|   Passion on the 24 Hrs in the Old Pueblo course | Pirate Girl
Dec 31, 2001 9:50 AM | | Yesterday was my first time riding with some folks from the Passion board. Both Gnarly1 and ScottN came down from Phoenix to try out the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo course in Oracle. We came up from Tucson to meet them and show them around the course. From my group was my husband Zac (SaucyBoy), dad-in-law Craig, and fellow teammate Alexis. We went at a social pace, stopping often for story-swapping and a few bike adjustments here and there.
The course is about 17.5 miles long with a mix of singletrack, powerline roads, gasline roads, and dirt roads. It's tough to go off of the map from the epicrides.com site and come down to pre-ride the course. My team attempted to do that a few months ago and ended up missing almost all of the singletrack. Since then, Alexis and I had both ridden with our club that built the course, so we didn't get Gnarly and Scott too lost. We came across several folks who were trying to pre-ride the course that had gotten twisted around and were on the wrong trail. Unfortunately, the course isn't marked yet, so getting lost is easy. We tried to help out folks as much as possible.
This is Scott emerging from one of the rocky corners on the course. This is what happens when you take pictures with your digital camera on the wrong lighting setting. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the pictures. I decided to leave them alone and post them anyways. I kind of like the different trippy colors against the harsh desert terrain.
Here comes Gnarly around the same corner. She must've liked it, judging from the smile.
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Here's one of our many social sessions. Alexis is sitting down because he had just landed flat on his back after trying to hop on his back wheel trials style with clipless pedals. He realized a bit too late that it wasn't like his trials bike with the flat pedals. (L-R) Alexis, Gnarly, Scott (munching on a tennis ball?), Craig, Zac.
Overall, it turned out to be a beautiful riding day. The sun was shining, temps in the mid 60's, and all of us comfortable in shorts and short sleeves. I had fun meeting and riding with folks from the Passion board, and I finally got to ride with another girl! I'll definitely have to drag my riding group up to Phoenix to ride with Gnarly and Scott on their home trails, and we have plenty more to show them in Tucson.
After a good day of riding, my group went back to Tucson, and hit a Mexican food restaurant on the way home. Too many post-riding stories led to some strong cravings that we had to quench.
Nice to meet ya and ride with ya Gnarly and Scott, and here's to a new year full of more AZ riding trips!
P-)
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| Re Course | Hopefull at Old Pueblo
Dec 31, 2001 12:04 PM | | How long does it take to ride the course? 17.5 miles can be an hour or three hours depending on the trail. Hope'n to make the race. |
| Not technical | Pirate Girl
Dec 31, 2001 3:44 PM | | The course isn't all that bad. Nothing technical or anything. The fast folks can do it in just over an hour or so. Personally, I will be happy if I can get down to around 1 hr 45 min. But my team is doing it just for fun, rather than competition.
P-) |
| Last year vs. this year? | Paul B
Dec 31, 2001 4:17 PM | | I hear the course has changed a little. Last year, the fastest laps on a 16 mile course were around 40 minutes. GodDAMN I can't figure out how those guys can go so fast. My best lap was 1:10, and I thought I was gonna puke at the end of it.
There's nothing technical out there, just one gotta-jump-it trench right at the bottom of a hill.
PirateGirl, what'd they add to the course? Do you know? Did you ride it last year?
I'm headed down there in the next couple weeks with my team to preride. Maybe you can join us?
Later,
p. |
| Last year vs. this year? | reed
Dec 31, 2001 5:49 PM | | They added a short(ish) singletrack section at the far turnaround spot after the powerline doubletrack with the seven (I think) rollers. Other than that it's the same course as last year. I coach for an MTB charity team that did four days of riding in the area early December and the course was our first day, Lee the race promoter was one of our guides. We rode this year's course, when I had scouted the course a couple months prior I rode last year's. The new singletrack was sandy when we rode it but should be more burned-in now. The rest of the course is generally pretty smooth and fast for Tucson/AZ riding (though there are always sand patches where you least expect them). My general impression of the course is not really technical but really fast and fun. Coming from the SF Bay area I also thought it was dead-flat, though in truth there is some elevation gain though not much (though if you've raced it before you know this well enough). Must be fun to do a 24 hr race that has almost as much night as day...
Reed |
| Info & courtesy map | Pirate Girl
Dec 31, 2001 6:53 PM | | The map on the epicrides.com site is a bit out of date. The latest map is below, courtesy of SDMB. They've added new singletrack to take out the funky triangle in the upper left portion of the old course. They keep adding singletrack all the time, so who knows how long it will be by Feb. They've also moved the Start/Finish area from last year.
Let me know when you plan to come down. My team is always up for a ride out there. And I can show you the hard-to-find turns onto the singletrack, which everyone seems to be missing right now, until they mark the course. E-me at guzziboy_mzgirl@msn.nospam.com (with .nospam taken out) and I would be glad to show you around.
P-) |
| They moved the Start/Finish THERE? | Paul B
Jan 1, 2002 8:40 AM | | It looks like the start/finish now at the bottom of the singletrack that comes out of the hills. What a buzzkill! It also looks like the lap STARTS on those seven frigging hills/rollers. Ugh. Better at the beginning than at the end, I guess.
The new corner looks good. The triangle was dumb.
Still finalizing the last of our 5-person team. I'll ring you when we're ready for the preride!
p. |
| re:Old Pueblo course | Hollis
Dec 31, 2001 12:26 PM | | nice Trippy Blue colors.
Isn't meeting Passion's axe murders in person so much fun?
Its real fun when the real person & the online attitudes dont match.
Cheers & Happy New Years! |
| good ta' meetchya | Gnarly1
Jan 1, 2002 7:13 PM | | Next time: Chiva Falls! (I still want to ride that ride without being lost! :-) )
Happy New Year!!!! |
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