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Looks easy but it's actually a tougher little ride
that would appear. While
climbing First and Sunrise is no biggy doing the Kolb loop backwards
having to
climb Craycroft first is serious. And then there's climbing
Freeman after it.
A nice serious ride with the steepest damned hill around the place
(excluding the
far side of Gates Pass of course ;) See Golf
Links Snyder Sunrise
for a anti-clockwise variant of this.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
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A nice moderate if very long ride through lots of
different scenery past
three different mountains, a pretty cool ride IMO. No hills to
climb
beyond a bunch of roller coaster type things unless you ride it
clockwise. There's a 45
mile stretch from Three Points to Arivaca without so much as a place
name to
ride through (beyond the wilderness areas anyway) so it's probably
getting into real life threatening territory there
-- like that ever stopped us but I'd say it's a three person minimum
ride.
Might not be possible in the summer unless you can carry more than
three bottles
of water. Water in Arivaca appears to be the coffee shop on the
East side
of town.
If the whole ride looks a little much then the Green
Valley side to Arivaca can be ridden by itself for a slightly saner
120.6 mile ride.
A
relatively moderate 20 mile climb (and rather pretty piece of
road)
from Arivaca Junction to Arivaca amplified by a bunch of rolling hills
and other
repeated ups and downs is this ride's prime feature -- the rest of it
is rather
unremarkable other than the distance you cover. Still well worth
the ride
just for that 20 miles, hell, there's even one section of Arivaca Rd.
that's got
enough trees lining the road so that you actually get shadows on the
road --
almost unheard of around here unless you're half way up a mountain...
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A nice ride out of Udall Park with a little bit of
climbing over Picture
Rocks. Just ridden from
the UofA it's a 50.0 mile ride.
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This is your basic solo Tucson bike ride, solo
because it doesn't require
someone else to mind your bike when you stop to tank up. Starts
out nice
and easy down Silverbell and slowly lets you work up to the
hills. It's
got amenities all over the place for bladder breaks and water
(Silverbell Park
at marker 4 if you start someplace other than the UofA campus, Ventana
Canyon just
north of marker 6, Agua Caliente Park out Roger Rd at marker 8 and
Saguaro
National Monument at marker 10 plus numerous fountains along the
Aviation
bikeway).
If the
basic ride isn't enough adding
Starr Pass, the Kolb Loop and Rita rd. takes it out to 89.4 miles. There's
another park there
between marker 17 and 18 on the south side of Rita Rd.
And then of course there's the Short
Perimeter at 85.1 miles and the Short
Perimeter with Barrio at 85.7 miles
(although riding along Valencia sucks so you might want to cut the
Barrio off at
Irvington).
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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This one's training for getting up Snyder after
having ridden first
55 odd miles of El Tour de Tucson. When you take the detour down Cloud
Rd, Larrea Ln. etc. you'll come across Canyon Ranch gates, you should
be able to
call security and ask if you can ride you bikes through to Rockcliff
Rd. Good luck winding through Canyon Ranch though if you don't take the
first security gate as indicated on the map,
them's some twisty small little roads in there.
If you add a Rancho Vistoso Loop onto the end of
this ride like the Hills
of El Tour then it's 100.3 miles and
will screw you up pretty much as
well as the real El
Tour de
Tucson does seeing as most people have to ride to campus to the
start the
ride like we do.
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A real grind coming home, that's for sure.
Prevailing SE wind and the
down hill to Casa Grande make for a high speed buzz that just goes and
goes and
goes -- in a straight line. You can zone out for whole minutes
and nothing
changes. And then there's the desert around Casa Grande, serious
sand and
occasional tumbleweed desert, scary -- definitely a ride to do in a
group that's
for sure. Coming home is miles and miles of uphill into a breeze
(more
than like), ohh is that serious...
Note, you can dispense with Silverbell these days,
the frontage
roads have all been completed and while there are a lot of stops the
road
quality is substantially higher than Silverbell and they've got
really wide bike lanes down them. You do of course have the
entertainment of
interacting with traffic exiting from I-10 so it's not all good news...
