Member-only story
Triumphs and Tragedies
Recent goings on in my life
The goal
At the beginning of the year (2022), I had a goal in mind. I wanted to return to do the El Tour de Tucson (referred to later as just the “Tour”). It’s just a bike race, but it has become a little special to me. (It seems to be where I do many of my “firsts”.)
It was not going to be easy to get there. If you have read my other stories, you likely know that I fell and broke my pelvis on September 21, 2021. I spent from then till The first week of November of 2021 being confined to a wheelchair. On Nov 8th 2021, I started Physical Therapy to get walking again. I recovered quickly and by the end of the month I uploaded my first biking activities to Strava since the accident. I slowly started getting back into an exercise routine in December.
As the pains faded away, starting in January, I got ambitious about getting my fitness back. It had dropped into the toilet with the accident and the subsequent recovery, which had limits on exercise. When those lifted, that's when I thought about having the Tour as my end of the year goal.
It’s a bike race held in Tucson the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year. It’s held after the normal road cycling season is over. I got introduced to it as a bike team get-together in 2017. I consider it my first…
