Tour dE TUCSON and OTHER rides

[Biciclista]

My DH, the infamous Raleighdon, is leaving me on Sunday to spend 8 days in the Arizona sunshine. (I can't understand why he isn't enjoying our 50 degrees, wind and rain here in Seattle, but I digress)
Since BikeJournal is down he has not been able to coordinate with other people to ride with as he planned, so if any of you are interested in riding with a really nice (and safe) guy, here's his schedule:

Monday (17 November): 40-50 miles - Tucson
Tuesday: Legends, Superstitions & Ruins 200K - must be RUSA member to ride with me - Mesa
Wed: 40-50 miles (route undetermined) - Phoenix
Thurs: Mt. Lemmon Hillclimb
Friday: 30 mile spin (route undetermined) - Tucson
Saturday (22 November): 109 miles - El TdT (gold)
Sunday: South Mountain or Bullshifters club ride (Phx)

I would really appreciate if you know other people that like this kind of riding to pass along this info to them, if you yourself are not. He's a good strong rider, and a wonderful person to ride with as well, chatty and helpful.

Thanks
Mimi

[PinkBike]

ohmygosh, i wish i would've looked at this sooner. i would so be up for a ride tomorrow in prep for el tour!! but no way i'm doing mt lemmon on thursday. we went up about 5 miles a couple weeks ago and ran out of water. we still had 9 miles to go so we wussed out and went back down.

the don-man plans to ride in gold time? i would love to finish ONCE in platinum which is 6 hours for women, but always finish just a few minutes outside that.

what's his plans for friday night? maybe DH and i could hook up with him for dinner or something.

if interested, pm me, k?

[Dogmama]

I'll be meeting DH at the 35 mile point & riding in with him (think Pee-Wee Herman.) Otherwise, I'd love to suck wheel on you guys!

Weather should be ~ 75 degrees. Roads are in pretty good shape. Prepare for the inevitable headwind the last 25 miles. It's very slightly uphill too. The good thing is that the 10 miles before that is Tangerine - downhill smooth road - heaven!

[maillotpois]

We're going El Tour as a family - my daughter and husband will be on the tandem and I'll be on my regular bike. We'll probably be in the 7 hour range. Maybe less. (DH and I generally do this in the 5 1/2 to 6 hour range - actually he's done it under 5 hours twice) but with the kid, who knows - you have to have a lot of flexibility.)

The ride is a complete zoo, but if he happens to see a family in full Power Bar kit with a blue and green tandem, that's us!

I hope he has a great week. If I thought it would take us less than 1/2 the day to put the tandem back together I'd try to meet up with him Friday.

[maillotpois]

i would love to finish ONCE in platinum which is 6 hours for women, but always finish just a few minutes outside that.

Good luck with that! If you have good bike handling/pack riding skills, steady nerves, and are really willing to work with groups, you can do it. You have to have perfect luck too (no flats, etc.) And get up REALLY early to get a good place in line!

The good news is once you get that pass you don't need to get up so early next year. And once you are able to start in the platinum section it really isn't that hard to beat 6 hours.

Let us know how it goes!

[Biciclista]

Raleighdon decided that a climb up mt Lemmon on Thursday would not be such a good idea after all, instead he'd like to do something smarter in preparation for the Tour. So YES, Laurie, please get in touch with him, he'd like to talk to you I sent you an IM with his phone number.

[PinkBike]

talked to him today, i guess he already went to tucson. DH and i gotta work tonite and thursday nite so we're going to tucson friday morning.

i met RD once at a ride on the west side of town but barely talked to him.

oh, and i'll be ":@@??'d if i'm gonna line up at 4:30 am!!!!!!!! after reading maillotpois' post, i had a "DUH!" moment. i thought i was just getting old because every year i get slower. but actually every year i start farther back! the first year i was in the front of the gold group, then the next two times we kept drifting farther back. i went from finishing in 6:06 TO 6:12 TO 6:20+. maybe i WILL get up early, park my bike in the staging area then go find a starbucks!! thanks MP.

[maillotpois]

Yeah, you gotta get up pretty early if you really want it.

I don't.

[Blueberry]

Everybody OK? I heard on another mailing list that a pack of 10 was hit by a car (who got out, looked at his car, and drove off). Any truth to that?? Please tell me no one from here was hit

ETA - It appears to be true. I can't get to the story, but I see a headline on an AZ paper. GRRR.
Further edit: Here's a link to the story: http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp...7&nav=14RTPaT5

[Dogmama]

Checking in. Yes, it's true. An older man apparently turned into a line of cyclists, got out of his car, looked around, got back in & took off. Here is the link: http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/268536

It would have affected the 109 miler's. When I went through, everything appeared normal. There were cops directing traffic (why didn't one of them follow him?) cones up, etc. - so the driver must have been out to lunch.

Knowing the laws in this city, if he is caught, he'll probably plea down to driving too close to a cyclist. Yup, we're the 3rd finest city for cycling.

[Biciclista]

Raleighdon is fine. he finished gold, 5 hours, 30 minutes... he rode 108 miles in that amount of time!!!!

[maillotpois]

I saw Raleighdon rght at the start - amazing! we lined up pretty early and were there a while. just as we start crunching forward before the gun, I saw him. I called to him and said hi. he will have no clue who I was, so maybe you can tell him mimi. I pointed out my daughter in matching kit on the tandem.

CA that car hit a pretty fast finishing group. tragic. we didn't see it.

my 12 year old daughter is a GOLD finisher. honestly, given how strong DH is they could have had platinum, but we had three flats in the first 10 miles.

I lost them at mile 40 on a big downhill. if you lose the wheel at 40 mph, you're gone. the since I didn't see them at the next logical place, I assumed they'd stopped, so then I waited a long time - and of course they were ahead of me. and they waited for a while for me. it was funny. the key is we all finished safe. I vwas really nervous about Em doing it. but she did great and more important she had a great time.

[Blueberry]

Glad all TE'ers seem to be OK and accounted for.

MP - Congratulate PP from us! That's amazing! Glad it was a good ride!

Mimi - Did he have a jet powered bike That's awesome.

Dogmama - Sadly, I think the same would be true here

CA

[jobob]

Congrats to you and yours !

[Biciclista]

Malletpois! Oh how cool, you "met" Raleighdon, (but i've still never met you!) congrats on your super achiever child!!

Raleighdon was definitely rocket powered. And today he rode about 50 miles and then he got tired and stopped.