Originally Posted by
caloso
Haleakala. It's not that steep, but man it's a long grind. That, and I was really affected by the altitude the first time I did it.
I didn’t think it had been that hard as I approached the summit, but I tried to raise a bit of a sprint for the final half mile, and a joint committee of my legs, lungs, the soles of my feet, and 5.5 hours of time my butt had spent in the saddle all said “nope.”
My absolute hardest was the Col du Soulor in the Pyrenees. It was supposed to be just a part of the ride on the way up to the Aubisque, but it ended up being juuuuust bruuutal. By contrast, the 5km up to the Aubisque itself after was a nice cruise.