It should be clear to anybody reading that Rick@OCRR errs on the side of "more climbing is better than less climbing". That's a heck of a day in the saddle Rick!
Gandor - if you like climbing, the lifts are doable with the right equipment. I have a compact crank and for the lifts installed a 11-32 cassette and made it up. Rick is much slimmer than I am and I think he just uses his 32 cog for the particularly difficult bits. If you don't already have a 32 cog, you might want to incorporate that into your planning (or you could probably get away with a 30 if you're using Shimano)
Another fun climb... the palm springs tramway. Only 4 miles, but it's a beast.