AZ and the (in)famous 'shoot-out'

So last weekend I made the short drive south to Tucson, from my place here in Tempe, AZ. The plan was to hook up with my buddy Isaiah, and his wife Nathalie (from Laval Quebec) and son Justin (3).

I met Isaiah on my last shootout ride in Tucson before I made the drive to Texas. He just rode up to me and said "hey, Jet Fuel did the Milk Ras in Ireland." So we got talking, and he said that he would love to help out a cyclist, and that he was buying a new house on the north side. So, on the ride we exchanged e-mails, and a year passed, and we still kept in touch. Isaiah did the Milk Ras almost every year since 1989!

My drive from Tempe to Tucson was about an hour and a half. I was meeting Isaiah at a Safeway 10 minutes from his house, so I had a late dinner in the parking lot, a ham and Swiss sandwich. After an hour or so of talking, and a little guitar playing, we had to hit the hay, the Shootout is always a hard ride--I needed my sleep. I have been riding, but mostly slow, and on my own, so I thought I would get a shellacking by the local world champions training for the upcoming El Tour de Tucson, a charity event that's ridden like a race in November.

The alarm went off, and I could have stayed in bed for another year. But I got up, and waited around a little bit. Isaiah was out cold. I peeked my head in his bedroom door, got him up, and with no breakfast we were off. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't change at the house, and we had a 15-20 minute drive to the University of Arizona where the ride starts. Somehow, I managed to change in the car on the way there, mostly at all the stop lights. From fully clothed, jeans, skibbies, no socks, sandals, t-shirt, sweater, jacket, the works, to my full on cold weather wear.... I would like to thank my dad for all those years of making me change in the van before hockey when I was late, I knew it would help me out someday.

Now it's ride time. I find Isaiah pulling up his bibs from a quick trip to the bathroom, and he says "ah don't worry, they'll go so slow we'll catch'em in no time." I was a little worried, over 5 minutes passed, and Isaiah was still pumping up his tires and fixing the waterbotles! I thought we were screwed. So we jump on our bike's and Gord Fraser is a tad late himself. "Looks like we have some chasing to do" Gord says. We rode a hard tempo talking for the first few minutes, then, the breathing kicked in, and we never said a word until we caught the group in no time at all. Isaiah was right, this time of year the shootout is so slow, I was relieved. Once we jammed up old Nogales Hwy, 12 miles of a false flat grind, I sat up, I wasn't too interested in jamming this time of year. Gord had done a big effort and already sat up himself, caught up to me and we just rode it in nice and steady for a while until a small group caught us. Gord called a rotation and we just kept it going around all the way in to Tucson. We got back to the University, Isaiah, Gord and I chilled for coffee at the (I'm sorry to say) Starbucks for a while. So it was around a 3 hour ride for 100k. I've been going to Tucson for a few years now, every winter, and it's nice to go back and ride the roads you know, in the sun, and hook up with friends you don't see too often. It was a great day, and the weather was perfect.

Back to Isaiah's for hamburgers on the grill, more guitar and shooting the breeze. But all good things must come to an end. I had to make the drive back to Tempe because my two buddies were stranded at the hotel from Friday night, to all day Saturday with no car. So off I went.

That night Robert "Bobert" Brehn came in from Calgary. We arranged for me to do a beautiful ride out to the Superstition Mountains while he hiked up one of the mountains in Lost Dutchman's Park. I drove out to the parking lot with him, and took off on my bike. I was only gone for a little under 3 hours before the road turned to Dirt. After I found out that if I had kept going it would have been an ok road again. But that's alright, it was another beautiful day, and this ride was spectacular, with scenery that I had never seen before in Arizona.

So folks, that was my weekend. Both days were wicked, I can't wait to come back south this winter. I love Arizona.

I'm flying home today, hopefully the weather isn't so bad back home and I can get some good club slides in. Congrats to Tim "The Tactician" Lefebvre on his first marathon, Timmy ran a 3:13, which qualified him for Boston, but he's not going.

Till next time, eat your vegetables, and finish your homework.