Rookie rider ready to race on Pikes Peak

Part of the road up Pikes Peak

"Every single person has said 'ride your own race,' so I think I will."

So says Andrew Phillips, who will be running the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the first time tomorrow, in the 450 Supermoto class.

The mountain was intimidating at first, but running it in practice has taken away the unknown.

"I'm very hopeful," says Andrew. "I have a lot more confidence now than Tuesday afternoon. It's taken three days to get that confidence. And it's there. I'm ready for the race."

  Andrew on his #423 bike (Photo: Jen Phillips)

For Andrew, Wednesday, the first day of practice on the mountain, was an eye opener.

"To see what the mountain is like, see what the competition is like. There are some excellent riders here."

He tells a story of riding down after one practice run, how one of the more experienced riders was cruising along about one foot from a 3,000-foot drop-off, standing on his pegs and with his hands off the grips.

"That's the caliber of the riders in this event." He adds, "They're crazy. They take corners faster than I'm going straight."

And oh, some of those corners: Hairpin curves, steep drop-offs, no guardrails!

"So many curves look alike. One fellow was telling me that there are only a handful of really tight ones, so you need to find some landmarks so you'll know which turn it is."

Andrew wants to do well in the race but he's not going to get stupid about it. At the beginning of the week he hoped to do the race in 13 minutes. Now he figures it will probably be more like 15.

"I'll probably be lucky if I do it in 16 minutes," he says, upon reflection.

Still, 16 minutes would require an average speed of  46 mph (13 minutes would be 56 mph). All this on a 12.2-mile course where many curves are posted for 10 mph, and tourists in cars normally take them slower than that. And the real champions of the race are hoping to run in under 10 minutes this year for the first time, requiring an average speed of more than 73 mph.

"I'm just going to do my race. I'll go fast where I can go fast but be safe where I have to. I'm going to focus on what I need to do to get up the hill safely. It's going to be a good time; I want to enjoy it. I'm not going to go beyond my limits and launch myself off the hill."

The following video is one Andrew shot with his helmet cam. Keep in mind that all practice was done at dawn so the road up Pikes Peak could open for tourists at 8:30 a.m.

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