Arizona Desert Classic

[Alex]

Anyone know anything about the 2008 Desert Classic?

http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=151066

There's a century, a metric, and a 30-miler. I'm wondering about the route, the amount of vehicular traffic, if it's a small or large event, and anything else anyone can tell me.

Thanks!

Alex

[motochick]

My hubby and I were considering doing this ride, here is what the guy sent us in an email.
"The ride heads west and then north up to New River and then back down Cave Creek. Some general climbing but not strong like the McDowell Century in the Fall."

I wish he was a little more specific as I would like to know exactly which roads they will use. Some of the roads down there can be yucky. I would think they would use New River road which is pretty good. Maybe you can email them and get a better response. The guys name was Dennis. The one thing that concerns me is if it will be too hot or not. We are considering the "ride around the White Tanks." Have you heard of this one? We have only done 1 organized ride ever so all this is new to me.

Brenda

[PinkBike]

i just registered DH and I for the "desert classic," we did a little club ride a couple years ago that started at oggi's and it was disappointing - no sag, no intersection support, nobody was there when we finished. this must be different? anyway, we're doing it no matter.

i also did "around the tanks" last year and it was harder than i expected, the wind and the couple small climbs. i was alone as hubby was still recoup-ing from shoulder surgery, but it was actually a good ride, if only i'd had a riding partner!

i didnt see it scheduled for this year, when is it? if there's no conflicts we'll definitely do it, lemme know and we can maybe hook up?

[PinkBike]

oh, i just found it on GABA's site, March 30, i'm filling out the registration as we speak!

[motochick]

So you're gonna do the tanks? What is the ride like? I wanna do the 70 miles but have no idea what to expect. I am not from here, so I only know the area I live in. Don't know if we will solo or tandem, any ideas? I will wait till the last possible day to register as I don't know if they would refund for injuries or work related scheduling problems. But we are putting it on the calender.

Brenda

[Alex]

Brenda,

I'll let you know what I hear back from the club. I sent an email a couple of days ago, so I should be hearing something soon.

If anyone wanted to meet for a TE ride instead, I'd be up for that! Mountain or road... :D

Alex

[Running Mommy]

Around the tanks might work for me as an IM training ride. I'm going to look into it since it's so close.

Pink bike- seeing your post made me remember I need to pm you! :o

I'll let ya'll know if I decide to sign up.

[motochick]

Alex, are you gonna do the tanks ride? Sounds like there might be a few of us.

Brenda

[Alex]

I received an email from the man in charge. It will be a mix of urban roads/heavy traffic/some bike lanes and rural roads in the desert. There will be 3 aid stations on the metric. They will have Gatorade. They expect about 200 riders.

As for the around the tanks ride, tanks, but no tanks! :D

Alex

[motochick]

We are still considering the desert classic ride. We will know when it gets closer. Are you gonna do it Alex? Why don't you want to do the tanks ride? We are gonna do it, my hubby got the time off. Anyone else sign up for the tanks? I would love to meet some girl riders.

Brenda

[PinkBike]

oh yes, DH and I have already registered for Around the Tanks (and the desert classic)

[Alex]

Moto,

I signed up for the metric Desert Classic. I don't have anything against the tanks ride, it's just that I won't be in town for that one.

Alex

[motochick]

You kinda had me scared a little there about the tanks ride. Like maybe you knew something I didn't. ;) We just sent in our reg for the tanks and are still heavily considering the classic. I think we would do the metric also. Might be a little hot to do our first full century.


Pink bike, do you wanna try and hook up? You are coming with hubby this time, right? I will be with mine and we decided to ride our singles. We are gonna camp out off hwy 74 so we will be about 35 min from the staging area. We would like to get there early so we can beat the heat. Lemme know.

Brenda

[PinkBike]

yeh, lets hook up, and try to get running mommy to join us. denise, whatup?

[motochick]

Looking forward to meeting a female rider, not many up here that I know of.
Hope Denise can come, the more the merrier.
Have you seen the forcast? Looks like it's suppose to cool down a little. YAY!

Brenda

[PinkBike]

brenda,
really great to meet you and ride a little with you. we kept meeting up with that faster group then drifting back when we couldnt hold that pace. they were fast, eh? all in all i thought it was a great ride, very flat with mostly favorable winds!
hope to see youall (plus alex, plus denise?) at the desert classic.

[motochick]

Yeah, it was great to meet you and ride for a little ways together. I had to stop and adjust my saddle at the first sag. We rode with a few guys for a while, but I kept having to adjust every so often. I think I stopped for my saddle 6 times, but I got it figured out by the end. I got the new saddle a while ago but have been screwing with it on almost every ride. I am sure I got it right now!! (until the next ride)

We had fun anyways, can't believe how FLAT it is down there! I needed that kickstart in the morning and it was nice to have some help with the wind! We won't be doing the classic cuz hubby has taken off to many Sat already and they are very shorthanded as it is. We are looking at doing the Luna ride Memorial weekend if he can get it off.

Brenda

[Alex]

Wind. Wind. Some more wind. Windy. Wind. Wind. I don't believe I ever had a tailwind. The crosswind was so bad, I almost got blown off my bike several times. :eek:

The "metric" was actually closer to 70 miles, but that didn't bother me.

We did a big part of the ride on a frontage road and on some streets with lots of traffic and traffic lights. :(

The socks are cute, and the post-ride pizza lunch was very tasty.

I only wanted to get off my bike and throw it into oncoming traffic about 5 or 6 times. ;) Did I mention it was windy out there?

The folks at the rest stops were terrific. :)

I saw PinkBike briefly. Pink, did you do the century?

Having experienced the wind on Saturday, I could really empathize with the IMAZ folks on Sunday. They had a vicious headwind heading east on the bike course, but at least they had a 30+ tailwind on the return. I saw my DH in classic aero position screaming by on the downhill of bike lap #3. :D

Alex

[PinkBike]

alex, good to meet you!!

oh yeh that wind sucked! we decided on the metric when we saw the wind in the forecast. after battling the headwinds forever - finally when we turned onto Cave Creek Road we just flew in. i reached 40+ mph on that one downhill that was newly paved. it was so nice to have the headwinds at the beginning and then the tailwinds at the end. we did the picacho peak century one year and had nasty headwinds the whole final 35 miles!

sunday we did our 35 mile church commute, coming home we rode right into the IronMan bicycle ride for about 2 miles, I felt so bad for them with that wind! i wouldnt want to be riding 116 miles at 11 mph which is what we were doing into the wind saturday.

anyway, i really enjoyed the ride saturday, even tho it took 5 hours. i had to stop at the first sag stop and adjust my seat. ouch.

the pizza and salad was a real nice treat at the end!