The Flat-Lander vs The Mountain





Here in Michigan when you come to a hill on your bike you can generally see the top, or near enough that it does not really make a difference. There may be a few exceptions to this rule, but not many. Having lived my entire life here, this is all I know. So the prospect of a 25-mile climb is completely foreign to me. Sure, I have seen climbs while watching pro cycling or Phil Gaimon’s Worst Retirement, but I have never experienced anything like what I was about to do.

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days in Tucson, AZ for work and due to some inexplicably bad timing of flights and the conference I was attending, I found myself with a bit of free time on my hands. And what better way to fill it than to rent a few bikes and explore what the Southwest has to offer?

Let me start by saying renting bikes was not quite as easy as I had hoped it would be. The main issue was I was heading out right before/as the tourist season was starting in Tucson (or so I was told) and the shops I called were all waiting on their new rental fleets to arrive from their respective suppliers. Apparently, no one knew what bikes they would have on hand for the time I was going to be there. In the end I rented two different bikes from Broadway Bicycles 
( www.broadwaybicycles.com ): a Trek Fuel EX 8 27.5+ for some mountain biking and a Trek Domane SL5 for when the roads were calling. Both were great bikes and I would highly recommend checking out Broadway Bicycles if you need some bike assistance in the Tucson area.

On to the fun stuff.

My flight was scheduled to land around 1:00 on Tuesday and my conference did not start until Wednesday, so upon landing and getting my rental car the first thing I did was head over to get the EX8 and hit some mountain bike trails. After some research and talking with the guys at Broadway my plan was to ride over to Fantasy Island Trail and get in as much riding as I could before dark.

The ride from the shop to the trail was about 6 miles and mostly paved bike path so it gave me a nice chance to warm up my legs after sitting in airports and planes all morning. The trail system was well marked and easy to follow, with nothing too technical. But it made good use of the desert floor and the small valleys than ran through it. There were some nice rock gardens which the 27.5+ tires devoured with the help of the extremely well sorted suspension setup. While riding, my legs and heart kept begging to go faster but my brain and eyes kept telling me nearly the entire trail was lined with cacti. In Michigan if you cut a corner a little or brush the edge of the trial, you might get poked by some pine needles or scrape your arm on some bark, but being shredded by a cactus is not going to happen. So for once, my brain won out over my legs but I still put in a nice effort and had a great 2.5-hour ride.



Wednesday was the start of my conference, but not until 11:00; which meant I had most of the morning for another ride. After waking up at 2:00 am (then again at 3:00 am and again at...well, you get the point, my body was a few time zones off and I wake up too early as it is), I loaded the bike up and headed to the Arizona Trail to do an out and back ride from the Loma Alta Trailhead.

I got there just after sunrise and learned mornings in Arizona are rather chilly, even when calling for 80s during the day. I snapped a couple pictures and headed out on my way, eager for another adventure.


The Arizona Trail system was completely different than Fantasy Island. Sure, there was still a lot of sand and cacti as far as the eye could see, but it was anything but flat. At first I thought my legs were just a little tired from the day before but after a scroll though my Garmin screens I realized I was just on a gradual incline. 

Once I realized this I knew I could spend a little more time on the “out” portion of my ride since the “back” would by much faster, especially since I kept stopping to take more pictures. The trail slowly transitioned from smooth sand to baseball sized rocks with some rather tricky corners, which kept me on my toes. After about an hour and 20 minutes I reached a campground and decided it was time to turn around. The ride back was simply a blast. Once I got past the rocky sections I could let loose and enjoy the benefits of all the climbing I had just done. In total it took me about 40 minutes to get back to the trailhead, most of which was a blur of cacti.


Time for some real world and some work, but here we can fast forward and miraculously find ourselves just after noon on Thursday, with my conference wrapped up 45 minutes early and a Domane SL5 waiting to help me attack Mt. Lemmon.

I like to think of myself as a pretty good climber. I am pretty light, I have a good power to weight ratio and as of writing this I am in the top 10 on “The Wall” on Strava, but boy was I in for a surprise. Before Mt. Lemmon the biggest thing I had seen was a category 4 climb.


When the conference ended I went back to my hotel and got all my stuff around and double checked everything: bibs, jersey, shoes, helmet, bottles, computer and so on. I loaded my bag up and set my bottles next to the door when I went to use the bathroom and left them sitting there when I walked out of my room a minute later. I realized I had forgotten them when I was about halfway to the bike shop (a 30-minute drive) but I knew I would not have enough time for my ride before it got dark if I turned around to get them. Not to worry – bike shops sell water bottles and Broadway Bicycles is Hammer Nutrition dealer, so I would be fine.

Once again, let’s skip to the fun part.