You can always bail and turn around at Picacho
Peak for a much easier 83.0 mile
affair
of course.
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A fairly moderate ride, smooth gradients for the
most part. One of my
favorites when ridden clockwise if I'm not out to kill myself. If
you start
out down I-19 it's a 58.5 mile
ride. A slightly
longer ride that avoids Houghton is the Alternate
Triangle ride.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
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So Eric and I are out there checking out the new
start/finish line for the
2005 ETdTM and OMG! There really is something out there, there's
this nice
civic center out in the middle of all these fields. Go
figure. At
least you can get water at the park that's there and I'll bet the grass
makes a
nice break if you're out there when it's really hot in the summer.
Our old
training ride was only 63.3 miles and
it's
the one the
elevation data is on.
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This is about as flat a 55 mile ride as you can
get in Tucson (with one
possible exception out near Sahuarita) and not go round in small
circles.
People say this place is flat, well I'd say they obviously don't ride
bikes.
For a really easy ride do this in the morning in reverse (clockwise),
prevailing
wind conditions will usually be with you for most of the ride.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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A standard route that loops around the prettier
neighborhoods in Tucson.
The shorter
route is 49.1 miles.
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So I wanted to see what was in Avra Valley one day
as there's a Tour
de Avra Valley I heard about somewhere. Will said Marana was out
there. Experience led us to believe otherwise. Gates Pass
is excellent and cruising down Sandaro is always fun even if Silverbell
can be a little work coming home as it's usually into the wind.
Since we first rode this we found the convenience
store at Anway when riding West
Silverbell as opposed to the ghost
town on Sanders so we stretched the ride to go up Anway instead of
Trico.
And then wonder of wonders we found a real honest to god civic center
checking
out the new El
Tour de Tucson Mountains start/finish line, Marana really does
exist.
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Never been particularly wild about the Golf Links
part this ride, we tend to
skip the Aviation Bikeway and Golf Links and just use Broadway instead
or ride
the 69.8 mile extended
version.
See 1st
Sunrise Freeman for clockwise version of this.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Wilmot, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it at Highland for
campus.
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Flat and boring for the most part. But then
some days you just want a
flat and boring ride, so...
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The top of Silverbell is probably best left for
the more experienced rider --
at least till they repave the thing which is supposed to happen some
time soon.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway or Golf Links etc, you
should take Country Club south and get on the bike path and take it
east, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it Kolb and Escalante.
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NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway or Golf Links etc, you
should take Country Club south and get on the bike path and take it
east, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it Kolb and Escalante.
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You can also extend this out to Sandario
for a 48.7 mile ride.
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This one's got most of the hills you'll climb
during El Tour de Tucson. When you take the detour down Cloud Rd,
Larrea Ln. etc. you'll come across Canyon Ranch gates, you should be
able to
call security and ask if you can ride your bikes through to Rockcliff
Rd.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway or Golf Links etc, you
should take Highland south from campus and get on the bike path and
take it east, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it Kolb and Escalante.
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Well we finally actually worked up the guts to
ride this one and there's no
doubt about what it should be named. Even though we've got some
kick ass
rides in here this one is indisputably The Ride From Hell.
Even if you
don't do it as the remnants of a hurricane hit town or have four
flats. Something about 40+
miles of riding followed by an intense 10+ mile long relentless
7% grade hill climb I think.
And then 40+ miles home... Either ride to Kitt Peak, no probs, or
ride up
Kitt Peak, a nice rigorous hill climb. But both of them combined,
that's
in another league completely.
There's a convenience store at the San Pedro turn
off that's about 6
miles before the turn off to Kitt Peak to top up on fluid. If
it's summer you'll need three bottles to get up the top after getting
to the base of Kitt Peak even if the top is 20 degrees cooler than
Tucson as it's said to be. There's water in the picnic area once
you get up the mountain.
But even if
it is The Ride From Hell Kitt Peak is still more fun to
climb than Lemmon
is,
certainly a much more intense climb and the views are great. Some
people
have the grade as 5% and maybe the overall figures they are using are
right, but the
grade is 7%, take my word for it -- almost all of Kitt Peak is the same
grade as the
steeper parts of Lemmon.
