We rolled up just in time to watch the racers start right at 7am.
We went all the way to the back of the 9,000 rider field. Here's the view of the start line when you're dead last:
The beginning of the ride is really crazy, with riders all over the road. There were lots of crashes, and we had to go pretty slow for the first 20 or so miles. Here's the first of two very long washes that everyone had to walk across. At the end of each we had to take our shoes off to dump out all the dirt/sand.
Here's a shot of one of two checkpoints where we stopped for water. Food options were bananas, oranges, grapes, pretzels and animal cracker cookies strewn all over the table. It was pretty gross to take food off a table where endless rider's dirty hands had been.... but we grabbed a handful of cookies anyway. Good thing we carry our own food (mostly Clif Shot Bloks and Gu. Brian also likes Jelly Belly Sport Beans.).
The finish line! Yippee! Brian and I rode the first 75 together; but then the last two days of riding kicked in and he dropped me on a climb. He finished in 6 hours; and I finished in 6:17. Not bad considering we started dead last, spent the first 20+ miles working our way through the masses, spent another 1/2 hour or so walking the washes, and both had Mt. Lemmon in our legs!
El Tour de Tucson is 109 miles with 3,200' of climbing. Far and away the easiest century we've ever done. We're glad we came, but, truth be told, this is likely our first and last El Tour. Been there, done that!:-)
