RVD72

Anyone doing the Long Beach bike tour before the Long Beach marathon? I signed up for this event. I plan to treat this as basically just a slow and easy ride with some newbies.

I'm doing the LA triathlon on 10/3 so I didn't want something too strenuous and this seems pretty relaxed.

Has anyone done this before and what is it like? Although I'm not racing in any way, if the crowd is full of newbies, I'll probably just speed up at the start to get ahead of all the chaos and then take it easy or something like that.

El Gigante

I'm thinking about it. Sounds like a great way to warm up for the LA Tri. I'm not too familiar with cycling in Long Beach but it does sound like a pretty relaxed course - it can't be any worse than the LA Bike Tour. Riding through that is like being in a herd of scalded cats being chased by a pack of crazed Rottweilers!!

travelmama

Save your money and do your own warm-up ride along the rivers. The LB Marathon Bike Tour is just that...a tour of Long Beach and much like the LA Marathon Bike Tour. The best thing about it is seeing so many on bikes having a good time. The bad thing is that 75% of them don't ride regularly and don't know proper bike etiquette which leads into many collisions.

jellis

Get out in front and you'll be fine. I did it twice a few years ago and don't remember many (if any) sketchy riders. It is dark though to start, so use a blinky in the rear at least. There's a pretty dark section near the Queen Mary where the street lights don't hit. The bike path (miles 5-9?) can get congested, but after that it'll open up

LAriverRat

I have been touring Long Beach since 1958, i think i have seen everything.

travelmama

Come to think of it, the LB Bike Tour is two weeks AFTER the LA Triathlon so it would not make a good warm up ride. Magic Mountain Man is on October 10 with a training ride on September 25 that is more challenging than the LA course. It may work for you?

RVD72

Sorry if I misled anyone. I'm actually not looking for a warm up ride before the LA triathlon. I'm fine with my training before. One of my friends asked me to join her on this ride 2 weeks after the triathlon. I try to take it easy for about 2-4 weeks after a triathlon. Since it's is only 26.2 miles and looks like a fairly relaxed ride, I think this will be fine as a "recovery" type ride.

I was just wondering more out of curiously than anything else if it's going to be like the LA marathon rides used to be where people show up in mountain bikes and beach cruisers and don't really know how to ride in a group, etc....so it'd be wise for me to just speed up at the start so that i don't have to deal with that big mess in the back.

I'll bring my lights.