I typically ride the Dudeout (eastside term) or also referred to as either the Old Man Shootout or The Early Group that leaves about 15 minutes prior to the Shootout rides each Saturday. The incidents occurred just as we were starting to pick up the pace after Valencia and I was the lead rider at the time. A white four-door sedan came by the pack of approximately 20-30 riders that were in a single file paceline and passed very close to us. This occurred within the first half mile after entering the res. He passed me within about a foot of my handlebars it seemed and swerved to the right slightly, just in front of me. He proceeded to let us know we were #1 (he flipped us off) and went on ahead. I courteously waved (no gestures – honestly. I don’t do that.), just a wave, and he went on up ahead, pulled off the road and stopped, angling the nose of his car toward the road. At that point I yelled a "heads up" to the pack and we cautiously watched him as we approached. When we were 50-100 yards from him and closing, he tore off from the side of the road, attempting to dust us out and spit rocks on the road. Fortunately, the breeze pushed the dust off the road and the angle of his car didn’t allow rocks to enter the roadway, and we kept going. The driver then slowed his vehicle while heading south on Mission, watching us in his rearview mirror. I was still on the front and was becoming really edgy about what stupid move this guy was going to pull next. I reached in my jersey pocket and pulled out my cell phone and as we closed the gap I made it very apparent I had a phone out and tried to make it look like I was dialing, hoping to get close enough to get the license number of the vehicle. He apparently saw I had the phone out because he floored it, taking off down Mission. At that point one of the riders behind me said something to the effect of, “We’ll see him again...”

We went another mile toward the area of houses prior to the S-turn adjacent Black Mountain, and there was a big Indian man, maybe 6’-4” or so standing right alongside the west side of Mission. Another heads up was yelled from the front. I was five or six riders back at that point. When we were within 10-20 yards of the man he stepped out in the roadway as if to slowly walk across the road but instead of walking across, after two steps, he stopped dead in front of the lead rider. We all braked and fanned out, narrowly avoiding the man. He was mumbling something when I went by like, “what’s up…” It was then that another rider said that was the same guy who was driving the white sedan.

Just after this incident but right down the road, on the east side of Mission and coming toward us, a two-tone (faded red or orange and white colored), I think late 70s, GMC shortbed, fleetside pickup began doing fishtails and kicking up allot of dust alongside the road. He did that for 25-50 yards causing a large dust cloud to blow across the road in an attempt to choke us out and obscure our view. It worked somewhat.

By now, it was getting spooky and the pack was definitely riding heads up and on alert for the next thing to come at us but nothing did that I am aware of. We headed on toward the bridge and the rest of the ride was uneventful from what I observed. I did stop at Helmet Peak Rd and Mission when I saw a Sheriff’s officer directing riders and traffic because of the Crit going on out there today. When I pulled up he was radioing that a vehicle was attempting to force riders off the road. I don’t know if it was related, something to do with the Crit or perhaps some other rider reported it but it was definitely getting weird out there today.

My take on this is that the negative news reporting as of late, that has painted a bad picture of the Shootout and frankly, anything related to it quite possibly motivated these individuals in that area to harass us. The news reports have quite possibly generated a greater bias towards those of us who enjoy these rides. It is my opinion, the footprint caused by our participation in these rides has very little impact on the very low traffic volume along this road at the times we transit the area each week. It seems the dogs and potholes aren’t the only things we have to worry about out there anymore! I am planning to file a report on these incidents with the Tohono O'odham P.D.