Awesome - congratulations! I did the climb last year and the conditions were perfect. I'm scheduled to give it another shot in late December - another 5 weeks away.

IIRC, the guy at the bike shop where I went to buy my CO2 cartridges told me that of the 36 mile climb (starting in Paia), only 600 meters of it are flat/downhill. As you said, for the most part, it's not really steep, but the slope is relentless. That last 1/3 mile climb to the summit was pretty steep though - a nice (albeit painful) way to finish the ride!

Are you able to amend the thread title to change the spelling of "Haleakala"? Just wanna make sure that people searching later can find this thread...