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This weekend was the final ride in the Arizona Brevet
Series. It was a 600k (372 actual miles) ride from Casa Grande to
Tombstone. Brevets are really nice because they consist of a small group
of very experienced riders. Some of the big rides like El Tour de
Phoenix, El Tour de Tucson and the Death Ride have thousands of riders
of all experience levels, so they can get kind of dangerous as the more
inexperienced riders get tired. And I’ve found I kind of enjoy riding
really long distances without other riders around me. I can change my
pace whenever I want without having to worry about dropping someone or
hanging on the back of a faster group. Anyway, as usual, below is the
ride report I sent my coach. May 7th I’ll be doing a ride with my friend
Elliot that’s called “Breathless Agony.” It’s 114 miles with 12,000 feet
of cumulative ascent.
If you want to be removed from the distribution list, let me know.
Enjoy (kinda long, but it was a really long ride!)
Mike
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Wow, what an absolutely epic ride! It had everything, lots of climbing
and cross/head winds, beautiful, desolate vistas, challenging weather
and good company (at least on Saturday). The ride started at 4 am
Saturday morning. 13 riders left the start, only 4 or 5 would finish on
Sunday. We had a small group that stayed together all the way to
Sandario Road. This time I rode in the back until the first checkpoint
at Picacho Peak. Just before the town of Picacho we had to cross some
railroad tracks and got stopped by a train. This was no ordinary train,
it was a very slow confused train. When we got there it was in the
process of stopping. It sat for a minute, then started going in the
opposite direction for a few minutes, stopped again, then went back in
the original direction. Weird. There's a second train crossing on the
other side of town. I looked right as we were going through town and
there was that damn train headed for the second crossing. Luckily it
stopped again before it got there, so we made it through that crossing
ok.
After the first checkpoint at Picacho Peak I started working the front
with a couple other guys. Somewhere along Sandario, I pulled off the
front and found there were only three of us left, Derek Slife (the RAAM
racer I met last weekend) and Mike Sturgill ( a long distance cyclist
who rides with the Bullshifters). I found out when I got to Tombstone
that someone had missed a turn and the others stopped to wait for him. I
dropped Derek and Mike going through the rollers by Old Tombstone but
sat up and waited for a minute and Mike caught me. I didn’t see Derek,
so Mike and I rode to a Circle K on Kenney road and stopped to fill our
bottles. Derek still hadn’t shown up, so we continued on. Apparently
Derek was experiencing some knee pain and wisely decided not to push
that pain through 375 miles.
Mike Sturgill is a really strong rider and we made great time.
Occasionally either he or I would drop each other on various climbs
along the way, but we rode together quite a bit and it was really
refreshing having a wheel to sit on for a while. There were several
points when the wind picked up that I was REALLY glad to have some other
guy’s butt in front of me! He dropped me on the climb up Mission Road
where we both got buzzed by a large flat bed tow truck. The guy flew by
me a little too close for comfort, but there was a car approaching from
the other direction when he was approaching Mike, so Mike was lucky
enough to get to listen to that asshole’s horn for a few seconds before
he got buzzed too. I caught Mike somewhere near Helmet Peak. On the 400k
we turned on Helmet Peak Road, so I automatically started to turn there.
It was a good thing Mike was with me because he stopped me from making a
directional error. We had a good descent down Continental Road into
Green Valley and stopped at the Chevron to fill bottles. Mike’s like me
and isn’t one for sitting around at the stops for long either, so we
continued on pretty quickly. The climb up Sahaurita Road was pretty much
against a cross wind, so it was tough. I dropped Mike for a bit, but he
caught me before we hit US83.
There was a store at Houghton and Sahaurita and I made my first serious
tactical error by not stopping to fill my bottles. The cue sheet
indicated 5.9 miles from the store to SR83 and 22.1 miles to the
mini-mart in Sonoita. I had a full bottle and about 3/4ths of a bottle
when I went by the store, so I figured I’d be ok. I didn’t think about
the heat (in the 80’s) and the amount of climbing that was ahead of me.
