El Tour 2009

We made our way out of downtown. Water bottles littered the streets: cold, nervous fingers. There would be a lot of them as we continued. There was finally room to pick up speed, but soon an emergency vehicle was coming down the street ahead of us and cops motioning riders to steer to the side. A rider was down in the middle of the street. I later heard that someone had a heart attack during the event, but I don't know if that was he.

My plan was to make my first stop around mile 29 to refill one water bottle and add electrolytes. My bladder felt like it was about to burst; I hadn't even seen any port-a-johns downtown so had to start out that way. It seemed that many others were in the same situation--as we got out of the city, many guys had stopped and had taken a step into the desert shrubs. I continued on, wanting to stick to The Plan.

I was doing pretty well, though more cyclists were passing me than I passed (a lot of riders come from all over, so the distribution is skewed to the lean mean cycling machine end). As we went over an overpass, a huge line of cars were stopped, prevented from entering the on-ramp. Some looked pretty steamed, which swelled my heart with gladness at the sweet, sweet payback motorists were getting from cyclists that day. I made it to my first stop behind schedule owing to the slow start and the first river crossing (a longer walk than I'd recalled). Soon relieved, I put a packet of EmergenC in a bottle and got it filled back up, and got the other topped off (still mostly filled with a Perpetueum mix), and was back on the road.

This was now my home turf, the extreme east side of Tucson, roads I cycled on nearly every week. Crews had smoothed out and even added bike lanes on a few of them, completed just in time for the race. We sped by Saguaro National Park and another huge line of blocked cars. Every block or so, another group of spectators stood, or sat in lawn chairs as we sped by. Many had homemade signs, rang cowbells, or generously cheered everyone on.

After a discomforting uphill section, we turned the northeast corner of the route, and came down to Canyon Ranch and the second river crossing. There had been a little water in it those many years ago, but not this time around. It was dry and sandy, fine dust churned up by the hundreds of people carrying their bikes through all around me like a steady stream of army ants.

We entered Canyon Ranch, normally an exclusive resort and spa favored by celebs who need to get far away from the bright lights for awhile. But on this day, for whatever reason, they allow the horde to ride through. The aid station here was at about the 50 mile mark and my 2nd of 3 planned stops. I took on more water and grabbed a small bite to eat. It was warming up, climbing into the 70's.

More uphills. The electrolytes had really helped, but I was beginning to feel worn down again. Still, I pushed through the Foothills at a decent pace (for me), then made an unplanned stop at an aid station in the Northwest side. I immediately regretted it though, as a huge group of riders went by. Continuing on, more riders passed than I overtook, but I tried not to dwell on that. Some I would see repeatedly as we made alternate stops. After a long gradual ascent, we were in the Rancho Vistoso area, and I felt the need to make another unplanned stop, to stretch and finish a power bar. A long gradual descent was upcoming. Occasionally I would try to draft behind a group of riders, but generally they were still too fast for me. At the bottom, there were about 25 miles remaining, my 3rd planned stop. I made this one longer, getting off the bike for five or six minutes, stretching out and replenishing electrolytes with another EmergenC packet (I'm rather attached to those).

The final two dozen miles were tough. My butt hurt, hands and arms were sore. My pace slowed and I made two more unplanned stops. Getting back into the city seemed to take forever. The skyscrapers appeared again, but the final turn couldn't come soon enough, giving me time to reflect on what I could have done differently, but it really seemed like I had worked near my limit. Finally the finish! Official time: 06:59:43--just seconds under 7 hours. So given the marginally longer course, and my vastly superior bike, it appears I'm roughly in the same shape as my 21-year-old self (within some margin of error). 2100th place out of 3563 finishers (not counting tandems). A bit slower than the 6 hour 39 minute median time.

So that's that. I'm looking forward to more 'century' (100+ mile) rides and mountain climbs, hopefully get my average speed up by a couple mph, and do it in under 6 hours next year!