RecceDG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Donut_Ride


Wow - this ride is every bit as sketchy as it's reputation. 100+ riders moving at 50+ km/h with NO discipline and NO organizer. This was the polar opposite of my usual ride, which is very disciplined. Overlapping wheels, people moving over whenever they want, no signals... it was anarchy.

And yet, I had a good time. Beautiful weather, everybody in a great mood, and (to the surprise of some of the guys around me) I didn't get dropped and finished with the lead group. Huzzah!

Plus I saw the most tricked out Cervelo R5ca I've ever seen. Carbon EVERYTHING (even chainrings), RZR wheels, and it weighed less than my water bottles. The owner claimed 11 lbs, but it felt like less. Crazy!

DG

mmmdonuts

Sounds like an awesome ride.

rjones28 

Cool.

bobbycorno

"Cool"? "Awesome ride"??? Sounds to me like a quick trip to the ER. A 50kph anarchic "squirrel fest". No thanks, please.

SP
Bend, OR

RoboCheme

Cool, but I thought this was like a ride that my son did in San Diego, where they'd get a time bonus for every donut they ate.

rjones28 

Well, DG survived it and had some fun doing it. So, that's cool.

mmmdonuts

What looks like a chaotic ride to some is more often than not a group of experienced riders who know what they're doing. This is supposed to be a long standing fast ride. Not everyone needs a ride leader and cue sheets just to make it out of the parking lot.

jdon

Good for you DG. I used to ride it but living in Burlington it just isn't worth the commute. You get used to the "freeride" style after a while. Congrats on not getting dropped.

baj32161

I live in Burlington too....the difference is that I would get dropped in the first 2 miles and turn and head home....whimpering. I.have seen vids of that ride......no thanks...at least not yet anyway

renton

It's a fun ride. I did it a few times this summer, I got dropped at first but now I can keep up.

bobbycorno

I was working on the assumption that the OP's description of the ride was accurate. Maybe not, then...

SP
Bend, OR

Juan Foote

Where personally I couldn't ride in something like this, I think it's terrific. The only reason it is "unofficial" is because the whole group got sued for a crash in the 90's so no one wants to take on the liability. I think that in spite of that lapse in judgement on a courts part, the fact that the ride still exists is simply amazing.

hhnngg1

I've done that ride twice before, a few years ago when I lived in LA. It was a blast. When you've got 100+ riders, it's an awesome scene.

I couldn't believe that nobody crashed on the ride, either time, due to the chaotic lack of organization. Then again, I was surprised how not-too-hard the flats were for most of the pack (the front guys are hellaciously fast) but I thought I was in a warmup when after about 20 minutes I asked the guy next to me if things sped up, and he said, 'not really.' Fortunately, with that many riders, there's always a minipack to ride with, which is the thing I love about this ride.

Check out the LaGrange bike club rides in Santa Monica on the wknds as well. Usually about 40-50 riders on the PCH, and it's not too hellaciously fast (but fast enough to make you work.)

renton

This ride is Toronto; are we talking about the same ride?

jdon

Lots of youtube stuff on the ride but this one is good quality and shows a pretty typical ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEEkz...eature=related

RecceDG

Yup - that's the ride.

It was fairly easy going as we wandered through the back streets picking up people (I got on at the Bayview and Sheppard corner) There were like 3-5 people waiting on every single corner.

Then going into the on-ramp onto Hwy 7 the pace skyrocketed (38.47 km/h average uphill on Hwy 7, peak 49 km/h) and stayed that way all the way down Keele (avg 39.95 km/h peak 57 km/h). I got gapped just before the hill leading up to the King City city limit sign, but caught up thanks to an effort and a lucky red light. From that point on I stayed with the lead pack.

It split once down King St, and then again down Sideroad 15. I went with the Sideroad 15 group because to be honest, I wasn't sure how long the "long" ride really was and we were already ~40km out. Sideroad 15 is horribly broken up (like riding cobbles) and the pace dropped down quite a bit (avg 34.55 km/h peaks 40 km/h). Then it winkled through some residential back streets east of Bathurst and speeds really dropped. Then we had a long coffee stop.

The coffee stop never had a definitive finish; people started leaving in dribs and drabs and I joined one of the larger drabs. The pace started to pick up again around the lake and once we hit Leslie the hammer got dropped again (avg 42.9 km/h peak 60 km/h) South of Major McKenzie traffic started picking up and the pace dropped to avg 34 km/h (peak 44 km/h) where it stayed to the finish (I got off at Sheppard and rode home)

The actual overall average speed of the ride was only 31 km/h but that's deceptive; 12% of the ride was over 45 km/h and about 22% was over 39 km/h.

That's not the absolute fastest I've ever gone (although it is way up there) but coupled to the overall size of the group and the sketchiness of how people were behaving made for a very... interesting... dynamic. My usual group is either 2 by 2 or single file. When 2 x 2 we do pulls and the lead two pull off and let the pack through. Single file is either pulls with a pull off or a rotating paceline. Nobody gaps, nobody overlaps, nobody brakes, and while we don't point at every single leaf like some groups do, we do point at big holes and road kill and signal stops. Very disciplined 'cause the patron runs it that way. This ride, we were 2, 3, 4, 5 wide. Gaps opened and closed. People changed line without warning. Nobody took a pull the way I expected - somebody would be on the front, then he'd get passed and somebody else would be on the front, then they'd get attacked and passed and somebody else would be up... crazy. I'm frankly astonished there were no crashes.

If my usual ride is a well-oiled machine, this ride is more like a flock of starlings. A BIG flock.

But yet, as crazy as it was, I confess to having really enjoyed it. My comfort level was being pushed and that's not a bad thing. And it is no fooling a good workout. And on top of that, while I didn't go with the absolute longest and fastest group, I didn't get dropped, and I find there is some pride to that. I think I've come a long way since I was asking umd if one really did ride on the hoods.

DG

hhnngg1

Aw crap - I was thinking this was the Donut ride in LA!

chaulky61

....to Windsor? Now that is impressive!

RecceDG

I'm a frozen apple.

DG

Bob Dopolina 

Ah...it's called a training race...

renton

The hardest part is the stretch on Keele between Sideroad 15 and 17:
https://app.strava.com/segments/786902
A lot of people get dropped on that stretch.

DFTR

Didn't watch the full video but I didn't see a lot of overlapping wheels or unpredicatable turns. I guess they're not calling out hazards. And they're riding more than 2 abreast which may aggravate traffic but doesn't seem particularly challenging. I've seen crit videos that are much more impressive.