Good day to ride fast. We got Kate a new/used road bike. So we had to do a 27.8 mile break in ride around our neighborhood. I like this ride cause about 30 minutes in we stop at the local coffee shop For caffeine and cherry tarts. We also spend half the ride or more on backroads with much less traffic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
A few nights ago I got bored with the short form Youtube videos and fired up Amazon to see what they might have for Cycling documentaries. They did not disappoint with Inspired to Ride which tells the story of the inaugural 2014 Trans Am Bike Race.
In the movie Mike Hall is featured as the race favorite who goes on to win by a considerable margin. I was taken back by how soft spoken and friendly he is in the film. Most competitive bike racers tend to have a cockiness about them that makes me not necessarily want to know or meet them. With Hall I was interested in getting to know more about the man.
When I woke up this morning I got my oatmeal and sat down to start googling and learning more about this endurance athlete. Unfortunately I quickly learned that Mike Hall passed away in 2017 after being struck by a car while riding in an endurance race in Australia. I was pretty crushed and watched a few videos put up shortly after the accident.
Turns out Mike was 5 years younger than me and had accomplished quite a lot in his short life. You can learn more about him on his Wikipedia page here.
strava.app.link/zBMehMixhpb