On November 21st Linda and I rode in the El Tour de Tucson 2015 event. There were four event routes of 104, 75, 55, and 40 miles. We had last participated in El Tour de Tucson ten years earlier but this time we were spending the winter in Tucson and wanted to ride the longer 104-mile route. It had been 6.5 years since I last rode 100+ miles in a day, so I expected a challenging day. Of the 5365 riders finishing a route 2431 riders completed the 104-mile route, including Linda and me.
2015 El Tour de Tucson
The 104-mile ride started at 7:00 am. We had been advised to start lining up by 6:00 am so we got up at 4:00 am, fed the dogs, stopped for coffee and a scone, drove to downtown Tucson, and found parking. We found the “Silver” assembly area for those expecting to finish between 7 and 9 hours and joined the crowd. It was a cool morning so I wore most of my warm bicycling clothes.
