Truth be told I've done centuries before so why not tack on another 25 miles for a brevet?
The folks at Arizona Brevet & Randonnee (Susan) gave perfect support on a perfect ride.
I was lucky enough to have John join the fun and we found a pretty good rhythm for the day.
Susan gives the 7:15 speech
We're off like a herd of cats!
John was smart and sat back. I felt good and got a little excited (and frustrated with just catching the red lights out of town) and hooked up with the lead pack.
But I had to pee so I lost my ride.
The ride started at the Round Trip Bike Shop in Casa Grande and the next check point was Casa Grande National Monument. A place I've seen signs for since I was born but never went to until today. This is one of the many reasons I love bikes and big rides.
The big house itself.
After a loop out to the big house it's time for 38 miles out on the tohono o'odham rez and 38 miles back. The rez can be like another country within a country and kinda is just with more poverty and associated problems.
Once we hit the rez the road surface got much nicer.
There are shrines for people killed on this road, mostly due to DUI I believe.
It was unbelievable how many there were. I bet I didn't get 5% of what we saw.
The names of the towns were great.
I'm using the term "town" pretty loosely.
We hope we're not too far as we see the first riders who are heading back.
How many brevets feature a border checkpoint? I'm guessing not many.
The agents were nice and we saw a ton of BP traffic flying up and down the road but they were quite safe giving us the full lane most of the time. In fact most of the traffic did the same.
They are even nice enough to give you your current speed.
The brevet check point and turnaround is a couple of miles past the border check point.
That goofy bike on the left is what I rode.
Time to turn around and slog back into 38 miles of headwind.
Fun.
Back thru the BP checkpoint.
Hammies getting tight.
John rolls the final few blocks to the finish.
We finished in 8.5 hours including stops, it was a nice pace that was just about right.
