210k (130 mile) brevet: mission accomplished
I finished my longest ride ever yesterday- a 210k permanent route in southern Arizona. Short version: 4 people, 130 miles, 4300 feet of climbing, about 5000 calories burned, 14.3 moving average in about 11 1/2 hours. Narrative follows......
A little history, in 2012 I was persuaded to ride a 200k brevet, coaxed and coached along by my husband who had his sights set on the full spring series (200k, 300k, 400k and 600k) in Arizona. I thought it was about 80% fun and 20% misery. (He finished the first 3 in the series, but the 600k got the better of him- really miserable weather conditions with cold rain and strong winds and he just couldn't get back on the bike after less than 6 hours of sleep).
Last year there was no talk of randonneuring as he injured his wrists and couldn't put weight on the bars for many months.
This year... he's back in the saddle and I agreed to do a 200k with him but we decided not to drive up to Phoenix for the first ride of the organized series, but instead do a permanent route in southern Arizona. The route we took starts in south Tucson, goes south through Green Valley, turns west into the hills to the little town of Arivaca, then completes the circuit by going back down to Altar Valley and north to Tucson. The route allows for 14 hours, and I was hoping to get back not much past sunset (certainly less than 12 hours). We were joined by a friend of a friend visiting from Chicago (whom we later discovered had actually ridden the famous Paris-Brest-Paris 1200k, and a friend from my cycling team who did not care about being "official" with RUSA but just wanted to do a really long ride.
January sometimes has beautiful weather here, and yesterday did not disappoint: the low was around 43 at 7 am, the winds were light (never more than 10 mph) and the temperature got up to the low 70's. We expected a sunny day but had a thin scattering of clouds which was actually even better than full sunshine.
Four of us rode together- 3 "for credit" with RUSA and one tagging along just for the ride. We averaged about 14.3 mph rolling time, but with stops at the control points, lunch in Arivaca, stretching and toe wiggling, photos, etc, we took about 11 hours and 15 minutes.
I know the first part of the course pretty well- it's a regular route that leads south past the San Xavier mission, often called the White Dove of the Desert. The bright white church, located on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation is visible for many miles around. After passing through the reservation, the road climbs a false flat to a bridge over a big wash/mining road, and then continues south with some ups and downs for another 15 miles or so, through desert (nice) and manufactured mesas of mine tailings (not nice!). It actually climbs from 2400 feet to about 3500 feet along this section.
Then we dropped into the town of Sahuarita (nice descent with a tail wind, up to 30 mph!) for our first control stop. It was a perfect excuse to buy a candy bar to get the required time-stamped receipt. Then on through the retirement community of Green Valley where the streets are signed for both bicycles and golf carts. Eventually the route took us on the frontage road along I-19 to the town of Amado. The turn-off the Arivaca is marked by the giant sculpture of a steer's head.
The 23 miles up to Arivaca climb from 3000 to 3800 feet, with a lot of little dips into washes and valleys. The first half of this section has scattered ranches with cottonwoods along the valley drainages, then goes up into desert grassland with some spectatular views both east to the Santa Rita Mountains and west toward the distinctive peak of Baboquivari, and northwest toward a red colored ridge - possibly Keystone Peak. My quads were complaining on the steeper pitches and we were just at about the half-way point as we got to the crest and the descended into Arivaca. This was probably the worst part of the ride in terms of feeling like it was hard. Not much traffic except Border Patrol vehicles and people in trucks going to Arivaca Lake etc.
Lunch and the next control stop at the somewhat quaint town of Arivaca. The town combines a little bit of rural Arizona, a little bit of rural Mexico and some alternative "tie-dye" culture. Just about 70 miles completed and boy did my b*tt appreciate a rest from the saddle. We all brought too much food and kept buying more stuff to get receipts at the controls. Cottage cheese and doritos tasted pretty good....the squished nutella and banana sandwich, not so good. We had to buy a box of girl scout cookies from the girls wheeling a wagon by the town center. Next section: 44 miles with no services of any kind- just desert.
We headed from Arivaca, mostly down hill but some rollers took us west into the Altar Valley, just 12 miles north of the little border-crossing town of Sasabe. A bit of a head wind kept us going slowly. Then, when we turned onto highway 286 headed north, we benefited from a tail wind and a very gradual descent, which raised our speed to 18-22 mph as we headed north in a pace line. That was a very long 32 miles though and I finally started doing anything I could to stop thinking about "how much farther". Like, singing the entire version of 99 bottles of beer on the wall in my head. That took up almost 10 miles! My other general moment of misery was having some hotfoot issues and we stopped to wiggle our toes and loosen shoes. It worked and didn't hurt the rest of the way. The road passes through some beautiful desert grassland but I was really ready to get back off the bike, with only 2 brief stops during 2 hours.
Finally, at the next to the last control, the crossroads village of Three Points. A cold Dr. Pepper and some of those Girl Scout cookies tasted perfect! 115 miles down, 15 to go. The sun was close to setting- we headed east back to Tucson along a busier road- highway 86. Time for lights.... the last stretch was also thankfully slightly downhill, with just a few rough sections of pavement in the last few miles. I kept trying to distract myself by singing in my head just to get the time to go by- otherwise I felt okay. Finally got to the finish! We ran into the McDonalds to buy two cookies on separate receipts to verify our arrival time.
Brenda left to go home, but our friend Jeff and his partner joined my husband Chuck and I for dinner at a Mexican restaurant- Mi Nidito, where President Clinton once dined on a visit to Tucson. I rarely drink beer, but it was a celebration and Negro Modelo hit the spot! By the time I ate chips, the bowl of albondigas soup I ordered was too much to finish, but it all tasted great.
I'm not interested in the really, really long distances, but it sure feels like a great accomplishment to do the 200k distances.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. I'm rating this one about 90% fun and only 10% misery, but I would not like to ride that last stretch north with a headwind- that would have really changed the ratio.
