finished the el tour de tucson
i finished the el tour de tucson in 5 hours, 30 minutes, and 35 seconds (search for "ALAN POST" in the results). this is 25 minutes (and 2 seconds :) faster than my time last year, which itself was 34 minutes faster than my time the year before.
there were 9,100+ registered cyclists this year, with 5,100+ registered for the 109-mile event. the race starts at 7am, and the line is first come first serve. by the time we got there at 5:30, the so-called "gold line" was completely full. the gold line is the first group of cyclists that start. that line (1,000-2,000+ cyclists) gets to ride and then they start the silver line. craigpost and myself were near the front of the silver line, but it was still several minutes after the official start before we started rolling.
the first eight miles is a huge mass of cyclists heading down thankfully wide roads. after 8 miles you get to the first of two riverbed crossings, where you get off your bike and walk across a dirt channel. this is fairly unique to the tour de tucson, but it gives a chance for packs to break up and spreads the riders out a little bit.
the first ~20 miles of the tour is a gentle climb, and even being fairly conservative we passed a lot of riders. my first chance to pull came around mile 20. craigpost and i had agreed the night before that we would stop at the sag around mile 23, and there is a fun descent right before that. (it's actually part of craig's daily commute! i remember being thrilled that the end of the albuquerque century was also my daily commute.)
knowing i was going to be stopping soon i pulled out in front and increased my speed. i was only doing it for a mile or so, but it felt realy good. i didn't count how many people were behind me, but they went whooshing past at the rest stop!
our next stop was in the middle of the second river crossing at mile ~50. this is a great place to stop, as you're already off the bike. it's also where i made myself sick last year, eating too much.
the steepest hill on the course is shortly after this stop, and the area is generally hilly and meandering. it takes awhile for packs to form again, and i found myself alone out in front. i slowed down to let a pack behind me catch up, hoping that craig was in it. several individual cyclists passed me, but once a larger group came up i joined it. alas, craig wasn't in it. i didn't see him again until the finish line. which means we stuck together the same amount we did last year. :p
late in the race, there is this *sharp* corner after a long and fast descent. last year i failed to take this turn sharp enough and went skittering into the gravel. i didn't drop, but i had to ride back to the road and race to catch my pack again. this year i was on the inside lane, and managed to cut someone off instead. :( i must watch for that turn next year. i was with a group of 30-50 cyclists, and we're all doing >30mph. that is all kinds of scary and fun just going straight!
there was one other corner last year that i almost dropped at, as i didn't notice until too late that we were supposed to turn. this year the put up cones directing traffic, which avoided that particular problem. the nicest thing about the tour de tucson is that a cop is at every corner directing traffic. you get to basically ignore stop signs and red lights, as the cyclists are given priority.
i didn't really start to slow down until after mile 100. the group i was with passed mile 100 almost exactly at 5 hours, and we sent up a cheer for that. i really started to loose energy after that, and didn't manage to stay with anyone the rest of the race. in that last half hour i was probably passed by 100 cyclists. i was still keeping fair average speed, but not enough to stay with a group.
i did have enough energy to kick up a sprint after the final turn, passing one cyclist and kicking across the finish line at 23mph. in professional cycling, flat courses always end with a mad sprint to the finish line, but mountain courses traditionally let the strongest climber win. no one jockeys for position in the final stretch before the finish, passing in that case is poor sportsmanship.
i consider the non-platinum riders to be more like mountain racing--poor form to pass someone right at the end. i really wanted to have a go at sprinting though. i apologized to rick (the person in the standings that finished 1 second behind me) for overtaking him at the end. he said, quite gentlemanly, that he was pushing as hard as he could too. ^_^
my wall average speed was 19.8mph, but i spent 25 minutes off the bike. my bike average speed was 21.61mph, with a top speed of 37.01mph. i'm surprised my top speed came so close to my top speed at the red river century (43.63mph, my fastest speed ever), as this is a much flatter course.
