Saturday ride report

[sjbraun]

Tucson has lots of great riding, but the queen of rides must be the 26 mile climb up Mt Lemmon. For whatever reason, its a ride I've never completed. I ride to Windy Point (milepost 14,) all the time and I've been as far as milepost 19, but never into the town of Summerhaven at milepost 26. Today, me and the boys planned a ride to Windy Point. They decided to bail early at milepost 9, but heck I felt good so I figured I'd finish the ride to Windy Point on my own. Well, I got there and decided to go a little further, and further and further...

The road up Mt. Lemmon travels through several different climate zones. You start in the Sonoran desert: saguaros, ocotillo, and prickly pear and end 6,300 feet higher in aspen and Ponderosa pine. Basically, you ride through the climate zones from AZ to Canada in 26 miles.

All told, I rode 77 miles today. Not a bad way to celebrate my 56th birthday.

Steve

Crappy cell phone pics.
A 10 inch peanut butter cookie. It was good.

[akelman]

Not a bad way to celebrate my 56th birthday.

Happy birthday! Did you happen to take any pictures?

[Elefantino]

When you're still trying to come back from surgery and chronic, debilitating back pain, you don't need jagoffs jumping the pace of your normal training ride because they happen to come along people riding in the Tour de Cure and want to zip past them at accelerated speeds.

Idjits.

[Fixed]

55 was a good year
i am back riding a little with my son . he wanted ride with me first time in a few years ... made my ride
cheers

[godfrey1112000]

what a great day, I have done it twice it is a manly ride,

the last 1500 feet to the ski summit are the best

I hope to do the 200k Brevet in early november that includes that climb

[akelman]

55 was a good year
i am back riding a little with my son . he wanted ride with me first time in a few years ... made my ride
cheers

It's going to sound like I'm hitting on you, but I can't tell which is you and which is your son in that picture.

[regularguy412]

55 was a good year
i am back riding a little with my son . he wanted ride with me first time in a few years ... made my ride
cheers


I still wear that same Cannondale jersey. That thing was dang expensive back in 1989 ~ $50 ! Recently, the zipper pull just fell off. Otherwise, it still looks the same. It was about the first dye sublimation jersey I ever saw. I still have a Crest jersey made by Cannondale, too. :)

I did ride today. Was a local event -- associated with our town's Spring Festival. 64 miles in 3 hrs 14 minutes. It was not all flat and tailwind.

Mike in AR :beer:

[CaptStash]

Did a relay triathlon today in Logan, UT with my son (the high school swimmer) and my wife (the accomplished marathoner). Jacob had a great swim (fastest of the day! Woo Hoo!) and I had a good ride. Managed to average 22 mph which is fast for me. Abbe brought it home nicely and we took a strong third place. Got to come back to the hotel carrying bling and huge smiles.

It was a good day!

CaptStash....

[dekindy]

http://www.cranecyclefest.com/

Did the 2nd annual Crane Cyclefest Ride 2 Recovery. Crane is a land locked ammunition manufacturing and storage base operated primarily by the Navy. The area was originally set aside as National Forest prior to being utilized starting in World War II as a military installation. It is still primarily forest and receives lots of awards from the Department of Natural Resources.

Crane has two things. A 50-mile circular route of mostly vehicle free roads surrounded by forest on all sides and a plethora of longer uphills and downhills in the 5-9% range. Most of Indiana is either pancake flat or a series of very short, steep hills that are in the 10-20% range so Crane is very unique.

The ride is also to recognize and support disabled veterans so it is a very worthy cause. This year's grand marshall is a Vietnam era double amputee, below the knees, veteran that despite his injury is now an ultra cyclist riding an average of 12,000 miles per year.

Despite high humidity and a mild threat of thunderstorms that never materialized, it was a great cycling day and well worth the 4-hour round trip drive from the north side of Indianapolis. It is a unique route that I wish were accessible more than once a year.

[Eurorider]

I can highly recommend the cranecyclefest ride as well. Shielded from public traffic with great roads and long "grinder" uphill riding it is very unique. It supports a great cause as well. My group did the 65 mile mile loop (50 and 15 mile loops), but one can also go shorter or longer (loops of 15, 30 and 50 miles are available and can be combined). Very good SAG support.

Even with a mass start the field spreads out pretty quickly. The area is just wonderfull. Sorry, no pictures since it is prohibited to take a camera or use a cell phone camera while on base...

I hope there will be a 3rd Annual Cranecyclefest in 2012 (since it is on a Naval Base it apparently always depends on the good will of many parties involved...).