I understand what you mean. In January on a 33º/91F day I did the Alpine Classic in Victoria. A 200km ride with almost 4000m (13,000f) of climbing. On the first climb I saw a lot of guys with triples and thought they were never going to need them. How wrong was I. After 140km came the final climb of the day. A relatively easy gradient of 4.8% but 21km long. By the base I was shagged, and was wishing for lower gears for the next 2 hours. On a normal day this mountain isn’t that hard, for a fit cyclist. It just depends on how far you have already ridden before the base. I still wouldn’t get a triple, but I would consider an FSA compact crank 50/34 with a 12-25 cassette.

CHEERS.

Mark