Originally Posted by BCIpam
If you seriously want to do the ride, then tickets will become available closer to the ride date in late April.
Here's my take on banditing a ride... the Club that puts on this ride (SLOBC) does a fabulous job with their route marking, their sags, support etc. They donate lots of time and effort into making this one of California's premier events. The ride price, $45, is cheap considering you walk away from the event full of good food. No one stops you from riding the route with other riders and hopefully you would not use the sags etc. (keeping in mind much of this ride is in the middle of no where - not alot of gas stations - none in fact - to use the facilities or water up) but what happens if you get hurt along their route? Or cause someone else to get hurt? You get lost and need help coming back? Anyway - the routes are posted on the SLOBC site. Do it on your own time if you don't want to buy a ticket.
My 2 cents sorry for the soap box. But I love this ride and want to see it respected.
I appreciate this post. Now that I know the ride is posted on their site, it makes it much easier not to "bandit" a ride. When I do group or organized ride now (those for which I've registered) I don't use the food stops along the way or at the end. (I find I ride much better on the chow I bring for my own unique tastes). What I've experienced for the first time this summer is ride organizers backtracking over their route and removing (covering up would be more accurate) their spray painted road guides. When I asked one guy about this, he said they didn't want others to know of the route, because they didn't want it to get too popular.
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