Of course you could just ride to the San
Pedro store and skip Kitt Peak for a nice little 71.5
mile ride.
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A nice gradually ascending ride out that keeps on
getting steeper and steeper
and then it's down hill all the way home. Did this one by myself
once in the
winter on a not particularly warm day, snakes alive was that
miserable. It
just got colder and colder the higher up Madera Canyon I climbed to the
point
where when I stopped up the top to eat a snack that I just scarfed what
I had as
quick as possible -- had something to do with me crossing the snowline
I'm sure.
But then the misery really began because at 40+ mph coming down I was
even
colder to the point of uncontrollable shivering. However I
couldn't slow
down, besides merely prolonging the suffering slowing down meant
stopping
pedaling which of course meant I wasn't generating any heat...
Ah, the
dilemma.
There's a school about a mile out of Green Valley
once you make the turn onto
HWY 62 that has a water fountain round the back of its athletic
facilities that
you can get to even if the school gates are all closed, otherwise the
very top of Madera Canyon has water and restrooms.
We'll also run into Green Valley if it's hot for the gas station's ice
that's on
the I-19 Frontage rd., it's only a mile or so out of the way.
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So Will says something like "Got some grades
coming home, up to 7%" so I'm
thinking this one's in the
serious bracket. Ha, 4600' serious. For most of us just
riding out to Oracle is
enough what with it being basically a 30 mile uphill ride -- but the
usual theme
around here runs along the lines of what does not kill you makes you
stronger.
So there you are having just cleared Oracle and are perhaps just a
little bit
worn out when you see the sign "7% GRADES NEXT 12 MILES" and you're
like "Do I
really want to ride down 12 miles of road that I'm going to
have to climb
back up again when I'm already tired now?".
Stupid question,
down we went. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to
climb back
up really, nothing like Lemmon
or Kitt
Peak.
A considerably easier ride of 71.7
miles is to
bail just before that "7% GRADES NEXT 12 MILES" sign and turn
around after stopping in Oracle.
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Once when Will and I were riding out to the bit of
83 on the Vail
and Corona
ride as we turned south onto 83 we could see people to the east off
in the
distance riding on Marsh Station road so we figured perhaps it went
somewhere.
Wrong. But it's still a nice ride, check
that elevation out, snakes alive, up and down like a freaking
roller
coaster. An easier ride is the 64.6 mile
New
Ride that has substantially easier climbing until you get to Vail, from
campus it's 72.5 miles.
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From Saguaro Monument West to Saguaro
Monument East this is one big ride, tons of hills and plenty of
distance.
It's also a solo route with a little care as it's bit of a stretch
getting to Sabino Canyon without topping up at the Visitor Center in
the Saguaro Monument
West (the Red Hills Visitor Center on the map).
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
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Like any of us are actually gonna get all the way
up this thing -- well, Will
might have but then he's almost half my age so that tells you
something. In the
summer you run out of fluids (although I hear there's water at Prison
Camp which
would make the water higher up within conceivable reach) and in the
winter it's
covered in snow and ice. But the bottom part in summer sure is a
cool
ride, the desert is very pretty and soon enough it actually gets
physically
cool. Plus screaming down the thing is an experience in
itself, I'm
typically peaking out at 48 mph on the 'bent.
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Not that it covers any new ground but it sticks
two of my favorites together
and avoids Silverbell. And it goes up and down like a banshee,
up Gates Pass, down to Avra, up
Picture Rocks, down to the Santa Cruz, up to Oracle, down back to
Tucson.
Dunno why I didn't think of it earlier...
NOTE: Only rideable in the
clockwise direction -- unless
of course you like riding the wrong way down the one way section of the
Casa
Grande hwy. And then of course there's riding Camino de Manyana and
dodging it's
potholes at uphill speeds as opposed to downhill speeds...
