El tour de Tucson

A few days ago I rode in a bike race with my grandpa. here is his report.

Well we beat our time from last year, but probably came in 4th or 5th. Here's the story. We got a good position on the starting grid. There appeared to be 4 tandems ahead of us so our plan was to just count them off as we passed them. The team just ahead of us was the father daughter redhead team that beat us by 19 sec last year so we thought we were in a good position. We passed the 4 tandems we thought were ahead of us within the first few miles and were only worried about the redheads. About at the bottom of Tangerine we were passed by a young 35 mile husband/wife team (the only bike of any kind from any race distance that ever passed us). We drafted them some and they drafted us some for a while, but when we hit the flats I knew they were going to be faster. So when they went around us for what I knew would be the last time I turned to Fitch and said, "Fitch, I think we're toast." He didn't react for a few seconds then he made the quote of the day: "Grandpa Mike, do we have a plan?" I didn't really have a plan and said "we'll just ride hard." I don't think he was satisfied so he suggested "let's just keep them in our sights till we get closer to the end." Fitch obviously did have a plan. This was before the start of Silverbell yet! As we progressed down Silverbell he asked for assurance several time that I could still see them. Pretty soon I had to admit I didn't. This was not the end of the drama, though. About the last time he asked if I could see them I noticed a father/daughter team where the daughter couldn't have been over age 7 was drafting us. At that point I told Fitch I thought we had a bigger problem than chasing down the now very distant husband/wife team. They kept drafting us. Fitch became concerned that we weren't in the right position letting them draft so we slowed and let them pass a couple of times. Each time they slowed and we went around - cat and mouse had begun. Finally they made their move before we turned on Congress from Silverbell and we stayed on their wheel w/out much trouble. About half way down Congress and told Fitch to give me what he had and we exploded around them. I was about burnt out by the time we got to the freeway light which we had to stop for. So, now it's a 200 yard sprint to the finish. By that time Fitch was fully aware of what was at stake (being beat by a 7 yr old) so we both came off the light at full power and stayed ahead all the way to the finish thinking we were in second place. Well, second place was not to be. Apparently there were two father/son teams at the front of the grid we never saw. Sue reported they got in 8 minutes ahead, possibly the first finishers in the 35 mile and in a stand up sprint to the finish w/ the other father/son team. We talked to one of them after the race and apparently they had raced semi-pro if there is a class for father/son tandem semi-pro. They were obviosly strong from looking at them. At our finish "celebration" Fitch was a little subdued. I asked Polly what was up and she said she was pretty sure that Fitch was really bummed that we were beat bad this year - quite the competitor. So, I offered him the counsel that we road our race plan, beat our last year's time w/o a tailwind on Silverbell and it was my fault that we didn't win. I'm not sure he was buying my argument that a thirty year age difference between captains would be a factor.

Otherwise a great day, mid 70's and no wind. Can't wait for Jerry's report.

Mike