Roger Bikes

Tag: Arizona

  • Day 5 : Hold onto yer butts

    Day 5 : Hold onto yer butts

    Bittersweet morning today. It was the last day of the ride which is exciting as we will be done riding soon. Which will be nice on our butts. On the other hand it means we will be done riding our bikes. Which means we have to go back to our normal lives.

    All the gear on

    It was chilly this morning in the 40’sF with the breeze still coming from the southwest. The good news is that we were going to get to wear all of the warm cycling clothing we had been carrying.

    Today’s ride from Sonoita to Tucson was highlighted by a massive amount of downhill which we had paid for on Monday when we climbed up to Sonoita. After riding about an hour out of Sonoita we were at the top of the hill which concluded about 40 miles later in Tucson.

    Go fast!

    Descending on a two lane road is fun and terrifying. We were lucky to have had very polite automobile traffic the entire tour and that continued today. Still when you are riding at 40mph dealing with traffic is never ideal. We flew down the hills with no issue and the shot eating grins on our faces were very difficult to remove.

    The rest of our ride into Tucson was also uneventful except for our butts falling off. We definitely could have done some longer training rides but here we are riding for five days straight in March. Not a bad way to start off the cycling year.

    Tucson ahead

    Here’s the results on Strava:

    I’m gonna out some final thoughts together tomorrow or the next day but overall this tour was a success. We had no injuries, except for our tender bums, no major mechanical issues like a flat tire, and we are still married!

  • Day 4 : Hi, my name is wind

    Day 4 : Hi, my name is wind

    Today was the second shortest ride of the tour. 38 miles on highway 82 from Tombstone to Sonorita. The thinking was this might be a pretty nice day to ride with less elevation gain than either of the first two days. Then the wind forecasts started showing 30mph gusts for Tuesday then Wednesday and finally Thursday. It had blown us from Sonorita to Bisbee and now we needed to pay the piper to get back to Sonoita.

    Into the wind

    Sure enough we exited Tombstone and the headwind was immediate. So we dug in and duked it out all day. There were times when the wind wasn’t so bad but it wasn’t very often.

    Still smiling

    There is a point when wind is too strong and you should not be on the road. Basically if you cannot stand still in the wind you probably should not try to ride a bike unless you are Danny Macaskill.

    Today’s wind was not that bad but it wasn’t joking around either. We didn’t feel that it was pushing us into traffic and that’s really the important issue to consider.

    Rune’s front door

    We stopped at a winery called Rune about ten miles from Sonoita. It was a great place to get a nice rest and enjoy the scenery of the area.

    Desert patio

    We knew the wind was only getting worse as the day wore on. So we packed up from Rune and pushed the last ten miles into town. We stopped at the market for a few things including double stuff Oreos. What a day.

    Here’s the ride on Strava.

    Tomorrow we wrap up the Tour with a long downhill back to Tucson. It’s been a fun trip and while I’ve been complaining about how difficult it’s been we’ve enjoyed ourselves a lot.

  • Day3 : OK in Tombstone

    Day3 : OK in Tombstone

    Today marks the third and shortest riding day of the tour. Bisbee to Tombstone is just 24 miles. Sure there’s a hell of a climb out of Bisbee and another insane climb five miles from Tombstone but otherwise we got a massive descent.

    Stocking up on munchies

    Initially we were thinking of taking the morning to chill in Bisbee but the OK Cafe in Tombstone only served their veggie burger till 2pm so we cruised out just after 10am.

    The climb out of the town of Bisbee is deceptively easy at first. Sure you are climbing out of town but it’s not till the buildings stop that the climb gets really steep. Then you get to the tunnel.

    Looks fun

    The tunnel is about a mile long and is a steep climb. Once we got through it and to the other side a local rode up from the old pass road to let us know that people die in there all the time on bikes. We wished her a happy day and rode onto Tombstone.

    Tunnel climb

    Tombstone is probably most famous at this point for the historically questionable 1988 movie starring Curt Russell, Val Kilmer, Powers Booth, and a shit-ton of notable rich people from Hollywood. The town is a replica of the movie at this point with actors playing out the shootout at the OK Corral on a daily basis. It reminds me a little of sixth street in Austin.

    Pretty flat.

