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Edited on Sun Aug-26-07 08:13 PM by Shine
:rant: OK, granted, it's only their second year doing it and they're still working out the kinks. I'll give 'em that much, but jeez it was NOT well-executed. They've got a lot to work out.
I signed up for a metric century, the Tour D'Organics, a "tour" of local organic farms in the county. It has about 65 miles w/ 5,000 ft of climbing. No slouchy ride. They were wanting us to start the metric at 8am b/c the first rest stop didn't even open til 9:45. (??!!) Hello?? Cyclists like to start rides EARLY and 8am seems a bit late, if ya ask me. People have family commitments, we want to avoid the heat of the day, you get the picture. Starting earlier is better, for many reasons. We started at 7:15 and got to the rest stop at 9:10, 5 minutes before the rest stop volunteers had even showed up and began to set up! And we weren't the only ones there, either. Many other cyclists had started earlier than 8am and were left hanging, food-wise, for that first stop. Fortunately, we'd brought some Clif Bars and Gu and could use a garden hose that was there for re-filling our bottles.
The second rest stop had their porta-potty 1/4 mile from where the actual food was! :wtf: Fortunately, I'd taken my own little pee stop in the woods along the way, but that would've been annoying if I'd had to go badly.
At the third and last rest stop for the metric there was NO porta potty at all! The young woman volunteering at the table (sweet, but completely alone and w/out any help) called back-up to find out what the story was with the missing porta potty and was told it was "being delivered". Basic porta potty logistics on ANY kind of organized bike ride is absolutely essential. These things should've been delivered the DAY BEFORE, not on the day of the ride. Duh! :grr:
Making matters worse, the route wasn't clearly marked at points. I mean, here I was,a local doing this ride, and it was confusing, even to me!! Imagine how the poor out-of-towners felt! I know there were a lot of them. Plus, it was totally funky where they took us. At one point we had to pick up our bikes and schlep them over RR trax like we were doing moto-cross or something. On top of that, the route had us going down all these incredibly busy, tourist-filled streets on a busy w/e afternoon and it was hectic, to say the least. Not good planning.
I was glad when it was over. The post-ride meal at the end was fairly decent, I'll give 'em that. Amazingly, I paid $65 entry fee for this ride, since I didn't sign up in advance. :eyes: Yay, me. The good news is: I got some exercise today. :D
OK, rant over. Now where's my beer, dammit?? :beer:
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