Southwest - tour de tucson

i am thinking about the tour de tucson in nov and have a couple questions. if i do the 66 mile ride how far is it back to the start line? is there a shuttle service?
thanks

Great minds ask similar questions on the same weekend no less.

Full information is available at http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/!ETT/ETThome.html (http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/%21ETT/ETThome.html). It looks to me as if it's about a ten mile ride from the 67 mile start to the finish area. I'm thinking a parking spot about half-way between the two would be about perfect. This will be my first time, so that's just a guess.

I'm in a similar position. I'm not sure if they are doing this in 2009 or if this is old. According to the link, there is a shuttle for people and a place to secure your bicycles. (Check in bike to storage, shuttle takes you back to car, you get car and reclaim your bike.) I don't know how the bikes are secured.


http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/!ETT/ETTInfoUpdates.html



3.3
Transportation Back to Event Start Lines From Finish Line
All cyclists are responsible for transportation to event start lines. There is NO transportation provided to start lines; however, transportation is provided to return cyclists back to event start lines.

When you finish your El Tour ride in downtown Tucson (Finish Line for ALL events), go to the El Tour Information Booth. Volunteers will direct you to where the TICET shuttle buses depart, which will transport cyclists back to remote start lines. (Buses depart at cul-de-sac behind Hotel Arizona).

There is no charge for the bus ride back to your starting area (this is included in rider fees.) Since shuttle buses are not able to transport your bicycle, all bicycles will be stored in the "El Tour Bike Check Room", at Hotel Arizona, adjacent to the shuttle departure area. You will be given a Bike Check ticket. Once you have checked your bicycle, board your shuttle bus for travel back to start line. Retrieve your car and return to finish line. Present your ticket at the "check in room" and you will be given your bicycle.

All bicycles must be retrieved on Ride Day by 6:00pm.


My plan is for my wife to drop me at the start and pick me up at the finish. (The kids will be in the car, so I won't have an empty seat. I don't know the exact distance, but it is flat between the start and finish.

i think i will park half way between at the randolph golf course on broadway. it looks like is about 7 to 8 miles between the start and finish. think that was a very good idea. wonder if there are bike lanes on broadway.
thanks

There are bike lanes, but Broadway is pretty busy.

I used the shuttle service last year following my 35-mile ride because I was unable to get a ride home from the finish area. I stood in line for 10-15 minutes before I could leave my bike at the hotel meeting room where the bikes are stored. However, I would have waited on the bus anyway, as I was one of the last people on that bus (but I did have to stand for the entire ride).

Coming back downtown, finding a parking spot near the hotel was difficult but I was able to find a spot along a side street so that I didn't have to pay the few bucks to park in the convention center lots. Once I got back to the storage room, I noticed that there were so many bikes that many were sitting in the courtyard outside the room. The check-out process was also slow because there was no quick cross-check between my ticket number and their (hand-written) records. In the end, I just gave the guy my ticket, pointed at my bike, grabbed it, and walked out. The whole process from drop-off to pickup took about 2 hours.

Having no other options to get home, I was happy that Perimeter Bicycling provided the service, despite the annoyances I noted. However, I would suggest finding another way home. That is especially true if you have a high-end bike (the check-out process was not very secure, in my opinion) or if you expect to be physically exhausted and won't be able to stay upright for 2 more hours.

Good luck to all of you riding in El Tour. I'll be out there again too, this year for the 80-mile ride...

Hangout at the finish line for a bit, eat maybe take a nap. You might even find someone to give you a lift. Otherwise, take the scenic ride to the start point or the halfway point. A good way to loosen up the legs for the start and the finish.

There's always SunTran.

So what is the best time to show up at the start of the 66mi ride? I've never done the Tour, so I am curious. How many people do the 66mi ride?

So what is the best time to show up at the start of the 66mi ride? I've never done the Tour, so I am curious. How many people do the 66mi ride?

I've only done the 35-mile ETDT, so I can't write specifically about the 66-miler. However, if I recall there more than 1000 people in the 66-miler, maybe closer to 2000. I arrived at the start line for the 35-miler about an hour early last year, and I was about 100 feet from the start line with maybe 100 cyclists ahead of me (out of about 1500 total). I started within a few seconds of the official start. I would guess the last cyclists rolled across the line 2-3 minutes after the official start. However, with the personal timing chip that doesn't matter.

If you are unfamiliar with the area and/or want to be near the start line, I suggest getting there an hour or more before the start so that you can easily find parking and save your spot in line.

How did everyone's ride go today? I had a good day. I finished the 66 in under 5hours, which is good for me. I thought it was going to take me closer to 6hrs, because I had the flu two weeks ago. I had not ridden my bike since before the flu. Just over a week ago, my head was so congested that I lost some hearing. I was going to withdraw if it did not clear up in time. I'm glad I recovered and I am glad I had a good day. Hope everyone did as well.

How did everyone's ride go today? I had a good day. I finished the 66 in under 5hours, which is good for me. I thought it was going to take me closer to 6hrs, because I had the flu two weeks ago. I had not ridden my bike since before the flu. Just over a week ago, my head was so congested that I lost some hearing. I was going to withdraw if it did not clear up in time. I'm glad I recovered and I am glad I had a good day. Hope everyone did as well.

