wrobertdavis

I have fond memories of the first 35 mile organized ride my wife and ever did. She was riding and Electra Townie and I rode a Giant Cypress comfort bike. The wind was strong. We averaged 10+ mph. The furthest we had ever done was about 26 miles. We just took it slow and took advantage of the rest stops and made it. You'll do fine.

Bob

cpblue

I hope I'm not the only one who is planning on sending a letter to the mayor's office regarding the crappy route. There are lots of great streets to ride on in the COH as well as great neighborhoods to ride through. Maybe the TDH could learn something from the folks who put on the Moonlight ramble.

alohaboy

Well, I'm pretty proud of myself after my first organized ride. I finished the 20 mile route at 9:06, which means I finished in under an hour and a half. I'm not sure what time we rolled out, I think it was around the planned 7:45 time, although I was in the last group they let go.

scattered73

I rather enjoyed riding the hardy nice to have lots of space and no cars to worry about, the way back on the hardy was sweet.

wrobertdavis

Well, speaking of ride reports, here's mine for Tour de Houston 2008. My initial impressions of the organization for this ride were negative because I pre-registered and was greated with "no packets available" at one of the packet pickup points. They told me all the Guarantee Bank locations had run out. So this left me with the onerous position to show up downtown at 6am on Saturday morning to pick up packets for me and my wife.

Getting downtown early proved to be a blessing. The ride included a free parking pass to theater district parking. We found one very small lot (# 3 I think) located right next to City Hall Annex and parked there for an unhurried preparation. The City Hall Annex was open and their restroom facilities were available. Other than having to walk through a metal detector to get to them, this proved to be really handy. It turns out this building is where Mayor Bill White prepared for the race and one of the riders in our parking lot caught a glimpse of him. By the way, I think Bill White is the best mayor this city has ever had. How cool is it to have a mayor to supports cycling and rides as well?

I had determined to ride the 70 mile route and my wife would do the 40 mile distance. Based on my registration experience, I was also apprehensive about a start time at 7:00a.m. when sunrise is 7:30a.m. I figured someone had missed daylight savings time. We picked up our packets without any difficulty. They had our names on the pre-registered list.

The music was blaring from loudspeakers and it was a classic big event start. They let us go in waves of about 100. That worked pretty well, but the various distance groups all fed into the same intersection. The long distance riders were supposed to be first, but many of the short distance riders were cheating and slipping into the start groups for long distance. I know because my wife showed up beside me a couple of miles into the ride. I was shocked. One thing nice about the long distance group is that they were all obviosly experienced riders and most behaved pretty sanely and rode consistently during the crowded first few miles of the route. The city lights turned out to be adequate to light our pre-sunrise start.

The entire northbound Hardy toll road was closed off and the route did out and back on that side of the toll road. We rode through parts of Houston that I normally would never go on a bicycle. But having a couple thousand riding companions with police everywhere made it feel a little safer.

About five miles into the ride, the danger of large group rides made itself evident. A pick up truck was purposely parked diagonally across two of the three lanes of traffic. Everyone had to slow down and weave around the pickup. As we passed, my heart lept into my throat when I saw a female rider down sprawled out on the road with other bikes around her. It was obvious she had had a major encounter and was hurt pretty badly.

The thrill of the ride began when we saw the sign to Hardy toll road and we were going onto it! The toll road looks enormously wide when you are on a bicycle and we had gobs of room to ride fast and safely. The day was gorgeous and most of us were moving briskly, despite the somewhat strong headwind.

All of the rest stops were extremely well run - very much like the MS-150. They had lots of volunteers and were well stocked, with plenty porta-cans lined up and mechanical bike support. I would rate all the rest stops A+.

I only stopped at rest stops at 20 miles and 40 miles. The 40 mile rest stop was really cool - right in the middle of Hardy toll road. At this point, you could fuel up, rest, then turn around and head back south. The volunteers at this stop (Discount Tires sponsor) were plentiful and exhubirant. They would take your water bottle and ask "Water or gatorade", then fill it to the brim for you. They had lots of ice in the mix and the water was ice cold.

