| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
50.68 miles
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Altitude Gain:
5,942 ft
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Avg Speed:
12.91 mph
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Route:
Mount Lemmon
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Avg Grade: 147 %
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Max Grade: 163 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 73 F SE wind @ 6 mph |
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Did the long climb up Mount Lemmon here in Tucson today. Staged at McDonald park about five miles from the edge of the park and the start of the climb up Catalina Highway. Temperature was a bit cool and a mild wind was blowing but it had little effect on the twenty-one mile climb. Thought I started out fairly well on the uphill grade on the approach to the climb, but as soon as I hit the actually climb among the huge saguaro cacti, I got dropped by three riders that started the climb near me. This climb isn't nearly as hard as the Kitt Peak I did a two days ago as most of the climb is around six percent as opposed to the constant eight percent of Kitt. What this climb was though was twice as long. One could spin the climb fairly easily with the right gearing. I chose to grind it out with a lower cadence and steady pressure on the pedals. Views are incredible spectacular over the entire climb but peak between mile twelve and sixteen. The grade also starts to have fairly good stretches of three percent after the halfway point that gives some respite from the grind. Caught a few other and passed a few other riders on the ascent including one poor soul riding his knobby tired mountain bike up the climb and a couple of women. There were dozens of riders on the mountain with a steady stream of riders going back down at a high rate of speed. Started to slow noticeably once over seven thousand feet or about mile nineteen. It was quite cool near the summit with long sections in the shade from the mountain pines. It took me nearly two and a half hours to make the climb of nearly six thousand feet with the altitude being a little over eight thousand. Took a slight rest and started the descent which turned out to be very crisp if not frigid in places. Started to pedal a bit on the downgrade but was rewarded with painful cramps in my damaged chest muscles. Ended up doing some coasting. One pleasant aspect was the ride was being acknowledged by the riders I passed coming up the climb. A few looked very happy to see me, probably mostly from knowing that the crest and turnaround wasn't too far ahead. Stopped and took some photos on the way down and finally got comfortable once below five thousand feet as I once again in warm air. Started chasing cars on the descent and had a bit a fun with that. Turned out to be a good ride even though I was quite tired at the end. Lance Armstrong supposedly made this climb several times in a day training for Le Tour, but I was quite satisfied with climbing it once today.
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