Sunday Ride and the Rain is Coming for Tour de Tucson

So, another early start for a weekend ride, this time out of the Morris Udall Park with about 40 people for a 70 mile "tour de Tucson" training ride at 7:00am.  I have yet to see a person at one of these rides that I had previously met.  Hard to develop cycling buddies when they never show for continuous rides and I have kept my personality on "mute" so as not to drive them away, yet.

Fairly fit group that got away from the masses.  Rather than head north from here, we hung a left on Sunrise and continued over to Oracle Road.  I hit red once or twice, not used to an intense effort but hung in there.  We hit the ramps on Oracle, going toward Catalina with the intent to turn around at Biosphere 2, yes, remember when researchers were sealed in a controlled environment back in the 1990's?  That's here.  Anyway, while the ride toward Catalina is not steep, it's a constant 2-4%.  Our group had shriveled to 12 and I blew a fuse at mile 25, exactly next to a market.  What luck.  Finished with 64 miles, sunshine and temps in the low 80's. 

Now, jumping ahead a few days, but hiking reports yet to be posted, Marty and Eleanor Sedluk arrived Wednesday with Tym and Lisa Tyler jetting in tonight, Thursday.  In the 5 weeks I have been here, it has rained once for about 10 minutes.  On Friday, 90% chance of rain, Saturday 100%, Sunday 40%.  The forecast is approximately 2" of rain over the next 3 days with 12-16" of snow up on Mount Lemmon.  The Tour de Tucson has never received rain, dating back in to the 1990's.  With two wash crossings, the rain could force a route change, depending on the amount of rain and how much tumbles out of the mountains.  Had a fun time hiking the Finger Rock trail with Marty and Eleanor today and Marty is not in the mood for a full day of riding in the rain but likely the rain will be spotty.  It usually doesn't have all day rain events around here.  More to come.