CYCLING IN TUCSON ARIZONA
Video Transcript: Cycling In Tucson
INTRO
Hello and welcome to this episode of Living in Tucson, your Tucson real estate connection. And in this episode, I’m going to be talking about cycling in Tucson. Everything you need to know about cycling in Tucson, Arizona.
Hey, Tyler Ford here, Tucson, Arizona with EXP Realty. And in my late teens, early twenties I started cycling and fell in love with the sport. And then I left for college, I went up to NAU, which is Northern Arizona up in Flagstaff, which is another great place for cycling in Arizona. And that’s where I fell in love with the sport, so I’ve been riding.
I’ve seen Tucson evolve over the years from a cycling thriving community and it’s gotten better over the years, and I’m going to explain why. But a lot of professional cyclists pro-triathletes, they come here during the fall, winter and spring to train. So it’s like a Mecca and a lot of them have homes here that they winter here to train before they leave for the season.
And if a cyclist coming here for a destination vacation, Tucson is a great place to be and I’m going to talk a little bit about where the best places to stay. And you can always head on over to tucsonbikerides.com, I’ve got an eBook over there that explains in detail where to stay, best rides, best places to eat.
MT LEMMON BIKE RIDE IN TUCSON
I’m going to start off about one of the reasons why Tucson is such a great cycling community, and that is Mount Lemmon. We’ve got one of the iconic, most epic climbs in the US and it’s Mount Lemmon. And it’s just a really, really good climb. It’s 30 miles, the road’s in great shape, there’s a big shoulder. But Tucson sits at about 2,500 feet, the top of Mount Lemmon is about 10,000 feet.
Especially in the summertime with the locals, it’s a great way, we get an early start, it’s a great way to get out of the heat. Within the first hour you’re up into some cooler weather. So in the summertime, it’s the place to be.
And at Mount Lemmon, Sunday’s the big day. People park at Le Buzz, which is on the corner of Tanque Verde and Catalina Highway. It’s Le Buzz Cafeteria, it’s the Safeway Shopping Center. But cyclists will park there and that’s where they stage and start for the big ride on Sunday. Cyclists ride it all days of the week, but Sunday’s typically the big Mount Lemmon day where you’re going to see a ton of people in various groups going up. But if you’re coming to Tucson, you definitely want to put Mount Lemmon on the must do ride.
One of the questions we get, “In the wintertime, is it rideable?” And it most certainly is. There’s going to be, if we’ve had a lot of rain or weather in the winter months, there’s going to be typically snow on Mount Lemmon. But if the roads are clear, just be prepared to have some layers. And even in the summertime it gets cool up there, so I’m always bringing a layer. The layers are going to be different depending on the time of the year, but you get to the top of that 30 mile climb and you’re working really hard and you’re sweating. And when you turn around, regardless of the time of the year, it’s always nice to have a layer to descend probably down to Windy Point, which is about halfway down. And then it starts to warm up again.
Mount Lemmon, an iconic epic climb here in Tucson, Arizona and it’s one of the most favorite cycling rides in Tucson, AZ.
SHOOTOUT GROUP BIKE RIDE
The next thing I want to talk about regarding cycling in Tucson is group rides. And there’s a lot of group rides, a lot of little ones here and there, but I’m going to talk about a couple of the bigger group rides.
The Shootout has been going on as long as I’ve been cycling, over 30 plus years. And it is one of the fastest, biggest group rides in the country. If you’re looking to get into a group ride that’s super-fast, hard, challenging. The packs are going to be pretty big, anywhere from 60 to over 100 people.
And The Shootout, just to give you a little history of The Shootout, again, it started over 30 years ago. And over the last 10 years it was starting to get so big in the spring during the cycling season that we actually split it up, because we were starting to get harassed by the police just because it was so big and it was taking the entire road.
So now what we have is, The Old Man Shootout and then The Shootout. The Old Man Shootout starts 15 minutes before the main Shootout, but both rides are super hard, super-fast. And the Old Man Shootout, which I’m now starting to do, I’m over or 50, it’s still awesome and still fast.
The Shootout is an epic hard group ride. If you’re not used to cycling in groups and you’re bike handling skills are not all that great, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re a serious cyclist, you definitely want to hit The Shootout. It’s every Saturday day, the times are going to vary depending on the time of the year. In the summer it starts at six. The Old Man will be at 5:45. And in the wintertime at 7:30, The Old Man is at 7:15. So if you Google, The Shootout, you’ll get a lot of information about The Shootout.
