Phil and the Volcano

Maui’s Haleakala volcano, often referred to as the “World’s Longest Paved Climb”, rising from sea level to a 10-000-foot peak over 35 miles at an average gradient of 5.8%, is bucket-list material for any road cyclist. For those with a particularly strong penchant for suffering, the Strava KOM segment up Haleakala has become a testing ground for one’s ability to pace, suffer, and handle altitude for hours.

The top-10 leaderboard is a mix of World-Tour and semi-pros, including the likes of Derek Gee, Pete Stetina, Mike Woods, and Phil Gaimon. Canadian cycling hero and current national champion, Woods, set a blazing time of 2h27m16s up the volcano in early 2013 that stood for clost to a decade. It was finally eclipsed by Drake Deuel, a former Zwift software engineer and elite cyclist, who put in a perfectly calculated effort in 2021, to take the crown in 2h24m04s: a daunting time that raised the bar even higher and gave 4iiii athlete, former World Tour pro and renowned climber/Youtuber/retirement-failure, Phil Gaimon, a monumental challenge to sink his teeth into.

With his years of experience taking down some of the world’s most iconic ascents with a skillful combination of power, pacing and strategy, Gaimon bested Deuel’s time on January 27th, setting the new gold standard of 2h23m36s. In addition to watching Phil’s record-setting attempt on his YouTube channel, you can get some more insight into what it took to grasp the coveted Haleakala crown in our Q&A with Phil below!

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Congrats on claiming the recent Haleakala KOM! 2h23m is a seriously long KOM attempt, what are you thinking about over that length of time to keep yourself motivated and focused?

It’s weird to say that I have no idea what I was thinking about for those hours. I remember some confusion and stress early on when my follow vehicle missed a turn and lost me, but other than that I think I was in some sort of a flow state - focused on the effort.

How long was this attempt in the works and how far back was your training being targeted for this effort (if at all)?

This climb deserved a good video and required a good block of training to have any hope of a fast time. Since it’s such a long effort, I planned to do it in January after I could have a good period of endurance training. November and December I did a lot of long rides, focused on the 300-350W zone that I was anticipating in Hawaii.

With such a drastic change in elevation from the beginning to the end point on this KOM, for those unfamiliar with the effect that can have, can you explain a little about how and why you paced the way you did?

As you get higher up, a lower oxygen level reduces your power threshold. So the same effort would achieve 350W at sea level, but only 300W at 7000ft. It’s also very important to control the effort, because as you get higher up it’s harder to recover. Going just a little bit above your zone could cost you a lot of time.

For such a lengthy effort, nutrition would need to be factored in, what kind of calculations did you make for this / what did you consume - and do you feel like you got it right?

Starting topped off on carbs was definitely critical. For shorter KOMs I usually prefer to eat after, but for this I had a good breakfast of grits and eggs, the First Endurance high carb drink mix in 3 bottles, First Endurance liquid shot with caffeine every 30 minutes, and a small can of coke with 30 minutes to go.

What power data (and other data) did you have on your screen and find most useful to successfully gauge the effort and stay motivated?

I usually look at 3s average power on the Strava live segment screen on my Wahoo. The live segment tells me if I’m up or down on the target time, exactly how far I have to go and how long it should take. This allows me to adjust my pacing in real-time.

Standing vs seated climbing - I assume that vast majority was in the saddle, do you like to stand at times to give different muscles a chance to contribute / others a break… or is just more aero/faster to keep it all seated?

Typically I stand for speed adjustments, so if there’s a hairpin I’ll stand to accelerate out of that, or just a few seconds here and there to give my butt a break or recruit slightly different muscles.

Same question but for cadence… do you mix it up, a bit of a lighter or heavier gear at times to purposely change the feel - or just stay locked in at the average cadence that feels right?

I don’t really think about cadence much and I don’t set cadence targets when I ride. I find that when I’m fresh (after a day off or early in an effort) the cadence will be higher, and as I get longer into a training block or a KOM like this, it’ll slow down. You’re kind of using your aerobic system more with cadence, and then getting into using your muscles more towards the end.

Where does that rank in your list of difficult of KOMs claimed?

There are a lot of KOMs that are more competitive, meaning more attempts overall and more pros have tried it. Like anything that the Tour de France races for example is probably impossible for a KOM without a pro peloton draft. However, there are only a few KOM that are as tough as Haleakalah just to get to the top. Of the category of super-epic, long climbs, I believe this is the toughest solo leaderboard.

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Check out the following resources to learn more about the effort:

• Phil’s Worst Retirement Ever on Youtube,

• @philgaimon on Instagram,

• FasCat Coaching for coaching and training plans,

• and the Precision 3+ PRO Powermeter Phil used for his KOM.