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NOTE: Only rideable in the
clockwise direction -- unless
of course you like riding the wrong way down the one way section of the
Casa
Grande hwy. And then of course there's riding Camino de Manyana and
dodging it's
potholes at uphill speeds as opposed to downhill speeds...
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What with Tangerine having good shoulders down
most of it these days and
Rancho Vistoso having water on it and Marana Valley's civic center this
becomes
a fine solo route. And if you're not in solo mode there's a Circle
K in Marana that adds a couple of miles to the ride.
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NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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This is the ride the real cyclists do
early every Saturday morning
(see http://www.fwrt.org/ or http://www.fairwheelbikes.com/
for
times) and
if you can hang with them you're really good, like Cat 3 good -- the
rest of us
try to not get dropped too damn soon. If you can make it to
cattle grid
without getting dropped there's hope for you, if you make it to the
bridge
you're getting there and might want to see the short
version of the shootout. Mission's getting a little beat up
these days
but the ride up behind Helmet Peak is superb. In the summer we'll
usually
detour down Continental
Blvd. to the gas station for fluids, stretches the ride out to 63.4 miles.
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For those of you that are nearly real cyclists you
can bolt down Helmet Peak
road after the main
shootout peloton has dropped you and catch them as they fly up I-19
Bus.
If you could cut down Pima Mine Rd then the ride becomes a 44.4 mile
affair but
I think MapPoint is once again missing a crucial bit of information
here as
there's no Pima Mine Rd intersecting with Mission going east.
West, for
sure, but not east.
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Watch out for the top of Continental blvd coming
down, you'll be doing some
high speed pot hole dodging...
The very top of Madera Canyon has water and
restrooms.
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Only bad thing about this ride is the narrowness
of Thornydale and Tangerine
(although I notice Tangerine has luuuhvely shoulder along most
of it
nowadays). For that matter sections of Silverbell are none to
damn wide
either but the traffic is slower along Silverbell and somehow it just
ain't as
plain intimidating as Thornydale is. Best to try and do this when
there's damn all traffic on the roads.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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This one's a hill climb special and it'll kick
your ass -- it certainly kicks
ours, to quote Eric half way to Sonoita "Whose idea was this
anyway?" You start out lightly climbing out
of Tucson, past Corona De Tucson and then you climb out Route 83 and
then after
a while you start really climbing -- and climbing -- and
climbing. If that
wasn't bad enough you're still something like 10 miles out of Sonoita
and you
see the 1 mile of 5% grades sign -- downhill -- which means you've got
to climb
it going back, argh. But after a stop in Sonoita the 1
mile climb is
trivial and then you get to see the sign that tells you the last 4
miles of
uphill on ride out there was up 6% grades and boy do you feel
good. And
it's downhill all the way home...
Oh yeah, you'll want to turn off your cell
phone. There's nothing in
the way of towers between Tucson and Sonoita (although Sonoita itself
has one)
and if your battery is a little anemic it'll be flat by the time you
get to
Sonoita.
And now that they've paved the Old Vail Rd. you
can carve a bit off the ride going
through Vail instead of Corona de Tucson shaving it down to 84.7 miles (104.2 from
campus).
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You've got to ride along I-19 there in Tubac
between exits 40 and 42 (which
the Tumacacori
has to do so it can't be that bad) but it's the next big ride we
do. To avoid I-19 the
alternative is to
swing out through Arivaca
and Three Points, however that's 194.7 miles
and that's a bridge that's too damn far (not to mention having 20 or so
miles of really rough dirt road between Nogales and Arivaca).
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Watch out for the Gates Pass hill. After the
Kolb loop, Picture rocks
and climbing Kinney the really steep half mile or so of 12 % grade just
before
Gates Pass is pure torture. For a much easier ride take Kinney
south to Ajo which'll make the ride 64.7 miles.
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The west loop is 37.7 miles
and the east one 20.3 miles.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride that mess of back streets along River
between La Cholla and Orange Grove, River actually gets through these
days
(MapPoint isn't up to date), just keep going along River...
