Call Me Starla: Tour of The Tucson Mountains

In the TTM there are two distances you can ride (72 miles and 27 miles). Originally my father in law and sister in law were going to ride the 72 miles with me, but it turned out that neither of them was able to ride after all.

Nick's cousin Tyler was also riding and I knew he and Nick would be too fast for me and I would end up by myself most of the time. I debated about just doing the shorter ride since I was on my own. Then we found out that this is the last time they are holding this race! It has been around for nearly 30 years but due to financial issues they will not be holding it again. With that news I made up my mind to go for it and do the longer race.

Heading out bright and early... the start line was about an hour from where we live.

Waiting at the starting line.

My ride: (boring to everyone else but I want to be able to remember)
I wanted to start out slow and steady and I did maybe too good of a job of that! I had a good group in the beginning but by about mile 15 - 20 they were just going so much slower than I wanted to. I made the mistake of letting all the faster groups get away in the beginning with my attempts to start out easy.

I had a tough time ( mini bonk?) from miles 20-30 during the hilly section after the climb on Silverbell until I hit La Cholla. Once I got past the initial little climb on Ajo I found good people to ride with. Up until then everyone else that went by was way too fast for me to stick to for long and all the bigger groups were gone.

One person that stuck out was on this section was "Tri-girl" (that was her nick name in my mind). I sucked her wheel for about 9 miles down Ajo. She was amazing and kept up a steady pace of 19-21mph into the wind. After that I felt well rested and pulled up along side her as she was starting to look tired. I offered her a pull but I don't think she understood what I was saying. That combined with her outfit (sleeveless jersey and arm warmers), and her riding style are what landed her with her nickname:)

I had a good fast section from miles 50 to 60 riding in a line with some super fast guys. One was a bike patrol rider on a recumbent. "Bike Patrol" invited me to follow them so I jumped on his wheel. They were going anywhere from 22-25mph steady, depending on which one of them was pulling. I got too tired to keep up after that and they dropped me. I did see the bike patrol guy several more time after that though. He must have felt bad for me because he kept pulling along side me and saying "You again??? You wanna pull?"

There was also "Tatoo Guy" and the girl who kept telling me how much her left a** cheek hurt! Mine too sister, ha ha:)

From about 60 mile mark on I rode pretty much by myself. I just didn't have the legs to care so I decided to take it easy and enjoy the rest of the ride instead of killing myself when I was alone.

I finished in 4:06 and I was pleasantly surprised with my time since my goal had been to be above 16 mph average.

Photos I took while riding...

This is what getting dropped looks like!