Mike dropped me on the climb up to Sonoita. I could see him in the
distance and he wasn’t getting too far ahead, so I just took my time.
Susan and Derek pulled up and asked if I needed anything. I looked up
and thought I saw the top of the climb, so I turned them down. Huge,
huge tactical error. Lesson learned: if you don’t know the terrain,
always, always accept fluids when offered. Of course it was a false
summit and I was no where near the top. The road follows a bunch of
ridge lines that just kept getting bigger. You’d see what looked like
the top, but as you approached you could see another ridge even higher
beyond it.
I still hadn’t reached the top when I ran out of Accelerade. A few miles
back I had seen a sign that said Sonoita was 14 miles ahead, so I
probably still had a good 10 miles to go. I didn’t want to work too hard
without water, so I slowed my speed down. The wind at that point was
welcome because I was going slow and it helped cool me down. There was
also some patchy clouds that helped when they went by. Several miles out
my face started to buzz, similar to the feeling when you
hyper-ventilate, so I started coasting whenever I could. I seriously
thought about abandoning at that point by trying to stop someone to ask
them give me a ride into Sonoita. I don’t know how I made it. I saw some
ranches off the road so I knew I was getting close and just kept
plugging away.
Mike was still at the convenience store when I got there. He also ran
out of water about 5 miles out of town and he was smart enough to accept
water when Susan passed him. I took some additional time at that stop
and bought some ham which was pretty high in sodium, some peanuts, and
an ice cream sandwich. Mike waited for me to recover some, which was
mighty nice of him. We left together and had a bit of a tail wind for a
while, then it turned into a cross-wind again. I pulled for a while,
then let Mike take the front. We hit a hill and he dropped me. I was
thinking about trying to catch up when I realized that I was less than
40 miles from Tombstone, where I planned to relax and sleep for a while,
so what was my hurry? I slowed down and tried to maintain a recovery
pace, which was difficult with the hills and cross-wind. It started
sprinkling a few times on the way into Tombstone, but it wasn’t bad.
When I got to the “Slither and Crawl Inn” at about 4:30 pm, Mike was
there and Susan was making some really good pasta for dinner. We ate
together, then Mike headed back. He asked me if I wanted to go with him,
but I was tired of fighting the wind and was ready for a break. I took a
shower and felt a lot better. A couple other guys showed up when I was
in the shower and they were also heading straight back. I relaxed on the
couch for a couple hours and headed to a bunk at about 7:15 or so. I
asked Susan to wake me at 1:00 am, which would give me 5 or 6 hours of
sleep. Susan said three people abandoned on Saturday, two with knee
problems and one with bad stomach problems.
About 12:30 I got up to use the bathroom. I was trying to get back to
sleep, but couldn’t. I could hear the wind just howling outside. Susan
came in at 1am and said it was windy and raining. I got up and took my
stuff to the main house to change. When I walked out a huge lightening
bolt lit the sky and the rain really started coming down. I changed, had
a cup of coffee, banana and a muffin, then headed out. The thunderstorm
was still raging and I was soaked within seconds. Rain was coming down
in sheets and I had to take my glasses off to see. The wind was coming
out of the west and west is where I was headed. It was brutal. The rain
finally stopped 10 miles or so out of town, but the wind continued. My
Polar shows the temperature dropped to 46 at some point, so I was wet
and cold and riding slowly into a strong headwind. My bike started to
feel bouncy and my rear tire was going flat. I’ve mentioned how bad
light is on a wet road before. I thought there was a shoulder, there
wasn’t. So when I pulled off to change the tire, I pulled off into mud
and quickly got back on the road. Now I had to change a tire that was
covered in mud.
It was a slow, brutal ride back to Sonoita. But the clouds were starting
to clear and it was a full moon out, which really lit up the plains. If
the wind hadn’t been there I would have really enjoyed that section. No
traffic, great scenery and just the sounds of my tires on the road would
have been really nice. Instead I was probably going 13 or 14 mph, but
the wind made it sound like I was on a 40 or 50 mph descent! I still got
to enjoy the views though.
