International Christian Cycling Club

The Arizona spoke had an awesome time at El Tour de Tucson these past four days (Nov. 16-Nov. 20)! We not only set up a booth at the expo on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but had a few riders take part in the different rides on Saturday.

During the expo, we had the pleasure of meeting a lot of people. I remember having conversations with people from Canada, Germany, Mexico, and of course all over the U.S. We had many people sign up to join our weekly ride update list and many others that left with the website address to sign up on their own – some in Arizona and many in other locations.

The ride was great too! Some rode just to be a part of the unique biking culture that the Tour represents, and others rode for bragging rights. All seemed to have a great time. Michael was riding with the “big” guys most of the day and had an awesome finish time. Deanna and I had a great ride on the tandem and saw Thom at the start and a couple times during the ride. Other new friends we met at the expo had a great day as well. It was exciting to receive the emails from several new friends the day of the ride with the little stories along the way. Gary, who started the ride with his new IC3 water bottle, shared the water from it with a woman in need. His story alone was worth all the work and energy put into the four days. He wrote:

“. . . two riders stopped in front of me and the woman, obviously in some distress, asked if I had any water. I think she was on the verge of dehydration and was very faint. The bottle I had which was full and untouched was the Christian Cycling bottle. As she drank of the liquid and her energy revived, I couldn't help but notice and be humbled by the symbolism.”

We felt that the whole adventure was a huge success and was only possible with a lot of help. Calvary Tucson (www.calvarytucson.org) provided most of the handouts and helped secure the booth space. Hammer Nutrition (www.hammernutrition.com) helped us with the water bottles. We asked the expo organizers to place us next to them during the expo which was a great location. We had several club members join us to help throughout the event and of course many others sent prayers throughout the preparation, during the expo, and all along the ride. Thank you everyone for all of the help and support! It really was worth all the time and energy everyone put into it.