El Tour de Tucson is back this weekend. Here's everything you need to know.

Nearly 10,000 cyclists are hitting Tucson streets this weekend for the 41st annual El Tour de Tucson — the largest bike race in the U.S. and the longest-running bike event in Arizona.

El Tour de Tucson’s 102-mile ride kicks off at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Tucson Convention Center. The start and finish line is located at 190 W. Cushing St., near the DoubleTree Hotel at Cushing and Church Avenue.

The 62-mile ride starts at 9 a.m., followed by the 32-mile ride at 10 a.m. If long-distance rides aren’t your thing, check out the 1- or 3-mile family fun ride that begins at 8:15 a.m.

The longer routes of the tour include a good mixture of city and desert landscapes and pass through numerous local communities, including Corona de Tucson, Green Valley, Sahuarita and Vail.

The routes officially close at 4:30 p.m. but until then expect various road closures and traffic delays. Visit eltourdetucson.org for a full list of expected road closures.

“It’s probably gonna be the largest El Tour we’ve ever hosted,” said TJ Juskiewicz, the executive director of El Tour de Tucson. “Last year we thought that was gonna be our plateau with the 40th anniversary, but we’re actually up probably about 10% on ridership for this year and people that participated last year had a great time and told friends to come on out and have a good time (this year).”

About 40% of riders in this year’s event are from out of state, according to Juskiewicz. One of this year’s out-of-state riders is Chloé Dygert, a three-time Olympian who recently won gold and bronze medals at the Paris Olympic Games.

With so many riders from around the world visiting Tucson for the annual event, the city experiences a positive economic impact.

“Anytime you’ve got thousands of people from out of town, especially in a non-peak period for visitors in this town …. where hotels are sold out all throughout downtown is almost unheard of,” Juskiewicz said. “So, that part of it is good. The other part is we have 85 nonprofits and for some of them, it’s the biggest fundraiser that they will do all year. So, it’s very important for those 85 nonprofits. They use El Tour de Tucson as a platform for fundraising and so that part of it is one of the things that really separates El Tour from other cycling events.”

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El Tour de Tucson helped nonprofits raise nearly $6 million last year. Since its inception in 1983, they’ve helped raise around $121 million.

But the annual Tucson bike race isn’t just for nonprofits. It’s an event that brings together family, friends and strangers as a community for several hours. The community aspect is something Juskiewicz looks forward to every year.

“The fun thing about it is El Tour means so much or so many different things for different people,” Juskiewicz said. “Some people use it as a reunion. Some people use it as an accomplishment. Some people use it as a memorial. Some people say, ‘I just want to beat my time from last year.’ Just hearing all these great stories of ‘I’m riding for my grandfather, who did 30 El Tours and he passed away this year, so all the grandchildren are riding this year.’ Or, ‘I’m recovering from a battle with cancer and this will be my first century (race) in three years.’”

“There’s just so many great stories like that,” he added. “But then there’s just the ‘Hey, you know what? We’ve come in every year during Thanksgiving, we ride with family. It’s one of our Thanksgiving traditions.’ It’s a great opportunity to get reconnected with family. And seeing all those things develop with this little bike ride that happened 41 years ago, is just a really cool thing to see happen.”

Last year, the event was named “best road cycling event” in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice poll.

After this year’s El Tour de Tucson, Juskiewicz predicts that Tucson will see an uptick in cyclists in the next few years due to athletes training for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, many of whom will use El Tour de Tucson as a training resource.

“It’s already considered the largest cycling race in America because anytime you line up people, shoot a gun, time people and put a winner out on a podium, that’s a race,” he said. “And so, we’re just so much larger than the next race of any style like El Tour. So, we want to continue that thing. I think we want to be known as one of the top events in the world.”