El Tour

I'm normally not the type to drive 2 hours to do an 8 mile kid ride but I earned an El Tour Jersey for raising donations for Cochise and by golly if I had the jersey I was going to participate somehow. I would have ridden the long distance but I promised my wife my weekends for Nov and Dec since I trained so hard for Cochise and since taking the kids for a bike ride was still giving the family a Saturday I was set. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I got to see the fast guys start and finish which I haven't done before. There is also the fact I think the event lit a bit of a fire under my daughter to do more cycling so I'm thinkin we're going to do the 35 mile version next year.


These are the vip guys from the front of the platinum turning onto the frontage road first thing in the morning. I had a guy standing next to me dinging a cowbell. I was amazed how many people yelled 'need more cowbell' at us. Incidentally if you don't understand the reference look for cowbell Saturday night live on youtube, it's very funny.

My kids were amazed at the vast amount of riders. I told them Bruce was riding and they should look for a guy with a Red bicycle frame.

This is my daughter pulling a James Dean type look.

The Peloton

My kids did really good at the kids ride. In fact my daughter came in 10th she said. It wasn't a race granted but she seems to be excited about cycling now so perhaps this is a good thing. My bigger 7 year old son Joseph, was about 3 or 4 minutes ahead of me, my smaller 7 year old son Joshua, and my 5 year old daughter Adela.

The last time we saw Becky and Joseph before the end

Josh ripping it up on the first bridge.

Josh gives Dad 'The Look'

Medals for everyone!

When I wasn't doing the kids ride I managed to lead a break away from the Peloton at the same time.

It was a good day. I was amazed at some of the people who showed up at the finish to watch. These weren't cycling fanatics. Most of them were just normal Tucsonians who came out for the festivities and to watch one of the seminal events of the Tucson area as opposed to swearing under their breath while stuck in traffic. It was kind of cool to see that.

Speaking of fanatics there was a dude riding around the finish line with a giant sign about some silly cause thought up by bitter minds by people with an overdeveloped sense of paranoia and too much time on their hands. If he really wanted to get the word out he would have towed that billboard around the route. I bet he'd still get beat by the guy on the unicycle though.