This time I decided to drive to my starting point. While it was only about 5-6 miles away from the bike shop, the only way to get there was down several busy roads through town and I really did not want to deal with that. I pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall near the foot of Mt. Lemmon, where the first of many Strava segments began, and did all my final preparations. At the shop I bought two bottles and two servings of HEED and I had a few gel packs in my backpack, which I thought would be enough for the ride. I loaded them in my jersey pockets and bottle cages, did one final check of my route and I was off.


The first 4.5 miles was an average 1% grade that was really not noticeable, but I did realize my saddle was little lower than I wanted so I stopped and raised it right before the real climbing began. Looking up the road I had absolutely no idea how there was over 20 miles of climbing in front of me. When I looked up the side of the mountain it sure looked like I could see the top and it just did not look that far away; even now when I look at the pictures there is just no way of seeing what I was in for. But what I could see and where I was headed were two totally different things.

When I looked at the segment I wanted to ride, times ranged from 1hr 15 min all the way to well over 5 hours. The top times were all set by pros and I knew I did not stand a chance of being anywhere near those, but I wanted to be somewhere in the low 2-hour range. So I knew it would take a long time, I told myself it was going to take a long time, but I could just not comprehend climbing for over 2 hours. How is it even possible?

Once the climbing started in earnest at about 5 miles into my ride, it really did not let up for another 21.2 miles. I settled in to a comfortable cadence and what I hoped was a good pace with no real way of knowing if I was going to finish the ride with a ton still in the tank or blow up 5 miles in, but all I could do was go for it and keep an eye on my heart rate. About 30 minutes in, the 80+ degree heat was a bit more than anticipated and I was drinking a bit more than I thought I would be and I was still not quite grasping how the climb continued every time I went around another turn. My heart rate was climbing into the upper 160s, a little higher than I wanted it, but still in the range of acceptable for 2 hours of work.

An hour into the climb I could not understand how there could be another hour of climbing, I could not see anything much higher than I was, but I was only 15 miles in to my ride so I knew it had to keep going up somehow. I rode by some truly amazing views and climbing at a little over 10 miles an hour I had some time to look at them, although I would not say I really enjoyed them as everything was starting to burn and my HEED and Gel were running rather low, both of which I had started to try and conserve a bit. Turns out this was not really a great idea. At about 1.5hrs I could tell I did not have the same power in my legs as I had even 15 minutes before. I finished off my Gel and drank all but a little of my HEED which helped considerably and hoped to find something more to drink somewhere along my route.

Climb, climb, climb.

At 2 hours and 9 minutes into my ride, I saw the Palisades Ranger Station which I for some reason thought was the end of my segment. Elated, I pulled in to the parking lot and rolled to a stop. I took a minute to catch my breath then grabbed my phone to make sure I had finished the segment (my Garmin Edge 500 does not have segment info and I did not pre-load a course). No reception, “oh well, this must be it”. I walked into the station, filled my bottles (thanks to a very friendly ranger) and asked if I was at the top only to find out I was about a mile away. I got back on my bike and after just under 4 more minutes of riding I was there. Climb finished! I rode on just a little to be sure then turned around and stopped at the highest point and again checked my phone. I had just enough reception to get a map on Strava and sure enough I had finished. Total climbing time of 1hr 57 minutes, but thanks to my 9 minute stop my segment time was very respectable 2hrs 6 min and my total ride time to that point was about 2hrs 25min (including the first 4.5 miles and stop time).



I just climbed, truly climbed, no descents, not flats, just up, an average grade of 5% for 21.2 miles and I still could not really wrap my mind around how massive the climb was. There is just nothing like this in Michigan. Now it was time to head back down. I stopped a few times to takes some pictures and Facetime with my wife and kids while at Windy Point but the ride down felt like it took no time at all. I guess hitting nearly 48 mph will do that.


A climb like this really is an amazing experience. It was a test of the physical and mental. It would have been so easy to stop at each scenic overlook or to have just called it a day at the Palisades Ranger Station, but what would be the fun in that. I set out to see if I could really climb. To see if this flat lander with no experience like this could hold his own against an HC climb.

Next time I would be sure to bring my own (slightly larger) bottles with my planned HEED/Sustained Energy mix to be sure to get the caloric intake I need of about 180 calories/hour as opposed to the 100/hr I consumed. But I would head back up that mountain without a moment’s hesitation.

Score- Mitch: 1 Mt. Lemmon: 0


When I got back to my car I loaded up, had my Recoverite and pulled into the McDonalds in the strip mall to reward myself with a chocolate milk shake. I drove back to my hotel for some rest and dinner so I could prepare for my flight home the next day and get back to my regularly scheduled training plan. 

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