King of the Mountains

Day 4, April 26 Wickenburg to Cottonwood, AZ

Data: 104.5 miles Riding time 6:50 (15.3 mph)

Today we had beautiful scenery, and 9000 feet of climbing. It was our hilliest day of the entire tour. We could gaze down with views of the valleys below. I rode most of the day alone, reaching each of the summit passes before the others. So, a couple of the guys crowned me "king of the mountains." Here I am nearing the top of one of the many summits.

Here is another picture of me at the top of the day's first climb, as I waited for others to arrive. Shane told me he kept trying to catch me, but he said he never gained on me.

At the top of the final climb, my view looked like I could see the Grand Canyon in the distance, but of course what I saw wasn't the Grand Canyon.

This infamous climbing day is behind us, and now we all know we can complete this ride successfully. My Santa Monica Mountain training paid off, as the climbing didn't seem too bad. We left 30 minutes earlier than usual, and had the lunch stop at 43 miles, so I was done with lunch by 10:15. I later rode through Prescott, which was another historic western town (from 1864) with a quaint downtown full of old saloons, hotels, statues, and hitching posts. Here's a shot of me riding along through the arid landscape.

Near the end of the ride we went into Jerome, an old copper mining town that became a ghost town when the mine shut down in 1953. Then it made a comeback, and now it's an artsy village (on the side of a hill), but still looks like an old mining town. I arrived about 45 minutes before anyone else, and toured the mining museum. About 20 of us crowded into the Haunted Burger to have an early dinner, and it looked so funny to have 20 bikes lined up outside on this narrow street, extending about 50 ft on either side of the restaurant.

They sat four of us outside with a beautiful view of the valley below. Isn't this an incredible photo Dave Roark took of Rob Landes, Judd Bishop and me?

When we departed Jerome, it was a screaming descent into Cottonwood. Judd and Rob pulled away from me since they can tuck more aerodynamically than I can, plus they love to race to see who can register the fastest top speed. Judd got up to 50 mph!