The return leg of the long ride was an absolute blast. We had a tail wind and set up a 25 mph pace line. The monstor bridges and overpasses made for awesome hills. The roads were good (none of the concrete seams someone else posted about) and we flew down hill at 30 mph for long stretches. There was so much room that you never worried about conflicts with other riders. If we came up on a slow group, we just swung wide to the left a full traffic lane and did not get anywhere near them.

Coming into Houston on the elevated roadway and seeing the entire downtown city skyline was really cool. This is something you would never get to do on a bike except with this ride.

The weather was perfect today - no cool weather gear required, but not too hot and very sunny. Traffic control was superb. There were police everywhere controlling the traffic and letting us ride safely the whole time.

So, in summary, despite my early negative impressions, this turned out to be a unique, well organized ride that I would definitely do again. It will go on my A-list of organized rides.

Bob

wrobertdavis

Did you ride it? I felt kind of like you did about the route, but after having done it, I loved it. It was extremely low stress, high speed (if you want) opportunity to do a kind of ride that you simply could not do anywhere else. I love the positive atmosphere of group rides especially if they have great rest stops, good riding surfaces, and excellent traffic control. This ride had it all.

Bob

alohaboy

As I said before, this was my first ride. I was really impressed. I did manage to get a packet early, so that wasn't an issue. I was initially worried about parking, but that turned out to be a non-issue as well because I just parked in the garage near Jones Hall. I loved having lots of space, as I'm not used to group rides, so this kind of eased me into it. I rode by myself, so imagine it would be even more fun with a friend.
Hopefully my upcoming rides will be just as good.

wrobertdavis

The Tour de Houston is "the way its supposed to be" with all rides. The one thing I will not tolerate on a ride is poor routing or poor traffic control. Those are totally under the control of the organizer. If I encounter a ride that has safety issues, I mark on my bad list and vote with my feet the next year. Novemberfest and West U Warmup won't have me riding next year for these reasons.

Bob

saintsfan342000

I did the 70 mile route (which was actually 64 per my friend's cpu), did the 40 last year. This year's route was absolutely awesome. Sure the Hardy Toll Road scenery was boring, but how often do you get three lanes + two shoulders all devoted to the cyclists? It was awesome, and the weather was great. Rest stops run extremely well, as were they last year. I pre-registered online on Tuesday and didn't get a tee, kind of bummed, but that's trivial for the most part.

Totally worth $25 bucks.

kwrides

Thanks for the review Bob. It sounds like I missed out due to skepticism. I did a great ride in Chappell Hill , but probably should have skipped it and shown some support for Houston cycling. Next year, I'll show up for this one.

scattered73

It was a great ride really enjoyed it. Is it just me, would releasing people by their estimated speed be a lot better than by distance? I don’t do many organized rides so maybe I am missing something here but that seems like it would eliminate some of the passing and getting passed making the flow a little better and maybe safer. I am tempted to send an email to the organizers recommending this.

cycledorchy

Well, I ended up riding about 50 miles (I was signed up for the 40 but the route and my own odometer said more like 47 something) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a bit crowded in places and on the return leg the wind was an occaisional issue, but everyone I rode near were very polite. The rest stops were fine, the volunteers were very nice and the whole event was much nicer than I expected based on the packet/registration issues we'd all encountered. I was surprised by the route, taking us from one extreme in Houston to another, starting in a pretty poor neighborhood and then turning around way north in a fairly posh neighborhood. All in all, I wished I could have seen more of Houston, but what I experienced was really enjoyable. I got a lot of tips from more experienced riders and learned a lot about my own endurance and fitness level. This was the longest I've ever formally ridden and I was not nearly as exhausted as I thought I was going to be. I had a great time and really enjoyed tossing back a cold beer afterwards. Parking was not a problem and neither was locating the event. The pathways were clearly marked and all the other riders were very considerate. The ride marshals were very helpfull and really, I have to thank the HPD for their support. I was sure to say thank you to every Houston PD officer I passed.

