Tucson - Day 4

I woke up drained, but not sore from Thursday's ride. We headed out to IHOP for breakfast and then back to Kirby's to change for the day's ride. The original plan was to ride out to, then up Kitt Peak and come back into town. General sentiment was that we would head out there and see what happened. My plan was to ride out, do as much of the 12 mile climb as I could and then ride back into town. We met up with Lou at Starbucks near the campus again. After a brief discussion, we decided that a 60 or 70 mile loop back up through Gates pass and back into town sounded more reasonable. The climb up Gates pass was a lot better for me this time around. Some complaints from my legs made me decide to spend the rest of the day in my big chainring to give some of the muscles a break. After the descent we regrouped and headed NW for some sprint and paceline work out through Tucson Mountain County Park and north to Avra. As we turned west back towards Tucson, yesterday's effort, combined with the today's ride finally caught up to me and I fell off the back of the group. I followed West Picture Rocks road down into a valley and up a small climb through Contzen Pass. On the descent, I noticed a sharp corner sign out of the corner of my eye. As I came up over a small rise I had to hit the breaks hard to make the first of the two 90 degree corners that popped up. As I was getting ready to make the second one, I noticed 4 of our group sitting off to the inside of the corner. I pulled over to see if everyone was OK. Pig had taken the corner a bit too fast, and his back tire washed out as he was going through the second corner. He and the bike were ok, although they both left a bit of themselves on the pavement. Other than a flat tire, the remainder of the ride in was unremarkable. Pig, Sergey, Lou and I stopped at B-line for a quick drink and a snack before heading back to Kirby's. We ran through the showers, grabbed some food, and drove up to Phoenix for dinner with Kris' wife Jenny at her aunt and uncle's house. We had a great meal of salad, grilled corn, steaks and chops, some great conversation and a good time. It was well worth the drive up and back. A huge thanks to Dennis and Jenae for hosting our motley bunch.

Photos
GPS Track