Pike’s Peak was put on the world motorsport radar by the now legendary film Climb Dance, a hair-raising trip into the setting sun with Ari Vatanen and his terrifyingly fast Peugeot 405 back in 1988. Full gas and mostly sideways, Vatanen made the iconic dirt road in Colorado with its drops to the side of sweeping switchbacks his own and his record stood for decades. The imagery of the film will last much longer.

Watching a guy ride a bicycle up the now-tarmacked road isn’t quite as exciting, but our KOM-chasing protagonist Phil Gaimon keeps the two-wheeled stakes high as he prioritises a National hillclimb title over a Strava segment. The thin air and depleted oxygen adds to the general weirdness of a place overrun by fat slow tourists and a bunch of fast skinny dudes getting in their way. Only a Stars and Stripes jersey can make it worthwhile.