Cambridge Man, RI Woman Win Mt. Washington Race

PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. (AP) — A Massachusetts man and a Rhode Island woman won the top prizes Saturday in a bicycle race to the summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast.

Cameron Cogburn, 27, of Cambridge, Mass., and Silke Wunderwald, 42, of Hopkinton, R.I., were the fastest man and woman in the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, a 7.6 mile uphill race.

Cogburn reached the summit in 50 minutes, 48 seconds. Wunderwald finished the race in one hour, 9 minutes and 56 seconds.

More than 600 bicyclists were expected to compete in the 41st annual race, climbing 4,618 feet up the road to the finish line 6,288 feet above sea level.

The race is the primary fundraising event for the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Albany, N.H., a nonprofit educational and environmental organization.

The youngest rider entered this year was Maria Goodwin, 11, of Silver Lake, N.H., a sixth-grader at Kenneth A. Brett School in Tamworth. Part of her inspiration for cycling comes from her father, Ron Goodwin, who has ridden the Hillclimb at least six times. Also expected to ride was Jonah Thompson, 14, of Albuquerque, N.M., who first raced the Hillclimb at age 9.

Each year, the popular race fills to its limit within a few days, sometimes a few minutes, from the time registration opens online.

An elite group of riders starts the ascent, followed by the rest of the racers, who depart in five-minute intervals in four waves, grouped by age.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.