At least that was the intention. Ryan showed up and muscled his way, well, won a rock/paper/scissors session to make us go up the steep side of Suncrest right away rather than at the end of the ride.
As you can see below this climb has a bunch of sections over 10% grade, some reaching 14%, yielding an estimated grade of 8% for 3.5 miles.
Within the first 1/2 mile I start looking down at my bike, thinking there is something wrong with my gearing or I have a flat. I can't be in my lowest gear already. I am fit damn it. I have been working out all winter. What the f***?
A bit later I realize what the f***: I am running a 11-21 cassette with my 53-39 crank set. Yeah, I did it, I just blamed the hardware. In November I replaced the cassette with an older 11-21 because I was going to be doing FLAT base miles and that cassette is just not used anymore since I have a 53-39 crank set. May as well use it up during the winter. Therefore today's climb up Suncrest was done at 5 mph in a 39x21 gear. This was strangely reminiscent of a certain Little Cottonwood canyon climb during a certain 1000 warriors race. Don't do that.
Then came the downhill. Turns out I'm still a featherweight and I don't believe there is anything I can do to help gravity. I pedaled the whole way down at nearly my functional threshold power but couldn't be useful for anyone and could only keep up if I was in someones draft. Pathetic.
All in all the day was gorgeous, the company was great, and we got a few quality hours in. Tomorrow: Ski day!
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