    At just 24 miles we only spent 2.5 hours getting to Tombstone and used the day as a recovery day. After unpacking and cleaning up we both took a restless nap listening to the strong winds which we managed to miss on our ride. Another good reason for riding earlier.

    The old west is still a lie.

    Here are the Strava details:

    Tomorrow we ride back to Sonoita. At just 38 miles it will be the second shortest day of the tour. It is also our wedding anniversary so it will be nice to not spend the entire day riding.

  • Day 1: aaaaand we’re off!

    Day 1: aaaaand we’re off!

    Here we go! It’s the first day of the Tour de Bisbee. Today we rode 55 miles from central Tucson southeast to Sonoita. We climbed over three thousand vertical feet and completed the ride in 7 hours with 5.5 hours in the saddle.

    Jump up jump up and get down

    We rolled out of Tucson about 10am and rode down Broadway to Old Spanish Trail before heading south on Houghton. There was a pretty long section of Houghton where we had no shoulder due to construction. Fortunately the cars were friendly and didn’t force passing us with oncoming traffic. We took a left on Mary Ann Cleveland way to Vail.

    Healthy snacks only. We are athletes!

    We drank a lot of water even though it was cool and cloudy. From southern Tucson to Sonoita is 25 miles of desert. There are a few homes here and there so we stopped at a grocery store in Vail to replenish water and get some snacks in.

    Break time!

    We made sure to stop and take breaks every hour or so. The nice part about setting pre determined breaks is that no ones ego gets hurt.

    Aaaaand we’re not jumping off rocks anymore.

    What I mean by this is that for most active people, when asked if they want/need a break tend to say no. This happens for a variety of reasons from not wanting to look weak to not wanting to hold the group back.

    By setting a pre determined time that a break will occur it is the clock deciding when to take a break. Everyone is happy and no egos are hurt in the process.

    Nice views around here.

    To say the least our butts were tired and a little sore. We trained for this ride in the cold of Colorado. After a few hours of cold weather riding it tends to not be much fun. Today we realized that we could have done a couple of five hours rides and that probably would have helped the seat soreness today. That said it was still a lot of fun and I cannot think of anything else I’d rather be doing with anyone else.

    Here is our route on Strava:

    I forgot to unpause my workout after one break and lost a out 5 miles.

    Tomorrow we ride about the same distance and get to Bisbee. There will be a big climb at the end but we will get it done.

  • Prologue: Dry Run Tucson

    Prologue: Dry Run Tucson

    We drove from Mancos to Tucson yesterday on a route that was new to me. Usually we drive through flagstaff and Phoenix on the way to Tucson. This time google recommended that we stay further East and go through sho lo and globe before hitting Tucson.

    The route was great. We only had to drive on an interstate for about an hour. Otherwise it was low traffic until Tucson on the 60 and 77. South of sho lo the road goes through a huge canyon for the salt river. That was really cool.

    We got a late start out of Mancos afternoon which put us on schedule to arrive after 9pm. Packing the night before might have helped but we made it to Tucson before one of our favorite pizza shops closed. So we were able to pick up the pie and chill at our Airbnb for the next two nights.

    Today we wanted to get a bike ride in with Kate’s brother Trip, who lives in Tucson. the goals was to have a nice ride but also to test having everything on the bikes and see if there might be any problems.

    Being able to recover from a technical issue of much easier when you can call an Uber and goto a bike shop. Once we got the road we will be pretty remote.

    We rode just under 20 miles mainly on a nice bike path that goes through town. The weather is wonderful and warm here so we only wore jerseys and shorts. It was a much nicer setup than our cold weather riding outfits in Colorado.

    That said I made sure to stay hydrated and cut the bike riding short as it was going to hit 88F today. No need to wipe ourselves out before the tour even started.

    The path was crowded with cyclists and walkers. Everyone out being healthy and enjoying the weather. A few people wore masks and my anxiety was mild about COVID transmission. Still we kept a social distance

    Hi from Tucson.

    It sounds like outdoor exercise is safe to do but social distancing is still important. As always if you have symptoms of being sick then don’t go outside and exercise. Let alone around other people.

    Here is our route on Strava:

    Tomorrow we leave for Sonoita about 55 miles southeast of Tucson. It’s gonna be a climb all day but the weather is going to be slightly cooler which will be perfect.