Monday Morning Group Ride

Hmmmmm, I was the oldest and appeared to be the least fit of the 8 who gathered.  One guy was talking about riding in the pro/1/2 crit last weekend......  Nothing demoralizes like that but the guy was way cool and never went to the front.  We jumped on the famous "Shootout" route, the group that departs each Saturday morning from downtown Tucson and apparently attracted 150 cyclists on a recent Saturday. Anyway, reaching Valencia Road at mile 6, the pace picked up with a 12 mile climb ahead.  I really needed this intensity and hung on long enough to be #4 spit out the back.  Then a couple of guys caught and passed me so I was 6th at the regroup at Helmet Peak Road.

We descended into Sahuarita where I was again 6th out of 8 on the descent so I am consistent.  Typical gathering in front of a gas station.  We began the ride at 8:00am with a temperature of 65 and now it was approaching 80 with a high of 86 expected.  Someone had a flat and then someone lost their Garmin so....

....we waited under a Pale Verde tree which isn't yielding much shade right now but will soon.  We got onto a curvy bike path and I couldn't manage the curves as well as some so got gapped and was unable to bridge to the group.  I arrived back at the parking lot, 6th out of 8 cyclists!  Finished with 57 miles, 1500' of climbing and an 18.5mph average.  Good time.