Lemon Wind

Today was 'ride up Mt. Lemmon' day. Not the whole thing, really. Just certain parts of it again and again. And again.
It was fun. Something about a 9200 ft high mountain just makes me smile. You can see all of Tucson on the lower part and once you round the corner and don't have to look at that anymore, you see beautiful peaks and vistas all around. Last week around the same time I rode up much further, but the difference was the intensity of the wind. I could barely keep my bike in control on the descents and felt plain silly while trying to climb. One lady I talked to had been up to the very top and had been forced off her bike, using it to brace herself from falling over in the wind.

On the way down I decided to take one of my more favorite sections of singletrack, just to get in a laugh. My friend Rudi rides everything on his rigid SS with drop bars, so I figured it would either be really funny or at least good ninja training. It ended up being a little of both. I learned that road tires are not only kinda sucky at providing suspension when going over rocks and things, but they have terrible traction trying to climb and stop. I didn't get to do much of either and ended that part of the ride hungry, giggly, and with some of the best arm pump I've had all year.

Tonight: Phoenix vs. Tucson, bike polo tournament, round #1