I had a great time! I did the 109 in 5:53:45 despite feeling like I wasn't at all prepared for it.

I've been riding 100-150 miles a week, but the longest ride in a day I had done was 70 and then my daughter was born 6 days before the race, so needless to say I wasn't getting a lot of sleep and hadn't done any riding in about 1.5 weeks.

Luckily my sister-in-law came over the night before to help with the baby and allowed me to sleep the whole night.

I thought the ride was great and I liked the route change that took us onto the frontage road. I also liked the new finishing line.

We signed up for the 66 but did the 35 instead. The first half of the 66 is almost all hills and we decided to relax and just do the more enjoyable 35. It took at least 15 minutes to get the entire line started. This matters because they did NOT "chip time" the start. Just the finish. If you care about your time (and we didn't), this is inexcusable.

The first few miles of the 35 are a long downhill, but you couldn't ride hard on it because the pack had not spread out yet. Lots of clumps riding 4 or more across, and lots of people crossing the yellow line to get ahead, which the Bike Patrollers were very unhappy about. I would not have wanted to be a 109/80/66 mile rider who got caught in that mess.

No problems at any of the intersections. That's about the only good point of this ride. Only $15 went to charity, I assume the rest went to pay police overtime.

If we do this again (not sure if we will, it just didn't seem like we got good value for our money), we now know where to park downtown. Lots of free parking available at hotels and etc. within a few blocks of the start/finish.

I finished the 109 in 6:53:13 and I wasn't sure how prepared I was.. It was a good time overall and I think I beat each of the shorter races out so I didn't have to deal with those packs..

The fastest of the 35-milers finished about 10 minutes behind you. You probably got through the merge point with the 35-mile route just barely in time.

My wife and I did the 66 mile route. It is the first organized bike event we have done. She was very nervous at the start until we got to the hiking part. The hiking part , carrying the bikes through the sand lot was an interesting twist. Once my wife relaxed she had a great time chatting with everyone on the route. I have never done a bike event prior to this but have done running events. I found that this event was extremely well run. All staff was very helpful and friendly, the police support was great. while there were big packs, due to the large number of people, with so much of the roads open for bikes, there was quite a bit of space. The bike patrol were really on top of thngs to offer assistence. I stopped as I developed a slow leak about ten miles from the finish. I just topped up with some CO2 to get me to the end. Within seconds there was a bike patrol there to offer assistence. PEople at the aid stations wee great. and much appreciated. We met a lot of nice people from all over.

We stayed at the Hilton on Broadway. It was about 3 miles to the start. We parked right at the Udall centre. It is along 8 miles from the finish line to the start. So after stowing the bike at the finish, getting the shuttle and driving back for the bike, then driving back to the hotel, it took better part of two hours. We poked around the Finish line and had a beer, listened to the band for a bit before heading to the shuttle. Probably wasn't a good idea. When we got back with the car it was a bit of a panic as the Bike storage closed at 7. We got back at 5 to 7. The streets were closed off and we were not familiar with the area. But we got there on time. Similarily on Friday we arrived in town at 8:30 and still had to pick up our packets. Did not get to see much of the Expo. I think next year we will stay closer to the finish line, then we can take the bikes to the hotel, then the shuttle to get the car and save one of those trips after the race.

A young lady took a fall on the frontage road running near the 10 freeway near the end. An ambulance came for her. I hope she was alright. I hope everyone else had a safe ride. I saw one guy snapped his chain about a block from the finnish. That's gotta hurt.

As to LArry's comments about the start. We started I thnk about mid pack in the 66 mile start. It did not seem to take that long to hit the start, but maybe we were further to the front than I thought. I guess if you are concerned about your time, you do need to get there early. We gotto the start about one hour prior to start time. We had toime to park, change shoes, last minute restroom break, and socialize. IT was our first event and it was very exciting.

I did the 66. This was also my first organized cycling event. I stopped at 3 aid stations (Fire station, Moore, and Silverbell- right after Lambert) rested and ate a lot. I was nervous about not eating enough and running out of steam. The downside to this was that I was then behind the 35 mile group which often took up the entire road. Lesson learned. Next time I think I'll still stop at the same 3 stops, however I'll pay closer attention to the amount of time I spend at each stop.

See all of you next year.

I flew in from Ohio for the El Tour - did the 66 mile ride. Had a good ride, caught up with a couple of good groups and finished in 3h15m. Pretty happy with my ride.

On Sunday I was off to meet up with some friends on one of the local Tucson teams for a recovery ride. On my way to the meeting spot I got hit by a car that was turned left into me. I went up onto the hood of the car and rolled off the front. Ended up at the ER to get road rash cleaned and stitches - nothing broken, though I have some sore ribs. Feeling pretty lucky as it could have been a lot worse.

On my way to the meeting spot I got hit by a car that was turned left into me.

That bites. Good safe main event and then get hurt the next day. get well

finished the 79 miler in 3:17.24. The route is awesome! I'll do the 109 next year for sure tho.

I did the 109 and took a silver, not bad for a old guy that was icing his knee the night before the race. I.T. band from running injury. It was my first T. D. T. race and I really enjoyed it. Now on to the two day one in Florence Junction. 100/65 in March.