 watts per kilo.