… the ‘scar’ on Bugs?
You know, this one:
The answer is: more than 600. Or more accurately, I don’t know, because I didn’t clean it.
Here’s the power plot:
The four red spikes on the right side are my four attempts to clean the steepest (fall line) part. I cleaned the lower part, and the bulk of the power plot shows that effort (with strategic stalling in places).
Traction just wasn’t there, or that’s my excuse, anyway. I’ve cleaned it before, but it was close and after rain.
Was it a good idea to be pedaling hard into the scar, at high noon on a 90 degree day? Not really, but I did it anyway.
Gobble gobble.
At long last, I have a little yellow CPU giving me watts and a rear brake, allowing me to do some interesting rides on it.
Forecast was for nearly 100 degrees in Tucson, so I headed for Mt. Lemmon, climbing the highway for a while before impulsively dropping down to check out Rose Canyon Lake (never been there before). A good spot for a snack and a few interesting rock steps on the trail around it.
From there it was on to Green Mountain, where I found my way into plenty of technical mischief. The Leviathan felt a little wimpy, but I saw some advantages to it, as well. I hopped around some switchbacks, railed turns and even microhucked a few rocks, cringing a bit at the landing. Just couldn’t help myself.
I love how camouflaged those toad’s are. Exact color match with the surrounding rocks.
Climbing up to Bear Saddle I hit the highest wattage of the day – 1034. Pretty sure I was on rock at the time. Too loose to get that high on dirt out there.
Green Mountain is one gnarly motha’. I walked plenty, including down. The contrast really makes me savor the nuggets of contour pine needle bliss.
I hit the Bugs Scar, as described earlier, descending the lovely pine tree canyon as quickly as I could to bring core temperature back into tolerable levels. I was surprised how high the powertap read on short little bursts along the banks.
The heat made it easy to keep rolling as I descended back into the desert. Right after I took that pic I proceeded to spray fork oil onto my front rotor, letting some pressure out of the negative value on my fork. Doh! I wiped it off and tried (failed!) to not use the front brake on the rest of the descent.
Summer’s here! Can’t believe just a week ago I was bailing from the AZT 300 due to snow/cold, afraid to go this high on the mountain.
Geek alert! ’bout time you get some power rides in.
I coulda told you your short term power bursts were on the high side – very high actually. My guess is you have a 90 second power ability far above average simply based on what I’ve seen you climb, and how easy you make it look.
As for Bugs, not sure I can clean it but if I could it would take considerably less power 😉
Rightly afraid at that… I would’ve bailed also. The power meter adds a whole new level to the word “training.” I expect plenty more power plots on the blog soon. Oh, and you need to start taking pictures of your head, face, helmet and what you are eating/drinking on each ride to really take it to the next level.