But if you’re coming here and you want a hard ride, a fast ride, it’s about 60 miles. And depending on the time of the year, you can go to Madera Canyon. There’s a lot of extra things you can do to turn it into a century or whatever mileage you want. But The Shootout itself is about 60 miles and that’s going to take anywhere from probably about two and a half hours, two hours and 40 minutes. But again, if you’re coming to Tucson and you’re a hardcore cyclist, The Shootout on Saturday is definitely a ride you want to go do.
THE LOOP IN TUCSON, ARIZONA
The next thing I want to talk about is one of the best things that Tucson’s done for Tucson, and they put in what is called, The Loop.
We’ve got the Catalina Mountains and the Rincon Mountains, and so, they’re pretty big mountain ranges. And when it rains or we get snow we get a lot of runoff, which has created these washes here in Tucson. They’re not rivers, they don’t run all year around, but they definitely flow when we’ve got a lot of rain. But what Tucson did, is they converted the banks of the washes into The Loop, where it’s all paved. And I think we’re now up to about 150 miles of pavement on The Loop where you can do a ton of different rides. I mean, the actual Loop is about a 60 mile loop that people do, but it’s a great ride, it’s a great way to connect.
Above is a video that I did on the Loop and you can learn more about The Loop by just clicking above.
The Loop is one of the best things that Tucson’s done for Tucson. And it makes it really easy and really safe to get out on your bike and not have to deal with traffic light or cars or get to The Shootout or to the Mount Lemmon, depending on where you are in Tucson fairly easily. And it’s just a great place. And again, it’s one of the best things that Tucson’s done for Tucson.
WEBSITE RESOURCES
Couple of website resources that I’d like to share with you are, the first one is, arizonabikerides.com.
It’s a great resource for finding all the best bike rides here in Tucson. And in this search, if you just type in best and hit enter, it’s going to take you over to right here. There’s a blog post, Best Bike Rides in Tucson. And it’s got a list of all the best bike rides here in Tucson. So, great resource, Arizona Bike Rides.
If you’re a triathlete looking for a really good master’s program to swim at, I’ve been swimming Ford Aquatics on the masters team there for over 30 years and it’s a really, really good program. So head on over to fordaquatics.com, and it’s got all the information you need if you’re looking for a pool. But they’ve got two workouts Monday through Friday in the morning and then noon, and then type one workout on Saturday. So both these websites are really good resources if you’re coming to Tucson for cycling, and then also triathletes looking for…
BEST PLACES TO STAY
Now I’m going to talk about the best places to stay or live if you’re coming to Tucson either for a cycling destination vacation or if you’re thinking about moving to Tucson and you’re a cyclist.
Right out of the gate, I’m going to let you know, I’m biased, I live on the Eastside of Tucson. I grew up on the Eastside, but if I were to give anybody advice and if I didn’t grow up on the Eastside and I was a cyclist, I would definitely choose the Eastside as the place to be from a cycling standpoint. And there’s a couple different reasons as to why. Number one, it’s really close to Mount Lemmon. You’re out the door into the base of Mount Lemmon very quickly.
And regardless of where you are in Tucson, the nice thing about Tucson is, you don’t typically have to put your bike in your car to get to where you want to go from a riding standpoint. And the Loop has really helped for that, you can get on the Loop and get to anywhere you want go. But the Northeast and Eastside of Tucson, in my opinion, is the place to be. So if you’re wanting to move here, I would look at the Northeast and Eastside. And then if you’re coming here looking at maybe an Airbnb, that is the place to be. And the other reason is, one of my favorite rides is Saguaro National Monument East. Above here there’s a link to a video that I did about the Saguaro National Monument. But it’s one of my favorite rides in the summertime and it’s an eight mile loop. You need a pass to get in and they do charge you, I just get the annual pass. But it’s an eight mile loop and we’ll do multiple loops in the monument, but it’s one of my favorite summer rides. So, again, if you are coming to Tucson and you’re a cyclist, I would look to stay either Northeast or East Tucson.
FREE MOVING TRUCK
Hey, if you’re a cyclist and you’re thinking about moving to Tucson, keep in mind, we’ve got a 16 foot box moving truck that you’re more than welcome to use if you use us to buy or sell a home. And keep in mind, even after the fact, down the road, if you ever need to move appliances or furniture, you’re more than welcome to use our moving trucks.
Contact Tyler Ford
Get Social
