I took off just before 0500 to ride and meet up with the Tucson Recumbent Cyclists group for their ride from Cmno De La Tierra to Avra Valley Rd. I was to meet up with Randy Jardee at the LOOP path and Columbus Blvd at 0540. I arrived exactly at 0540. I had averaged 16 mph.
I saw that Randy had posted just three minutes prior that he was running late so I rode down Columbus to meet up with him. When I got to Glenn I was concerned he might have gone a different way so I turned around. I should have gone another five minutes down the road and I would have met him.
Once Randy got to the meeting point, we took off for the start of the ride location at Cmno De La Tierra. When we got there there was a group waiting. There were seven of us in all, Dale, Greg, Geo, Mike, Laurie, Randy, and me.
To shorten the write-up, the summary is that we rode the LOOP to Avra Valley Road. Once of us who hasn't ridden much planned to only go part way and then turn back, which she did.
The ride was essentially downhill all the way to Avra Valley Rd. For me, that meant 33 miles of down hill...and the same uphill coming back except for one less mile because I didn't have to go back up Columbus.
The temperature really started to heat up as the sun was out without cloud cover. I started to notice the heat as we started back, so there was going to be 32 miles of this.
People started peeling off as we got to their places of interest. By the time we got to Columbus, I was riding solo again. I had about 11 miles to go and I was feeling the sun baking my legs and torso.
I ran into Karl Nielsen after a short bit and we rode together until Tanque Verde Rd when I peeled off to stop at Eegee's for refueling and cooling down.
I spent about 45 minutes there enjoying the food and the cool interiors. Then I headed out for the remaining six miles to make it home. I had more that 150 feet of climbing left, most of it on two relatively short climbs. The first is coming up Speedway from the Pantano Park to Pantano Rd. That is about 3/10 mile at 3% gradient. The second is about 2/10 mile and goes from 4% to about 9% gradient and is just before home. While I was still strong enough to climb the first hill at 9 and 10 mph, this last hill started out at about 4 mph but dropped to 3 mph. I was pretty wiped out.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable ride. I had good company for most the ride and I put in some real good mileage.