I momentarily took my eyes of the wattage and looked at my speed- I was doing about 10.5 mph. I thought that I was probably on the false flat this hill, err, mountain has. Maybe I should back off but I was holding 325 watts steadily. A few seconds later, I realized I had crested the hill and was done with the climb. As I felt the goose bumps go up and down my arms, I heard Josh scream “WTF Buckingham? What the hell are you doing up here! I gassed that hill!.” He actually startled me and then it sunk in that I had climbed this thing incredibly fast, probably five or six minutes faster than I thought I was capable of (north side of Woodmen Rd. for those in Colorado Springs).

Josh, who was ranked UCI Elite as recently as 2005 but has since retired to work for Federal law enforcement, asked how much weight I had lost ’cause “there’s no way I did that with training!” I said none, I was just one a new program of EPO, testosterone and exogenous blood transfers with as straight a face as I could muster. We laughed for a second and took off down the other side of that hill where I hit 52 mph.

During that climb, I knew that I couldn’t hang with Josh so I just fixated my eyes on the PowerTap and tried my best to keep 330 watts. I tried not to look at my surroundings and kept my breathing as rhythmic as possible. I was so fixated on my meter that I was sure that I had been passed by a few of the guys, the resident mountain goats who still race. But unbelievably, I was second at the top. It will be a very long time before I can challenge Josh, he’s 52 pounds lighter than me and his bike weighs at least 5 pounds less than mine. He is a phenomenal climber but he lacks power though on the flats and for the most part, I just need to stay within 3-4 minutes of him on a climb to catch him on the descent.

I had lost 32 pounds since I last rode with these guys back in February and while I had expected to ride a little better, I was blown away by the difference the weight made on the climbs. I’ve got to be careful to keep my power but I’m now counting the days until I can get down to 160.

I feel like a cyclist again.