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Sagauro Lake 200K Brevet


az_cyclist

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This is normally our first training ride of the year.   I rode it last year, and was asked to ride it again this year.  It is a somewhat challenging ride, but, that makes for good training.
 
The brevet started at 7:30 from Fountain Hills, east of Phoenix.  The temp was about 40.  We had rain every day last week but I was a bit surprised that the streets and roads were still wet in Fountain HIlls.  I decided to wear a lycra base layer, jersey, thermal vest, and wool arm warmers.  I put on glove liners under my half finger gloves.  As we were getting ready at the start one of the two friends I was riding with gave me hand warmers.  I had thought it was too warm for them but it turned out to be good.
 
It was a mass start at 7:30,  Several miles into the ride we cross the Verde River.  with all the rain there was a thick fog.  I could see the water droplets on my wool arm warmers.  after the river was  an 8 -10 mile climb.  That helped warm us up, and the fog lifted as we turned.  At that point we could see the Mazatal Mtns in the distance, and they had a somewhat rare snow cover.  The fog was thick over Saguaro Lake, which blocked the beautiful scenery there. 
 
This is where my GoPro started acting up.  The video mode would shut off after 2 seconds.  A little later on I noticed my Garmin was acting strange.  While climbing at 12-13 mph, if would drop to 5.5 mph, then 0.0, pause, then auto resume.  I was using a new ANT, the Trek DuoTrap.  It had tested fine on a short ride after I installed it.  By the end of the day I had lost almost 4 miles.
 
The fog was lifting some, but not before we got back to the Beeline Hwy to ride back to Fountain Hills to complete the first loop. 
 
After lunch I changed from my thermal vest to a wind vest, and changed a flat on the front tire.  At least we were able to do it in the parking lot and use my friend's floor pump.  We started the next loop with a 2 mile climb, but then a nice decent.  I was able to take off my arm warmers too, although the temp was not that warm.  Both control points after lunch (official Randoneurring USA brevets have control points where you get a card signed.) were unmanned.  At the first, at 88 miles, we stopped for a bit and at the food we had with us, and penciled in our time.  We had our last big climb of the day at about 100 miles, 2-3 miles with 4-6 % grade. We climbed at a moderate rate, and I was glad to get that part done. 
 
At the past control point we had to get a receipt from the Shell station, so we  got cokes (and I bought a lottery ticket).  I also ate more food.  A couple of miles later was a descent down 9 Mile Hill.  Since we only had 22 miles to go, that was nice.  I was also glad I had decided to carry my thermal vest twith me in my Camelbak as I needed it for that decent.

 
After 9 Mile hill it was mostly rollers back to the start. 
 
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