Tucson Arizona Popular East Side Bike Ride – Vail Loop

Today I was out on the Tuesday morning group ride (Map of -Tuesday Ride – McCain Loop/Gates Pass) and was amazed at how big the group was for a weekday group ride. There were about 30 riders from Canada. Tucson is becoming a meka for cyclist during the winter months. How great for the Tucson community.

For all you riders from out of town. The Vail Loop Ride is a great ride on the east side of town.

This is a fun ride with some great sections of rad that have little traffic and traffic lights. The section of road from Mary Ann Cleveland Way and Old Vail Road is a great place to put the hammer down. This ride is relatively flat with a few short steady climbs.

Click here for a map:  Vail Loop Ride

http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/mccain_loop__gates_pass/168

http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/colossal_cave_-_rita_ranch/391

Popularity: 2% [?]

Shootout Group Bike Ride Commentary for 3/8/08, Tucson, AZ

http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/shootout_/77 

Today’s ride started at 7 AM with Ralph Phillips of Fair Wheel Bikes give us a little talk before the ride. Last week the group had a little run in with a police officer that decided to drive head on toward the lead group of cyclist to get them to pull over. Consequently, it caused a chain reaction within the group and a few cyclist went down hard. Although there were no major injuries there were a few trashed bikes and a few people pretty banged up.

So Ralph started out by telling everyone to ride safe and obey the traffic laws. Plus inform us about an upcoming meeting. There is a meeting about the incident with the police officer that drove head on toward the Shootout on 1/1/2008 this Wednesday March 13, 2008 from 6 to 8 PM at Himmel Park Library conference room. The meeting is located one block south of Speedway and one block east of Tucson Blvd. Please come to voice what happen.

Today’s ride was steady and fast. It is the first Shootout in many years where I did not stop to take a drink until the top of the sprint hill. There was no time for hydrating during the ride. There were a group of about 10 guys in a rotating pace line hitting it hard on the front of the peloton. 

Some of the big guns out on the ride today were Rob Alvarez, Gord Fraser, Jimmy Ricatello, and Matt Cooke.

Cyclist do have rights. There is a good book called Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist about our rights as cyclists. The book was forward by Lance Armstrong.

If you have an incident on the road and need legal help call a fellow cycling attorney Scott Biaggi by going to his website at  www.VeloLaw.com.

Popularity: 3% [?]