i finished in under 1,000th place, which was harder to do this year than last. last year my time would have gotten me 799th place. this event is not only growing, but it is attracting good cyclists as well.
there were 9,100+ registered cyclists this year, with 5,100+ registered for the 109-mile event. the race starts at 7am, and the line is first come first serve. by the time we got there at 5:30, the so-called "gold line" was completely full. the gold line is the first group of cyclists that start. that line (1,000-2,000+ cyclists) gets to ride and then they start the silver line. craigpost and myself were near the front of the silver line, but it was still several minutes after the official start before we started rolling.
the first eight miles is a huge mass of cyclists heading down thankfully wide roads. after 8 miles you get to the first of two riverbed crossings, where you get off your bike and walk across a dirt channel. this is fairly unique to the tour de tucson, but it gives a chance for packs to break up and spreads the riders out a little bit.
the first ~20 miles of the tour is a gentle climb, and even being fairly conservative we passed a lot of riders. my first chance to pull came around mile 20. craigpost and i had agreed the night before that we would stop at the sag around mile 23, and there is a fun descent right before that. (it's actually part of craig's daily commute! i remember being thrilled that the end of the albuquerque century was also my daily commute.)
knowing i was going to be stopping soon i pulled out in front and increased my speed. i was only doing it for a mile or so, but it felt realy good. i didn't count how many people were behind me, but they went whooshing past at the rest stop!
our next stop was in the middle of the second river crossing at mile ~50. this is a great place to stop, as you're already off the bike. it's also where i made myself sick last year, eating too much.
the steepest hill on the course is shortly after this stop, and the area is generally hilly and meandering. it takes awhile for packs to form again, and i found myself alone out in front. i slowed down to let a pack behind me catch up, hoping that craig was in it. several individual cyclists passed me, but once a larger group came up i joined it. alas, craig wasn't in it. i didn't see him again until the finish line. which means we stuck together the same amount we did last year. :p
late in the race, there is this *sharp* corner after a long and fast descent. last year i failed to take this turn sharp enough and went skittering into the gravel. i didn't drop, but i had to ride back to the road and race to catch my pack again. this year i was on the inside lane, and managed to cut someone off instead. :( i must watch for that turn next year. i was with a group of 30-50 cyclists, and we're all doing >30mph. that is all kinds of scary and fun just going straight!
there was one other corner last year that i almost dropped at, as i didn't notice until too late that we were supposed to turn. this year the put up cones directing traffic, which avoided that particular problem. the nicest thing about the tour de tucson is that a cop is at every corner directing traffic. you get to basically ignore stop signs and red lights, as the cyclists are given priority.
i didn't really start to slow down until after mile 100. the group i was with passed mile 100 almost exactly at 5 hours, and we sent up a cheer for that. i really started to loose energy after that, and didn't manage to stay with anyone the rest of the race. in that last half hour i was probably passed by 100 cyclists. i was still keeping fair average speed, but not enough to stay with a group.
i did have enough energy to kick up a sprint after the final turn, passing one cyclist and kicking across the finish line at 23mph. in professional cycling, flat courses always end with a mad sprint to the finish line, but mountain courses traditionally let the strongest climber win. no one jockeys for position in the final stretch before the finish, passing in that case is poor sportsmanship.
i consider the non-platinum riders to be more like mountain racing--poor form to pass someone right at the end. i really wanted to have a go at sprinting though. i apologized to rick (the person in the standings that finished 1 second behind me) for overtaking him at the end. he said, quite gentlemanly, that he was pushing as hard as he could too. ^_^
my wall average speed was 19.8mph, but i spent 25 minutes off the bike. my bike average speed was 21.61mph, with a top speed of 37.01mph. i'm surprised my top speed came so close to my top speed at the red river century (43.63mph, my fastest speed ever), as this is a much flatter course.
i finished in under 1,000th place, which was harder to do this year than last. last year my time would have gotten me 799th place. this event is not only growing, but it is attracting good cyclists as well.