The option I chose was Lemmon - I didn't get the chance to see the top yesterday due to the whole bike breaking thing, so today was going to be my day. The workout was as follows...
1) 1 hour low endurance warmup to base of mtn
2) Max TT effort from mile marker 0 to 14 (Windy Point)
3) Endurance rest of the way to the top
4) Total time should be around 4:30-5:00 hours of riding
So I set out, an easy spin to the base of Mt. Lemmon pretty much gives me a perfect one hour warmup. 
This is the road that leads up the mountain. I've got three bottles with me and I've pretty much finished one off before I get to the base. This is also a good time to take some feeds that will kick in in about an hour so you don't start getting hungry halfway through the climb. You see that peak on the right side of the image? Yeah, that isn't even close to the top. We're going higher
Mile 0 and I'm finding an early rhythm, already much faster than yesterday's summit attempt. Around mile marker 2 I see a familiar pair coming down the mountain in the opposite direction - Adam and Emily! Give em a quick wave and it's back to head down with my legs pumping. I'm feeling freaking awesome at this point, I'm moving along at a great clip, enough to elicit a "whoa" from another cyclist as I pass him. Speed is moving between 18-23km/h on this segment. I could be going faster but as my baseline ride was cut short yesterday, I'm not actually sure what kind of pace I can sustain. For the time being though I like it.
Around mile 6 the road gets a wee bit steeper. I'm still maintaining a good pace and I feel good to keep pushing hard. Suffice to say I'm in the zone. A convoy of cars start to pass me on the road and they've got oncoming traffic as well so I'm stuck on the shoulder. That's why there was no way I could avoid the mass of glass that was covering the road. I do my best to avoid it and as I clear the glass-field I think I've made it out... Pssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ok rear flat. It's not hard to find the culprit - chunk of glass right smack dab in the middle of the tread. I quickly extricate it and go about replacing the tube. Miles Ahead bike shop provides a flat repair kit with their rental bikes, so in goes the new tube and a CO2 cartridge takes care of the rest.
I'm off riding again but trying to restart my effort at one of the steeper parts of the climb. I've lost all my rhythm and everything seems more laboured now. This sucks. I try to find the groove again but it aint coming. Oh well, to the top as best I can.
The girls have talked about how the vegetation on Mt. Lemmon can get interesting - at the bottom it's typical Arizona desert, a bunch of cacti and dirt. As you ascend higher, you get something more familair...
All of a sudden, around mile 10 (where my bike broke yesterday) you start seeing fir trees. All of a sudden the trees ascend faster than you and put you in a tunnel, rock face on one side and forest on the other. Soon, the road flatens out as you pass some campgrounds so you can get some reprieve from the incline and turn the speed back up to the mid 20's. It's short lived however, as mile 12-14 are the steepest and you also have to deal with a headwind.
The last two miles to Windy Point are steep and the blind corners make it difficult to see cars coming. Finally though, after a quick roll over some cobbles, you arrive at Windy Point
That road way down there? Around mile 9, so five miles before where I took the picture. That peak you see in the top middle of the picture? That's the one I pointed out in the first picture of this post. And we're STILL not to the top yet. I hang out around for a bit as the hard effort is over. The Palisades are the next pitstop, six miles away. Time to start climbing again
And here's the part where I wish I could share a picture of the absolute peak of Lemmon. I cannot, because around mile 18, as I shifted into my granny gear, the chain jammed into the spokes. The rear wheel locked up in the same fashion it did when I cracked my frame so after a momentary freak out, I got chain free but was confronted by a wobbly wheel - one of the spokes was bent. I decided to turn back. I have never been more tense on a bike than on this descent. Every bump made me think the wheel was going to explode, the loads on the wheel are far higher at 50km/h + than 15. Everytime I leaned into a corner, I could feel the rear wheel wanting to break away. Everytime I used the rear brake the bike would wobble. I gingerly made it down and into the rental shop. They quickly realised the limit screw had not been adjusted and assumed all fault. They gave me a new wheel and quickly sent me on my way.
Sunday is a rest day. No long rides, just time to focus on stretching, nutrition and recovery. Monday we start another 3-day block before heading home on Thursday. And we'll probably start with summiting Mt. Lemmon. I will see it before this trip is over.
LYRBST
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