After Saturday, I took every opportunity to fill my bottles. There was a
gas station open at the corner of SR82 and SR90 that I stopped to fill
one bottle. The store was closed in Sonoita, but there was a water tap,
so I filled a bottle there too. Then the wind gods smiled on me and the
wind shifted to the South and I was headed north. It was a great climb
and descent back to Sahuarita road. The roads were still wet and it was
dark, so I took the descent really easy. I pulled into that store on
Houghton around 6am-ish and got myself a ham and cheese lunchable for
breakfast. The wind continued out of the South and would occasionally
shift to the west, but there was a mild descent all the way down to
Sahuarita, so it really wasn’t too bad and I made pretty good time.
The route back stayed on Sahuarita road which turns into Helmet Peak
Road after crossing the freeway. The wind picked up out of the South on
the climb up Helmet Peak and was fantastic when I hit Mission Road. I
was flying along at 30+ most of the way down Mission -- it was probably
the most enjoyable section of the ride from an effort standpoint. It
would have been better if the road wasn’t so rough. When I got to Ajo, I
got mixed in with the PBAA’s Tour of the Tucson Mountain (TTM) riders.
Luckily they were going to Sandario and I was turning on Kenney, so I
was with them for less than a mile. Somewhere after Old Tucson I had my
second flat. I’m really surprised that tube lasted as long as it did
with all the dirt I got in the tire earlier in the morning. When I got
back to Sandario Road there were still a lot of riders, but they were
spread out and going relatively slow. That wind was still coming out of
the south, but not as strong. I maintained 23-26mph pretty much all the
way to Marana and was just flying by the TTM riders.
When I got to the Circle K in Marana it was around 10:40 or so. The
clerk said three other riders had come through around 7:00ish. That
didn’t seem right. I was in Tombstone for at least 7 hours after they
left and now I was only 3 or 4 hours behind them? No… he had to be
mistaken. I made good time down the frontage road to the road that leads
back into Casa Grande. I was at least 2 hours ahead of the time I though
it would take. The wind was coming out of the West, so I was fighting
the headwind again. Right around Eloy I decided that I was close enough
and I didn’t need to fight that wind anymore, so I sat up and just
started riding easy into the wind. My legs felt ok and I probably could
have continued fighting through that head wind, but I decided I’d rather
recover my legs some before getting in my truck and driving an hour
home. When I got to the finish, Susan wasn’t back from Tombstone yet, so
I went around the corner to the Dairy Queen for a Cherry Dilly Bar and
to get a receipt showing my finish time. Susan was there when I rode
back to my truck.
The riders who rode all night had to battle through thunderstorms most
of the night. At points it turned into sleet. They had stopped a few
times to try to wait out the rain, but it must have been way harder than
my ride. They wound up finishing sometime around 11am. I finished just
before 1pm. Boy am I glad I decided to get some sleep in Tombstone! One
rider was still out on the course when I finished. The others had
abandoned somewhere near Sonoita. That wind from Tombstone to Sonoita
was just brutal. I’ve had hard climbing rides, I’ve had long fast rides,
and I’ve ridden long distances in the rain, but this ride had
everything. It was, by far, the most challenging and personally
rewarding ride I’ve ever done. Saturday was 192 miles and it took me
about 12.5 hours riding most of the way with Mike Sturgill. I spent
about 9 hours resting in Tombstone. Sunday was 180 miles and it took
about 11.5 hours riding alone. Total time was about 33 hours.
My legs feel fine today, but the top of my left foot is sore (I must
have had a shoe strap too tight) and the tips of my index finger and
middle finger on my left hand feel like they are asleep when I touch
something (a very weird feeling, don’t know what caused that, maybe a
glove too tight?). I’ll stretch tonight, ride easy recovery commutes the
rest of the week and take Friday through Sunday off to spend some
quality time with my family camping at Roosevelt Lake. I’m really
looking forward to the next Brevet series! I think a 1200k Randonnee is
definitely in my future! :-)
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