I’m going to resurrect a series of Examiner pieces about some folks riding in the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb a few years ago. This is long past but their stories are timeless.
Andrew Phillips with his BMW R1200GSA.
Andrew Phillips has never raced the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb before. And yet he has, many times.
When Andrew competes in the 450 Supermoto class in Sunday’s race, for the first time he will be doing so from the seat of his BMW G450X. All the other times have been at the controls of an XBox. Andrew has also watched numerous YouTube videos of previous Pikes Peak races, all in an effort to learn the course and get as familiar with it as possible without actually being there.
“It’s hard to practice on the bike when you don’t have access to a race course. It is taking away a lot of the unknown,” he said. The course is no longer completely unfamiliar. And familiarity counts. “When you’re going that speed you want to know where the curves are, when to slow down.”
Andrew’s first actual day on the mountain was Monday of this week, and this morning was his first opportunity to run part of it with his race bike. The bikes, sidecars, and quads in the event did practice runs this morning on the lower third of the mountain, while other classes ran the upper two thirds. Tomorrow they’ll move to the middle and then on Friday they’ll practice on the top third.
Back home in Vermont and along the East Coast, Andrew has participated in a number of hill climbs and some rally moto stuff, riding for the MAX BMW team. He did well in several and even took a first in a rally moto in Tennessee. This is his first shot at a big race.
“I probably won’t be winning this thing,” he says. “My goal is to finish safely and have the experience.”
Although he has been riding motorcycles since he was 17, Andrew, now 43, had ridden mostly on the street. In 2004 he got his first dirt bike, a BMW 1150 GS Adventure. That’s a big bike for riding dirt and he describes that as something of an awakening. When he picked up the G450X from the dealer, a bike with half the weight of the 1150, he headed straight for an event, racing it right off the showroom floor.
He has considerably more experience on the bike now, and is working to get some experience on the mountain. In addition to the practice runs in the morning, he has ridden the road to the top several more times on his R1200GSA, which he brought along, too, to explore Colorado and have fun when he’s not practicing.
Andrew’s wife, Jen, is blogging about his Pikes Peak preparation and experience, and will be flying in Thursday evening to be here for the big event. On Saturday they’ll be riding to places like the Shelf Road, the Royal Gorge, Skyline Drive in Canon City, and visiting Bishop Castle. And then it will be race day.
Biker Quote for Today
So if you’re on the motorcycle, on the track you’re not thinking at all about what’s happening next week or tomorrow or anything. You’re literally thinking about the turn you’re setting up and there’s something about that I find very cathartic and meditative. — Dax Shepard
