Tucson's Sean Christian, California's Anna Hicks win Saturday's El Tour de Tucson

Sean Christian and Anna Hicks were the men’s and women’s winners of the Banner-University Medicine 39th El Tour de Tucson, held Saturday morning in Tucson, Sahuarita and other communities.

Christian, a Tucsonan, finished the 102-mile route with a “gun time” of 3 hours, 49 minutes, 5.9 seconds. Gilbert’s Damiano Cunego was 0.2 seconds behind Christian, and Ireland’s Cormac McGeough was third at 3:53:08.1.

Christian averaged 26.5 mph on his bike. He finished ninth last year, the first time he raced in El Tour.

This year, his strategy was different.

“We attacked from about Mile 1,” he said. “So we were out there for about 101 miles alone, which is definitely a lot harder than it was last year.”

He loved the new route, which went south, giving him a view of some of his favorite parts of Tucson. It was tight right up until the end. Christian didn’t even realize he was in the final stretch until he looked up.

“That was actually it was a bit shocking ... I was like, ‘OK, we got a little bit longer.’ Then I look and I see the finish and I’m like, ‘Oh, I have to go now,’” he said. “So that was a bit scary, but still managed to pull it off in the end.”

Hicks, a native of San Luis Obispo on California’s central coast, was the top-finishing woman with a “gun time” of 3:54:14.8. She narrowly beat out Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Jacqueline Larouche (3:54:15.6) and Bozeman, Montana’s Cecily Decker (3:54:17.6).

Saturday marked Hicks’ first El Tour, and her first big race since she started racing last year. Previously, she ran cross country and track at Cal Poly. She’s only done small, local races with 10 to 20 racers to this point.

“I was just out there just to learn and figure out how to race in a big group and just do what I could with a mass start race like this,” Hicks said. “It’s hard to know what’s going to happen. So staying present in the moment and just reacting to things as they go.”

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All three of the top women’s finishers are with Team USA. With 25 miles left, Hicks realized they could go 1-2-3.

“I had no idea how it was gonna shake out. We just came around that last corner and we all went for it,” Hicks said. “I was just in the moment.”

The El Tour win caps a successful year for Christian, 20. He finished 28th in the United States national championship of road racing; he was fourth among cyclists age 23 and under.

Hicks finished third at the Bariani Road Race in March.

Between 7,500 and 8,000 riders, including at least one from every state, took part part in El Tour.

Riders competed in three distances and three “fun rides.” The 102-mile ride — organizers call it “The Century” — is the most popular of the routes. Nearly 40% of all riders signed up for the longest distance. Nearly as many — 34% — signed up for the 63-mile “Metric Century” ride, and 19% signed up for the 32-mile “Metric Half-Century” ride. About 7% of the signups were for the “Fun Ride,” one of the unique events during El Tour day. Many fun-riders are kids; they can choose between distances of 10 miles, 5 miles or 1 mile.

Photos: 2022 El Tour de Tucson bicycle race in Tucson