oprfcc wrote:
Lemmon, moderate wind. Is what I was thinking. But I have to admit, I'd love to see the results on a strong windy day.
Although, now I'm curious what you think about Kitt Peak. (Moderate wind)
I think Lemmon with moderate wind would give the most advantage to the least skilled bike riders.
The "
Down from Windy Point" segment is probably the most useful reference point in terms of strava segments, and the gaps are decent. For all intents and purposes, the KOM for people doing a real ride (the top two drove up to Palisades and specifically tried to get the downhill KOM so I don't really include them) is
18:42 (44.1mph) - Mike Woods (decent cyclist...)
19:51 (41.5mph) - Hoffman
Someone that's very fit but maybe not a confident descender is probably in the 21-23min range.
The "
M0 to Windy Point" is the best uphill segment
Lionel did that in 54 minutes @ 375w (although he was doing another 40mins of work that day so prob could have gone a few % harder). That is the only effort on there that I think was pretty much full gas; I don't think Hoff has ever done that type of effort up Lemmon. I think Lionel puts 4-6mins on his competitors in that climb. It plays completely to his strengths; just grip it and rip it. I also think Lionel would give up (most likely) almost all of that time on the downhill.
Kitt Peak I think is the way better test of cycling ability. Lionel made up a segment (miles 3-12 for some reason) to take the "
Kitts Peak" climb (it's Kitt Peak) and he did it very, very fast. But that is a far more demanding descent that is way more susceptible to wind and, as such, I think he would lose more time there than on Mt Lemmon.
This is the real Kitt Peak Segment (there is a TT up it every late summer). Sam Long put up a very quick time earlier this year (and he rode out there, he did not drive, 143mi total ride that day) of 54:19 @ 13mph. Lionel's segment (where he started going HAM at mile ~3) was at 14.3mph. Sam Long went through that same segment about 6mins down on Lionel. Figure Lionel doing the real climb and not the cherry-picked one and let's say at the top LS has 4.5ish minutes on the so-called "Big Unit." Sam did not register a time on the "
Kitt Peak Descent" segment, but what he did register was slow AF (27.2 mph). For reference, the KOM is @ 45mph.
Basically, Kitt Peak (almost no matter the wind, but especially in moderate to high wind) favors the athletes who are actually good at riding their bikes and Lemmon favors the athletes that are good at being triathletes. I think the test overall favors high octane athletes a la BK, RVB, Lionel but I think locals would get a boost due to knowing the descents extremely well. My vote would obviously be Hoff, but SL is probably the absolute fittest at the moment. But he's not a good descender of mountains.