Ride Report: Pac Tour Mountain Tour

[znfdl]

Just got back from my cycling vacation last evening and I had a great time. I am going to take a couple of days off from cycling and then back to commuting this Wednesday. I can sum of the week pretty easily, wind, sun and more wind. I flew into Tucson Arizona a couple of days early so that I could be well rested for the ride, which worked out perfectly. I also settled into a group of 5 people who went out to dinner every night, which made for a nice time. In the group were 2 people from Seattle, Washington, 1 person from Spokane Washington, 1 person from Sharon Wisconsin and 1 person from Lancaster County Pa. Overall it was an interesting group of riders as there was one person from Australia and 4 from Canada, while the rest were from various parts of the United States.

Pre ride: Did a quick 30 miles to stretch out the legs and make sure that my bike was in working condition. I had to do this ride as I saw the baggage handlers throw my bike case 4 feet onto the luggage ramp. Boy was I not a happy camper.

Day 1 Tucson to Sierra Vista 87 miles: The day started off a cool sunny 55 degrees and steady headwinds from the South. The first day usually people ride quite hard as their adrenaline is pumping. However, I decided to ride an even moderate pace for the day, which meant that I rode alone. The route has a net 2500 feet of elevation gain, as I rode from the Arizona low desert to the Arizona high desert. The elevation was definitely affecting me as my heart rate was 20 bpm more than usual.

Day 2 Sierra Vista to Douglas 74 miles: The weather was a duplicate of Monday, started off cool and had a high in the mid 60s with steady winds. The ride went in a Southeastern direction which meant that I had a quartering head wind for the day. The highlight of the day was to climb Mule pass which tops out at 6030 feet above sea level and then a nice descent into the town of Bisbee. Bisbee is mostly an artist community with a great coffee and pastry shop. Douglas is a Mexican border town. Some of the people went into Mexico, but I decided against it. Most of the people who went there were getting a lot of cat calls due to the lycra bound legs.

Day 3 Douglas to Loursdburg 99 miles: As the tour headed Northeast, I had a quartering tail wind for the day. The route was mostly flat with a few easy mountain passes thrown in for good measure. I had an incredible day of solo riding as I did the 99 miles in 4:38.

Day 4 Lourdsburg to Safford, New Mexico 91 miles: The tour headed back southwest to Arizona and had a few small mountain passes and a strong steady head wind for the day. I rode most of the day with a person from Wisconsin. The company was nice for a change.

Day 5 Safford to Wilcox 89 miles: The tour continued southwest into the steady headwind. The day was punctuated by an 8 mile climb into a 20 mph head wind. The headwind caused a 13 mile down hill to be quite painful, as at some point of the downhill, I was pedaling like crazy and was only going 11 mph, as the head wind was gusting to 40mph. The last 18 miles the wind shifted to a quartering tail wind and I jumped into a group of racers and we managed to hold the last 18 miles between 27 and 33 mph. It felt quite good to ride hard and not go anaerobic.

Day 6 Wilcox to Sierra Vista 103 miles: Again the day was warm with strong winds. I rode the first 20 miles of the day with two people and then a group of racers came by and I jumped in with them. The group was doing around 22 mph into a 20mph head wind. The echeloned pace line continued for 30 miles and then one person cranked it up to 28mph I decided to ride my own pace. The ride stopped in Tombstone and got my kids a couple of t-shirts. The last 18 miles was tortuous as I was riding into a steady 25 mph wind with gusts to 40 mph. At one point I was going a whopping 7 mph on a downhill.

Day 7 Sierra Vista to Tucson 97 miles: This was the warmest day of the tour as the tour headed from the high desert to the low desert of Arizona. The day had a net elevation loss of 2,500 feet, so even though the winds were strong it was one of the easier days. I felt quite strong on the bike and had a 30 mile stretch with a pace in the low 20s into a quartering headwind.