raydog

I've been training for this ride....11 passes, two over 12.000 ft., 36,000 ft of elevation gain in 7 days (and most of the route 7000-9000 feet elevation).
My dilema (until yesterday) was....I have two road bikes

all carbon Pinerello, 17.8 pounds, COMPACT DOUBLE with 11-28 10 spd cassette

aluminum (carbon fork) Motobecane, TRIPLE with same rear cassette, about 21 pounds

Since some very capable racer friends of mine have been telling me to use a triple for the Rockies SO my LBS owner friend took a bunch of parts off my Pinerello and installed them on the Motobecane last night and SUDDENLY I have a 19.5 pound Tour of Colorado bike! The big difference was putting the Mavic KSeriem Elite wheelset on.

Like the guys said, "you may not even need the small front chainring but, psychologically, knowing it's there is big". I've climbed some serious 10%ers with the compact but I do feel so much better knowing the granny's there if I need it.
Raydog

funrover 

IMO you will want the triple. The grade here isn't the part that will wear you out it is the distance the grade goes on for.