What a great day of cycling. Kirk Winger and I agreed to ride together since this would be his longest ride ever. We were in the first group heading up New River Rd. I did a 2 mile pull and pulled off to back, then noticed a flat tire. In fixing it, the spare tube valve would not seat so that wasted 1 CO2 cartridge of the 3 I had. So used another. That seemed to finally work, yet it was not as full as it should be. So pedaled about 3-4 miles north into a headwind, going slow. Until finally I noticed it was flat! I thought the valve had leaked, but found a piece of wire! So fixed that with my last tube and last CO2. Headed to the New River control hoping that Mike's son, who was at the control would have a spare tube and CO2 just to get me to Cave Creek or Fountain Hills where I could purchase more. He did. Kirk had waited there for me as he had initially continued to that stop with the group. So I had wasted some of his time and we did not have a peloton but a group of 2. Off we went and it was fun heading over to Cave Creek. Met another 2 cyclists on Care Free Hwy. Then up at control N of Care Free there was a police action so we had to find a way around that, easy. Then by that time there were ~6 of that headed down Pima and 9-mile and into lunch at Cave Creek. Then Kirk and I did the Saguaro Lake loop! Perfect timing in the canyon for all the shadows and low sun! Kirk climbed all those hills MUCH faster than I. I needed electrolytes that I did NOT have. Finally took 2 of them that I found leftover. Finally on the last climb out Kirk handed me a gel. That combo seemed to help. We got to the Beeline and bombed it down to Fountain Hills getting there just a bit after sunset! Perfect. And much faster than last year.