Sanders sets new PR up Mt. Lemmon

Lionel Sanders remains King of the Mountain when it comes to climbing Mt. Lemmon.

Kevin Mackinnon March 18, 2020

There might not be any racing happening these days, but Lionel Sanders managed to make a training effort up to the top of Mt. Lemmon more than competitive as he maintained his Strava KOM for the climb and topped the list in some other segments, too.

Lionel Sanders on the bike at the 2019 Ironman World Championsip. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

While the race season is on hold because of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic, athletes are still training and, as we learned in a video posted by Lionel Sanders on his YouTube page yesterday, still finding ways to compete.

Sanders set out to see if he could set a new PR for the climb up Arizona’s famed Mt. Lemmon. He already owned the Strava KOM for the full climb up to the top of the mountain. The Windsor, Ont. native managed to maintain his KOM status for that climb, while also breaking Phil Gaimon’s Strava record for the “Mt. Lemmon Official” segment by over three minutes.

The “Mt. Lemmon Official” Strava segment is just over 32 km long. In beating Gaimon’s previous time, Sanders averaged 381 watts for just over 73 minutes.

Related: Lionel Sanders sets new Strava record up Mt. Lemmon

Sanders maintained his effort of over 382 watts through an even longer segment.

In the slightly longer Mt. Lemmon Strava segment Sanders was also over two-minutes up on Gaimon’s time.

Here’s a screenshot showing the full ride – Sanders climbed just under 6,000 feet and had a weighted average power of 367 for the full 47.4 km of riding.

While racing might be on hold for the next little bit, it would appear that Sanders will remain as competitive as ever as he waits for a chance to prove his fitness in a race.