My Mt. Lemmon experience

It's Thursday night and we just completed our first long training ride.  The day was full of excitement. We climbed over Gates Pass and pushed our legs hard on the flats.  Randall (DS) explains the plan for tomorrow's ride up Mt Lemmon.  I'm listening to Randall while thinking about my bike that had made a weird noise at the end of today's ride.  I really want to go to mile marker 20, but due to the unknown weather conditions at this time of year we will only be going to mile marker 15.  I'm a little disappointed but understand the concern.  We are told that when the first person gets to mile marker 15, they are to turn around and go back down the mountain.  When you see your teammate come down you are to turn around, no matter where you are, so that the whole team gets to the bottom at the same time.  Now a little anxiety starts to set in.  I'm the biggest guy on the team and I really want to make it to mile marker 15. I turn to Brian and Giselle sitting next to me who are both really good climbers and plead: Don't come down the mtn. until I reach the top!  As the meeting ends, my anxiety level rises as I worry about making it to the top. Did I push my legs to hard today? Oh yeah I still need to fix my bike.

I walk up to Roger's house to take apart my rear wheel.  Roger and Craig jump right in to help even though it's about 10pm.  We strip apart the rear wheel, clean all the parts, and regrease everything.  We put the wheel back together and nothing has changed.  I may have to borrow a wheel in the morning.

I lay awake in bed thinking about my bike and how I'm going to make it to the top of Mt Lemmon.  I have climbed with Brian, Emily, and Lindsey before and know they can really climb.  I have heard stories about Giselle being a climbing animal.  It's now 12am and I still can't sleep.  My roommate is not sharing my problem.  I think about the climb being 5% grade, which is a lot better for me vs. 10%.  I might have a slight chance of holding on to someone's wheel.  I set my alarm for 5am to work on my bike again.  I really want to be on my equipment when climbing the mountain.

At 5am the alarm goes off and I sneak out to the garage to tear the rear wheel apart.  I have an idea on what the problem might be.  Not to much later, Roger comes out to the garage and offers me some coffee.  This guy is awesome!  I find the problem with the wheel and get it fixed.  Time for some breakfast and the ride.

As we roll out for the ride to Mt. Lemmon,  I have 30 miles to make a game plan for the climb.  I decide that when we hit the base of the climb I'm going to take off to get a rhythm going and maybe a little bit of a lead so I can jump on some wheels as they catch me.

I start the climb as I planned.  I create a little lead and when I look back, I see Brian and Giselle riding together a couple hundred yards behind me.  I assume that they are laughing at me and just waiting to blow by me.  I hit mile marker 3 and my brain switches from trying to keep up with the other riders, to survival just to make it up to the top.  I have never gone up such a consistent climb.   Brian and Giselle are just cruising along.  I think of the man at the parking lot that says he does this climb every Friday.  I decide to slow my pace just a little, I fear that around each bend there will be a steeper pitch that will put me in the red zone.  As I hit mile marker 5 Brian comes up and says hello.  I have no response.  He tells me to drink some fluids and we start to climb together.  The pace stays consistent and the gradient has not changed.  Every mile marker Brian yells out 'drink'.  Even though this sounds simple, I probably wouldn't have taken many drinks on this climb do to my thirst for oxygen, not fluids.

We approach our first little descent around mile marker 9,  I tell Brian this is where Giselle  will catch us.  I look back and see her hammering down the short decline and a few seconds later she is on our wheel with a loud YEEHAWWWWW.  Brian and I have no response for her excitement.  I tell Giselle that she doesn't have to wait for us and that she can go on.  She graciously declines and the three of us start to work together and encouraging each other.  This works great until mile marker 13.  Giselle asks Brian if he is ok.  Out of no where this really deep voice says NOOO....  I had to turn around to see who said it.  This didn't sound like Brian's voice.  It was him,  his body was starting to crack.  Brian is fading off of the back.

I turn to Giselle and ask if we should wait for Brian since he has been with us the whole time.  I'm excited about the idea of slowing down.  She looks straight into my eyes and says "no-we can't do that to him, lets keep going".  She just never stops!   I dig down a little deeper thinking again about the guy that does this climb every Friday.  Finally, mile marker 14 arrives, I can feel the pace picking up a little bit.  My adrenaline starts to kick in knowing that the ride is about over.  We see mile marker 15 and act like the pros in the tour who have worked together all day to stay in the breakaway, but somebody must finish first.  So we shake hands and Giselle takes off for the first place finish.

Physically this was not the hardest climb that I have ever done. However it was the most mentally challenging and exciting climb that I have done. I will not forget Mt. Lemmon for a long time to come.  The way the team pushed and encouraged each other was one of the greatest experiences of my life on a bicycle.

The photo is of Brian and Giselle who encouraged me and challenged me all of the way to the top.  Thanks for the great ride.

PS.  The descent was a blast.