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A bit of stretch for a solo route until I realized
Ajo Bikes was there on Ajo
and Benson so if you take Ajo instead of Irvington this is another solo
candidate. If you lop Kolb
off and take 22nd home (not really recommended) the route drops to
59.1 miles.
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What with Old Vail rd. being paved to Vail now a
new way to avoid Houghton
avails itself and thus this ride is born. If you truncate
the SE corner and ride straight from Vail to Corona it drops to
71.3 miles. If you
use I-19
Bus instead of Mission it drops to 66.4 miles
and if you use I-19
on the truncated route it drops to 60.7 miles.
You can tell we get people worried about riding too far can't you?
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway or Golf Links etc, you
should take Highland south from campus and get on the bike path and
take it east, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it Kolb and Escalante.
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This ride combines some of the prettiest bits of
Tucson for riding with some
of the ugliest. Out Gates Pass and the McCain Loop is a very
pretty climb
through the desert and along Irvington and Benson Hwy is usually a
grind into
the breeze through some butt ugly bits of the city. Then the bit
of Kolb
through the base and the bits of Aviation bikeway are nice again.
You can
extend it out Sandario
for a 71.5 mile ride.
NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway, you
should get on the bike path at Kolb and Escalante, cross over to the
path on the
far side of the intersection at Craycroft and Golf Links and get off it
at Highland and head north for campus.
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They've paved the Old Vail road so
a short ride around Vail becomes an option now, wahoo! But of
course
MapPoint doesn't have the new road in there, while it's Old Vail rd. at
Houghton
(albeit a couple of hundred yards further north than indicated) it's
Cinega (or
something) High School Rd (that's still posted as a no through road)
that's next
to the elementary school that's on the north side of the northern set
of railway
tracks. It's 52.7 miles from
campus.
NOTE: Only pleasant to ride
in the clockwise direction
as the fast bits of Pistol Hill Rd. are along nice bits of pavement
whereas the
other way you're going fast down a really rugged bit of
pavement...
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A nice ride out Old Spanish Trail with an added
climb out the first bit of
route 83 to Sonoita (70.4 miles from campus).
Houghton can be a bit of a pain coming home which is
why you bail off it at Dawn Rd., but it's too nice a ride to let
Houghton be
reason not to ride it. If you chop
Pistol Hill and route 83 off it drops to 52.0
miles.
If they ever pave Wilmot it would open up
a 63.8 mile Houghton
alternative, however it's still just hard packed dirt.
NOTE: Only pleasant to ride
in the clockwise direction
as the fast bits of Pistol Hill Rd. are along nice bits of pavement
whereas the
other way you're going fast down a really rugged bit of
pavement...
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Got some classic Tucson bike riding roads on this
one, Old Spanish trial has
some hills to climb is generally a very pretty piece of road to ride
out and
Mission coming home is equally scenic. Got a bit of a hill to
climb here
and there so all in all a very nice longish ride.
NOTE: Only pleasant to ride
in the clockwise direction
as the fast bits of Pistol Hill Rd. are along nice bits of pavement
whereas the
other way you're going fast down a really rugged bit of
pavement...
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In Eric's words, "an excellent workout".
Avra Valley Rd is an amazingly nice piece of road for something that
appears to
go nowhere and the shoulders are second to none. Till the far
west end at
least, then it gets a little rough as you climb out to the mine but
it's still rideable. The Ironwood Forest is very scenic and
eerily quiet
-- which might depend on whether the mine is active when you're there I
guess. There's a store at Anway and Avra
Valley for fluids. If you want more you can start
out over Gates Pass for a 85.3 mile
ride
that's gonna kick most people's ass...
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NOTE: It's not intended that you
ride Aviation Parkway or Golf Links etc, you
should take Highland south from campus and get on the bike path and
take it east, cross over to the path on the
other side at Craycroft and Golf Links and off it Kolb and Escalante.
NOTE: Only rideable in the
clockwise direction -- unless
of course you like riding the wrong way down the one way section of the
Casa
Grande hwy. And then of course there's riding Camino de Manyana and
dodging it's
potholes at uphill speeds as opposed to downhill speeds...
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