PacTour Desert Camp - Day 0

We're in Tucson, Arizona for a week of cycling. The tour starts tomorrow, but we got here a day early so that we could ride Mt. Lemmon. At 7am Susan Notorangelo drove 7 of us a bit of the way from the hotel towards Mt. Lemmon (we're staying on the other side of town). After a short 10 mile warm up we were at Mile 0 of the climb. Mt. Lemmon is a 28 mile climb to the ski station and rated Hors Categorie, probably because it's so long.

The grade is quite comfortable, 5-7% most of the time, as the road winds it's way up and through several different types of terrain.

Cactus!

We rode up to mile 20 and decided that we needed to leave something in the tank for the next 6 days of riding. We ended the day with 74 miles and 6200ft of climbing, so it was a smart move to turn around when we did. On the way up we stopped at several vista points. Here are some pics...

More to come. Thanks for stopping by.