Several CycleMasters do outside rides every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. These tend to be long fast rides with experienced bicyclists, mostly men. With a desire to get more women riding outside SaddleBrooke, Julia Boyd created a Divas group of women to bicycle outside. It has already become a huge success with 50 members and they even have SaddleBrooke CycleMasters Divas jerseys now.
The Divas group offers rides on Wednesday mornings to explore various areas of Oro Valley, Marana and Tucson. These rides, open to CycleMasters women, are led by Julia Boyd and Laurie Loose. The rides usually are for 25-30 miles but sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. The chosen bicycle routes are created by John Boyd and test ridden by John, Julia and Laurie.
All rides are announced well in advance with details then riders indicate if they will attend. Both manual analog and e-bikes are welcome. Usually 10-15 ladies participate in each ride. Each ride has a leader and a sweep and they stop for multiple hydration breaks. Before each ride, the ride leader discusses the upcoming route and provides safety tips. Julia stated: “These are fun, social rides that allow us to explore the community outside of SaddleBrooke. I look forward to this ride each week, not only for the riding but also to see my friends.” In addition to exploring new areas, the ladies do make friends.
Special event rides also have been planned including bicycling on the Saguaro National Park loop and Divas and Dudes Ride where the ladies invite CycleMasters men to participate in a Divas ride.
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