Sunday Morning Ride: Slick Tires + Sticky Trail = Fast Climb

Best time yet on the Brown Canyon climb: 7:13, a ridiculous 32-second improvement. The snow and ice were gone, leaving the sandy trail surface hard as concrete, and I still had the Vulpine semi-slicks on the bike. They worked fine on the Pistol Hill segment of the AZ Trail, so I saw no reason to swap them out. I also decided to really pay attention to my gearing, and clicked back and forth between three and four throughout the climb. The combination of traction and tight power-matching made a huge difference.

• Climb rate = 2826 feet/hour
• Average speed = 7.48 mph