I think the large event rides are fun, though my tolerance for standing in line for everything (showers, toilets, food, etc) starts to outweigh the fun aspects of the event after a week. I've done Ride the Rockies four weeks and also a slightly smaller Pedal the Plains ride four times. Pedal the Plains was only three days and even more than RTR had novelty of visiting these small towns on eastern plains of CO. Unlike some of the mountain towns that can be used to

We had one night in Pedal the Plains when the sprinklers came on the camping (football) field in Fort Morgan in middle of the night. Seemed like eternity but probably only 10-15 minutes while the town hosts figured out who to call to get the water turned off. Unlike some mountain resort towns that occasionally have big events - these towns on the Colorado plains typically have few big events per year (e.g. rodeo/fair) so the arrival of ~1000 cyclists and hanger-ons was a big deal. We came into Holly Colorado (population ~840) in 2019. They had an home football game (8-man) where we helped fill the bleachers to cheer on the Wildcats and the announcers couldn't stop thanking PTP. Unfortunately they were behind 62-0 at end of 3rd quarter and not much better at end of the game.