See I do not live in Tucson. I live in Phoenix, much warmer than Tucson.
And there was snow at about mile 20 
People who live in Tucson are not allowed to bitch about the weather while it is snowing/hailing in any part of the country. Especially at my house. Like it is now.
It was damn cold out this morning when I went out at 7A.M. and ran with Dave Scott and Leanda Caveā¦must of been down in the low 50ās (Brrrrrrr!) : )
But I donāt eat ice cream. Thanks for the Xbox, I think Iām going to hook it up today so I can play my hangover away.
Did I miss the photos?
Just got back to San Diego after spending the last few days in Tucson. The Mount Lemmon ride was certainly the highlight of the trip. The group ascending kept getting smaller and smaller with even fewer declining the rides down and doing the descent. I had heard that the hardest part of the ride was the first 5 miles down and that was sure correct. I was cold all the way down!
Canāt wait for next year!
Iāll have to say that the ride up Mt Lemon was really nice. It did get cold where I turned around at Windy Point but not bad. The ride down was not near as fast as I thought it would be. The ride up was much easier then I thought also. It was hard but not really hard as I kept my heart rate at about an average of 140. I kept waiting to get tired out or bonk or something : )
You all have to ride Mingus Mountain. Steeper and many more switchbacks. At points on Mingus you can look straight down and see 3 switchbacks that you just rode up. The descent is totally a blast. 55 mph at points and through curves passing cars. Some points as you pass through the ghost town of Jerome are steep enough that you have to stand and are still only doing about 5 mph. Its a 13 mile climb starting at about 3500 ft topping out at just over 7,000 feet.
All and all, I had a great time on Mount Lemon and will return next year.
Met some great people at the Expo on Friday. The reps at Zipp, Fuji and Kestrel spent lots of time talking about their products. The new Kestrel and Fuji TT bikes were really nice. The Zipp reps spoke alot about the Zipp 2001 frames with me and I learned a bit more about them as well.
As a side noteā¦watch what disc you put on āyourā bike. The frame/disc combination is what you should be considering, not just which disc is faster.
115
Nice to meet you finally. Always like to make connections with people.
The TriFest Mt Lemmon ride this year was good. Unfortunately, due to the early starting of the Expo at 12:00 noon on Friday, many industry folk had to turn back at Windy Point - myself included. I was going well, and was looking forward to going all the way to Summerhaven, but this year there was not enough time. Still it was a good week of riding - about 12 hours over 5 days.
MissP and a small group of other hard-cores did go all the way up to the top. Apparently it was quite cold up there. Even at Windy Point, we did not wait long to head back down as it was getting chilly with gusting winds.
Thanks to Accelerade and Fluid for providing liquids along the way.
Thanks also to Mark and Eric from TriSports for showing me the way back to the hotel through town.
I will have a full TriFest report here and on my Blog in the next day or so. Need some down-time - been going all out for close to a week. Short version - again, if you were not here you, missed the best Tri Expo and Conference going and the training in Tucson is not too shabby either. In an strange and bizarre way, TriFest is like a live, living and breathing version of this forum - all the info, all the products, all the people - that you could ever want to see all in one place and you can spend as much time as you want doing what ever you want.
Hey where did you guys go last night. I spotted you two, talked to someone and poof your were gone. I was going to chat with MissP (shouldnāt that be MrsP) about riding Lemmon today.
Just as well though, I was tired this morning and would have made a poor riding partner.
Good seeing you again, Iāll be in touch about chatting with her in a few months.
Steve,
Nice meeting you as we went back to the hotel. It would have been a long ride and I probably would have been lost without catching up with you guys!!
Thanks again for recommending the road bike. It made the ride really easy!
Paul,
Yes it was good to meet you and you were also part of the groupetto coming back from Mt Lemmon. Small world!!
