Thomas's story: Mt Lemmon Hill Climb

BaseCamp athlete Thomas Gosnell shared his experience at the 2026 Mt Lemmon Hill Climb bike ride in Arizona.

On Friday, May 8, I completed the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association's (GABA) supported Mt. Lemmon Hill Climb. The only water source on the mountain is 21 miles and 5000+ feet from the base. With the heat getting fired up in Tucson at this time of year, it is nice to have support for this climb. The event is not a race, but most riders have personal goals for the event. Mine was to improve on my performance from last year, but life had other plans for me.

Leading up to the event, I had a planned 10-day break for a family trip to Hawaii. That alone would not have had a big impact on my anticipated performance. What did impact my performance was getting sick as we were returning to Tucson. That killed my ability to train for another 10 days or so. I was not feeling 100% until about a week before the event. Knowing I would not be as strong as I was last year, it was time to SAIL!! Looking beyond the hill climb, I have a gravel race on Memorial Day in Durango, CO, and the Steamboat gravel race a month later. Coach Greg Waggoner and I modified my expectations for the hill climb from chasing improved time to improving future performance.

My new objectives for Mt. Lemmon were to complete the ride and practice skills that will be useful in later events. These skills were:

1. Bringing up my cadence early in the event to preserve neuromuscular power for later use;

2. Maintaining my energy by steadily consuming adequate carbs throughout the event; and

3. Focusing more on my perceived effort and heart rate to manage my output as opposed to power numbers since the power drops off as the elevation increases.

The ride started from McDonald Park, about 4 miles from the base of the mountain. I rode the first hour on the mountain at an intensity factor of 0.87. In hindsight, I pushed that pace a little too hard given my conditioning coming in and the length of the ride. I started to feel little twinges of cramping after I left the Middle Bear aid station (11.5 miles from the base). When I reached the San Pedro aid station (17.5 miles from the base), I drank pickle juice and added some to my water bottles. As I was climbing from San Pedro Vista to Loma Linda (24 miles from the base), I was thinking that I would be doing well just to get to Ski Valley. I stopped at Loma Linda for pie before continuing. I ground my way up to Ski Valley (26 miles from the base) and stopped for the obligatory photograph. I thought I was done, but something in the back of my brain was saying, “Are you sure about that?”

I stopped to talk with a couple friends at Ski Valley. I asked if they were continuing up. Sherree surprised me when she said yes. I had seen her at San Pedro Vista on the ground stretching to relieve sciatica pain. Beth, a very strong rider, had a very serious crash in Spain a couple of years ago and was afraid of the descent. She said she would probably only go to the first bend in the road. So, if someone with extreme physical pain was going for it and someone with considerable fear was considering it, what would be my excuse for not giving it a shot. Beth took off with some other riders. Sherree and I soon followed. When I got to the first corner there was no Beth. About two-thirds of the way to the Observatory I found Beth stopped on the side of the road questioning if she wanted to go on. I offered some encouragement and told her she was almost there. We rode together to the top. After taking a few photos at the Observatory, we headed back down the mountain stopping at Loma Linda again for a well-earned second piece of pie.

The final climb to the Observatory (28 miles from the base, 6,825 ft total elevation gained) was easier than I had envisioned on the way up the mountain. In fact, it was easier than I remembered it being last year when I was better prepared. This would be attributed to my focus on the three skills listed above. Furthermore, while I did take the following day off, I felt no ill-effects from the climb when I did my Sunday workout. I was very pleased with that.