Wow! The first day of Century Week was dismal, plus a bit frightening. The wind blew all night last night in Tucson. At 2 am it woke me up. I looked out and thought, "this will be unrideable." Palm trees were bent stiffly leeward, my windows pummeled all night by wind. At 7:30 am we rode out in a slight drizzle. The wind continued strong, we're guessing about 25 mph with stronger gusts. The temp dropped 10 degrees after riding only about a mile, accompanied by pouring rain! Our feet were soaking wet. Rain/wind like this in the desert is amazing. We had to ride canted towards the wind, over pools of standing water, hoping there were no hidden holes to take out a tire. (The roads going out of Tucson need a lot of repair). To top it off, some type of mineral residue was blowing from the sand across the road, making the water look as if covered by soap suds. Our hands got really cold in lightweight gloves, our Showers Pass raincoats were not totally water proof and by mile 15 we knew the 80+ miles to Sierra Vista might be impossible to complete. Art had a flat at about mile 20 and we got pretty cold standing there, changing a tire in the cold, wet, howling wind. The temp by then was about 40 degrees, with a wind chill factor I can only guess put us in the 30's. Now in addition to pouring rain and gusty winds we had snow flurries. We all agreed these were the worst conditions we had ever ridden in and at mile 22, at the first supported rest stop, we (Gary, Art and I) happily accepted a ride in the sag wagon to SV. Good thing; at the pass, about 6000 feet, the temp was only 37 and that doesn't include the wind chill factor. Susie, Cindy and David rode farther in this stuff, about 55+miles, before quitting! No small feat. DK, Jay and KRhea drove their cars back and forth for hours on the route, picking up riders and bikes, taking them to the hotel SV, then going back out to rescue more. Nice guys!
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| Parking lot, getting ready to go. Little did we know the storm was coming in! |
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| Clouds on Saddleback Mountain |
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| Snow on the pass |
We arrived at the hotel, too early to check in to our rooms, our bags with dry clothes in one of the trailers, so we all sat in a conference room, some of us with our bottom halves wrapped up only in towels. Pretty funny indeed (had a towel accidentally come off). It's reported that 7 out of 60 completed the ride. I saw one tandem come in at 1:55 pm, which is pretty darn fast considering the conditions. Kudos to them!
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| Nicole (Anne Marie McSweeny scholarship winner) and me wrapped up in towels |
Tomorrow's forecast looks a bit worse; high winds with record lows in the 30's, and to add to the mix, a little snow. That said, the forecast improves Tuesday and by Friday, should be in the 80's again. AZ at it's best I guess.