Brian,
We were bagged. Once we were out in the poker, we were thinking of heading back to the hotel. Polly went on the organized ride this morning over Gates - it was a bit of a hammer-fest, from what I heard. Guess the guys did not want to get Chicked!! I stayed in bed - then hit the breakfast buffet at the Hotel Arizona!
Good to see you again. Drop us a line any time you want to get info on Scotland.
Zipp,
Where do you park if you are starting the Mingus climb in Cottonwood. Last time I parked in some medical office parking lot and worried about getting towed the entire ride. I still stopped on the descent for lunch at the Haunted Hamburger, I was not that worried.
You could always just zip(p) up the 12 mile climb to Kitt Peak! Shorter but steeper!
Fleck, your girl MissP was putting the wood to us guys going over Gates, even after going to the top of Lemmon yesterday. She said she was tired from all the riding, but she sure it hell wasnāt showing it.
We at Triathlete will have a good gallery going up at triathlon.competitor.com, hopefully tomorrow (Monday), as well as a bunch of video interviews with vendors, athletes and luminaries. When you see the videos land at the site, donāt bust on my interviewing styleā¦ Iām not Katie Couricāyet.
Indeed, it was a good microcosm of ST, a good tight knit of age groupers, pros and industry folks, getting a chance to mingle and trade banter in a chill environ. It was actually better than Interbike because A.) you get to train in advance of the indoor show, with said luminaries, and B.) you can get time in the show to chat with Steve Hed, Dave Scott, Chris Carmichael, Sam McGlone, Leanda Cave or T.J. Tollakson and talk training or tech in a place where theyāre not looking at their watch booked with appointments; you can actually get good personal time to chat to these great folks.
And C.) there were no vices to lure you out super-late, like Vegas. Except for that one (regular, not strip) bar, the Meet Rack. Those that went, know. But you might not know that the crazy-ass proprietor was actually the LAST finisher at the 1979 Hawaii Ironman.
-Jay
Those that went, know. But you might not know that the crazy-ass proprietor was actually the LAST finisher at the 1979 Hawaii Ironman.
Jay,
Wow - cool factoid.
No wonder Seton was calling him āGodā!!
Dave Scottās presentation was interesting. Everyone focuses on '89 and the Iron-War between Dave and Mark. What was more revealing to me and was truly extraordinary was Daveās time from '86 - 8:20 something!! Note that this was pre- aerobars, pre -aero anything, really. They rode steel road bikes to 4:40āish IM bike splits.
No wonder Seton was calling him āGodā!!
Nope, they call him āGodā because he legally changed his name to āGodā! : )
Nope, they call him āGodā because he legally changed his name to āGodā!
I did notice a certain glow, or halo around him when he was walking around the Expo - now I know!
Just out of Cottonwood at the base of the climb. Thereās a gas station/store at the last traffic circle as you turn left and head up 89A. (They just put in 4 traffic circles on 89A) I always go in and ask if I can park in the lot, off to the side, to ride up the mountain. They are always very nice about it and allow me to park in their parking lot.
It took me 3 years to get into the Haunted Hamburger. The line is always out the door and down the street for lunch. I moved here in March 2006 and finally made it into the place for lunch about a month ago. Also try the Mile High Cafe. Its down the next switchback below the Haunted Hamburger.
Here are a couple of pics from Lemmon since everyone keeps asking. One is just looking back at the climb below and above Windy Point that I took on the way down. The other is of Cam Dye, Kristen Peterson, me, and a guy we met on the ride taken from the top just outside Summerhaven. Unfortunately it doesnāt look nearly as cold as it was.
Yes, those are napkins from the Cafe stuffed in my helmet. The Specialized helmets have great ventilation, maybe too much for an hour long descent at 40 mph in 40 degree temps.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g58/trigonjim/MtLemmon.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g58/trigonjim/MtLemmonTop.jpg
LOL, I was in the cafe when you were stuffing the napkins into your helmet. I thought you were nuts for eating the ice cream with your pie.