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Anthony Souffle, The Gazette
By JOE PAISLEY, THE GAZETTE
MANITOU SPRINGS -- Sunday’s 24.5-mile bicycle race up Pikes Peak had meaning for all involved. Some wanted to test themselves against America’s Mountain or other top riders. A few wanted to see what the view was like for the first time.
For one Boulder man, the Pikes Peak Assault meant a lot more.
Check out a photo gallery from the event.
Mark Wisner, 37, like the other 300 riders in the inaugural ride battled 30-45-mph. headwinds and 6.7 to 10.5-percent inclines on the Pikes Peak Highway.
Mark took on the mountain in memory of his late father, Ron Wisner, the retired dean of students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Ron died at age 67 in a mountain biking accident in May.
More photo from member Ultra Rob
“He would have been the first to register for this,” Mark said of his father, who was an avid cyclist, runner and skier. “He loved these kinds of events, particularly anything involving the mountains.”
It was a challenge Ron would have loved, Mark said. And it certainly was one.
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The event drew riders from 10 states with skill levels ranging from the first man to cross the finish line, Colorado Springs’ Leroy Popowski, in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 37 seconds to the weekenders who were off his or her bike and walking up the highway before the halfway point. The first woman to reach the summit was Beth Fisk of Boulder (3:09:00).
“Not bad,” she said. Considering how many cars struggle to reach the summit, that’s an understatement.
In between the leaders and the stragglers were elite athletes like two-time road racing world champion and Paralympics medalist Allison Jones and soldiers from the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson.
The headwinds made an already tough climb even more difficult, even when compared to better-known climbs on Mt. Evans and Mt. Washington.
The chance to ride the narrow highway while closed to motor traffic was too good to pass up even if some were second-guessing their earlier enthusiasm.
Many riders put on a smile or a brave face as the media van went by and the cameras whirred, but you could tell the 7,700-foot climb from Memorial Park in Manitou Springs to the 14,115-foot summit was taking a toll early in the race.
“Oh, the wind was brutal, especially above the tree line” said Tom Ramsey of Colorado Springs. “I’ve done all the major hills climbs and I think this was the hardest. I had to dig as deep as I ever had for a ride.”
Plan to race next year?
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation.
For others, it takes time to forget.
“Right now, I’d tell you no,” said a shivering Amy Bertsch of Colorado Springs. “In six months, I’d probably say yes. It’s sort of like remembering natural childbirth. You forget the pain.”
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