First real big organized ride- Tour of the Tucson Mtns

I am excited and proud about this ride. I couldn't decide whether to put this here or the charity ride thread... but here it is.

I rode the 73 mile Tour of the Tucson Mtns today-- a very last minute decision, made Thursday night. It actually encircles the perimeter of the range - which are are really large hills in comparison to our other local mountain ranges, like Mt. Lemmon.

It's apparently often windy and hot, but I lucked out with the wind - it was relatively calm (mainly 0-10 when I was on the course). I was only riding with groups or pace lines for about 2/3 of the time, but managed to achieve a speed of 16.1 and squeaked just 7 minutes ahead of the cut-off for getting a Silver medal (4 1/2 hours). And by getting in before 11 am, the temperature was still in the low 80's and I didn't experience any heat related problems. It was really exciting and I felt great almost the entire time. I just kept eating and drinking, with only one stop to refill my water bottle about 47 miles in.

I still need to catch up on sleep and post ride refueling. Thanks letting me share :D

Congrats! Sounds like an great ride. You should be really proud of yourself!!!!

Sounds awesome! So glad you had such a great time & I think that 73 miles in 4.5 hours just plain rocks!

At least the ride didn't go over Gate's Pass. I always thought that would be a blast to ride down. Unfortunately one has to go up one of the sides. Think I'd go east to west.

As a former Tucsonan, I can almost picture the ride route. After a beer and a good sleep, tell us more!

I have ridden over Gate's Pass, but yes, I'm happy the route skips that! The whole route has only about 1300 of climbing.

There was a bit of a headwind on the first 1/3 of the course, plus the hill at Rattlesnake Pass and an uphill trend (with ups and downs until about mile 34. When the course switched to downhill or flat all the way back, I was able to ride a lot faster.

I'm generally not that fast a rider- 14-15 mph, so finishing with a chip time of 16.1 and actual speed of 16.3 while moving (according to my Garmin) was exciting.

It sounds wonderful.