Eastern Canada - Tour de Greenbelt

I'm strongly thinking about doing the Tour de Greenbelt this year. Has anyone done it before? Testimonials? Warnings?

Does anyone know how much of a discount you get if you volunteer? I'm thinking of volunteering for one day to get the discount and then ride the other 3 days. Of course I haven't mentioned this to my husband yet so if he reads this thread I'll be in trouble. :lol:

For the shorter distances, I think it is well organized. The longer rides incorporate the short routes and rest stations with a poorly planned long, straight out and back to tack on miles (very tedious). There were almost no water stations on the longer rides so plan your nutritional requirements.

On the whole, it is alright, but I won't do it again.

They've made some changes this year: eliminated the century routes, put more emphasis on shorter routes and the local attractions along the routes. I guess they want to attract more families.

I get a $5 discount code as a past participant, but I'm not sure what volunteers get though...

My wife and I did the Niagara route last year (around Pelham). My wife will not go on any more of their tours. Long bland stretches, few water stops (as was stated above), few ride marshals, etc.. We took our time on the 50 km route and when we got back to the starting point, (we weren't late or anything) choices of promised food items were already gone; the staff was cleaning up while other riders were arriving, the advertised local cornucopia of local country fare consisted of a commercial brand very boiled hot dogs and corn.... that's what was left, etc. Not the best of times.

My wife and I did the Niagara route last year (around Pelham). My wife will not go on any more of their tours. Long bland stretches, few water stops (as was stated above), few ride marshals, etc.. We took our time on the 50 km route and when we got back to the starting point, (we weren't late or anything) choices of promised food items were already gone; the staff was cleaning up while other riders were arriving, the advertised local cornucopia of local country fare consisted of a commercial brand very boiled hot dogs and corn.... that's what was left, etc. Not the best of times.
I think it's a case of poor rest stop placement combined with totally underestimating the number of participants.
I did the 3 other tours last year, and they were much better organized, and food was plenty!

I do have agree that having the same hotdog, burger, and corn for lunch in all 4 rides is a little different from my definition of "local food". The Newmarket start/finish area last year was right beside the farmers' market, but I don't think they got the burgers and hotdogs from there...

Good to know! Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I'm seriously considering doing the York Region tour with the family (wife, child in babyseat, myself).

Websearches suggest 2010 is the third time they are running the annual event. Has anybody done both the previous two years York Region, and was the experience improving the second year?

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I overestimated myself last year and took the 100k at Simcoe. It was miserable after the 70k mark. This year I went to the St. Catherine tour and took the 25k route, which was very enjoyable. I usually ride 10-15k in park and side streets on weekends, and found no problem at all in St. Catherine. However, I did see some families with small children struggled a bit.