Tucson Riders -- Quick Advice Needed

[bps]

My wife and I are coming to Tucson in a few weeks to ride. Within the next 24 hours I need to figure out which part of town would be the best to stay in. Riding straight out of our lodging is preferred, but to experience a variety of rides around Tucson, we'll undoubtedly load up our bikes and drive to other starting points. We've found three condos/homes that are available, and we're trying to decide which one would have the best location.

They are:
1) A condo right next to Ventana Canyon. It is literally one of the highest streets in the foothills.
2) A condo at the intersection of Campbell and River Road. (NE side of town)
3) A guest home at the top of Starr Pass.

The purpose of this trip is 7 straight days of riding. We've taken 3 months off from riding and this will be the beginning of our 2008 training season, so we want to lay some base miles down. As for major hill work, well, we're from Kansas (cough cough), so major hill work (ahem) will not be on the top of our priority list. We love rollers, but will also be going on several flat rides so we can stay in Zone 1/2 for a couple of hours.

Which location would be our best choice?

Thanks!
Bryan

[azchris]

The Ventana condo or the Campbell/River condo are both areas I am familiar with. Both of these locations have access to good riding with bike lanes. These will give you a good start to a lot of great riding.

I'm not so familiar with the Star Pass area so I can't comment. Below is a link to a Tucson Biking Map.

http://www.bikeped.pima.gov/Publications.html#map

[stevesurf]

The Ventana condo or the Campbell/River condo are both areas I am familiar with. Both of these locations have access to good riding with bike lanes. These will give you a good start to a lot of great riding.

+1

Here's a ride I did near Oro Valley - very nice area...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D4494172&ie=UTF8&z=11&om=1

[bps]

Thank you for the inputs! The bike map is exceptionally helpful.

It looks like the NE side of town offers more choices/variations for a daily ride and there are more bike lanes, which is always helpful vs. no shoulder at all. While Starr pass looks pretty, it appears as if would be the same start and finish every time with less route variations to choose from.

I'm thinking the NE side is the way to go...

Bryan

[azchris]

I would think that the either the Ventana or Campbell/River are your best bet. These two locations are not that far apart. Ventana is located in a beautiful foothills location; Campbell/River is a little more central to city locations. You can do fantastic loop rides, to a variety of locations, from either. The main road from the Ventana area is Sunrise and from Campbell/River it is River Road. There are some great routes on roads with wide bike paths towards the NW--like the one stevesurf* posted.

Enjoy, Tucson is a great place to ride--one of the top-rated bikeing communities in the country.

[zonatandem]

There will always be some gradual climbing in the Tucson area but nothing overly steep. Do have some 6 to 9% in the foothiils and Mt. Lemmon.
However, you'll no longer be in Kansas . . . and, bring sunscreen!

[azgordo]

actually the nortwest offers the best rides and roads. from river north to oracle and the biosphere and from dove mountain east to oracle road and around pusch ridge. your gonna love tucson for riding.

azgordo