Originally Posted by Leisesturm
. . . I hope the o.p. doesn't mind the hijack but I'd like a little more insight on the ride itself since the cat is out of the bag as it were.
H
The OP doesnt' mind. Think of it as a Sunday family outing with 30,000 family members, at different levels of fitness and skill. A typical casual pace for me over this terrain and distance might be 15 mph average. When I rode this once before, I averaged 11 mph (moving average, not true average). The farther you are toward the back, the more delays and outright stoppages there are. I started only a couple of blocks in back of the "VIP" section, and after I passed the stop at the 19.0 mile mark, I was able to keep going pretty steadily. I still had to ride very slowly at times because of the number of other bicyclists.
I enjoyed it as a chance to see the city in a different way, and ride on roads that are normally not available to bicyclists. It's also sometimes fun to take part in a big event. If you just want a good, hard, challenging, club ride, though, you'd be better off with something smaller.