Now I'm getting ready to do the Space City ride and then the Flatland century in July...I hope that those will be as much fun as this one turned out to be. I'm fairly new to cycling, I just bought my first road bike and brand new gear, and this was my baptism of sorts; I found it to be a great experience and I can't wait to do the next ride!

Thanks to the City of Houston, and all the other riders. :-)

cycledorchy

Bob, I'm glad you also enjoyed the ride. I hope to see you on some more coming up!

I loved it!

Cycledorchy *(aka Chris)

bluebottle1

I'd echo pretty much everything Bob had to say in his report. One place where I did have an issue was at the first rest stop. The "waiting area" to get into the porta-johns crossed the area where cyclists had to go through if they weren't making the stop. I could easily have seen someone getting blindsided. As it is, I don't think that happened, though.

One thing the TdH does very well is police support. (You can totally tell the mayor does this ride.) This year was no exception. The rest stops were well-stocked (or at least, the two I hit were) and staffed with enthusiastic volunteers. The route was a little less than scenic, but let's face it, Houston is a tabletop. There ain't that much to see in most of it. I'd love to see a tour that swings around Hermann Park and through West U and River Oaks but I doubt that will happen just because of the expense. Running a tour the way the City has done it allows it to be done on a cost-effective basis.

cycledorchy, glad your experience with the ride marshals was positive. I sometimes wonder if we don't sound like a bunch of nitpicking nannies out there. I try to be as helpful as I can and offer assistance to anyone I see stopped by the side of the road. (Incidentally, everyone I encountered seemed really well prepared for this ride. I heard no one complaining that they had no spare tubes or anything of that sort. Often I wind up giving away at least one tube on rides like this to someone who isn't properly equipped. Not necessary this time out.)

Anyway, aside from the lone issue I had with the first rest stop, I was favorably impressed with the whole ride. The run back to downtown on the Hardy was like a time trial. Even riding on my own with no benefit of a paceline, I was averaging something like 23 or 24. Riders were courteous, safe, and smart, and I think this was a really good showcase for cycling in Houston. I saw a bit of dangerous conduct on the way out Aldine-Bender just because some folks got impatient and moved farther left than they should have ideally. Still, the reason for it was the large number or riders and the crowded right lane. I couldn't really fault anybody too badly for that.

So, I will plan on riding this one again in 2009. I look forward to seeing what route the mayor's office cooks up next.

dr. nate

Come ride one of our free agent rides, we hit those areas.

-Nate

wrobertdavis

Oh, yeah that was something else I forgot to mention in my ride report. I am a big fan of turn lists with mileage marks. I've learned to use them and never get lost if they are well done. The TdH was the best marked route I have ever seen. My guess is that the streets department was involved in making the signs. Every single turn was well marked. The division between the 40 and 70 mile turns were crystal clear. There is nothing more frustrating than missing a turn or getting lost. No chance of it happening on this ride.

Also, regarding distance, I agree with others' comments. The TdH calculations were off considerably. The 70 mile route was really 63.5. The 40 mile route was really 46.5. At least that is what my computer and my wife's computer said. Both have proven to be very accurate on many rides, so I believe these numbers are representative.

Bob

bluebottle1

True, but I did get a chuckle out of the signs on the Hardy saying "straight" with an arrow pointing ahead when I was on top of an overpass. I mean, where else am I gonna go?

bluebottle1

Y'know, I've been planning to for ages and after the MS150 is in the can, I probably will.

chevy42083

Here's my take on the ride....

I showed up early and expected to park in one of the free parking garages.... only to find out that it wasn't free unless you had either picked up your packet, or printed out some pass from the website... so I payed the $6 event parking. It should be free or not... I mean, I showed up in a Jersey, drinking out of a water bottle, with my bike, and asked if it was free... she said, "Only if you give me this sheet of paper". Great. Remember my posts above? I pick up the packet at the ride... sounds like there was trouble getting them before the ride anyways.

I lucked out and parking the absolute closest corner I could have to the registration... I walked up the stairs, and was there... didn't get my shirt, and walked back down to get ready.

Is it wrong that I'm mad I didn't get a T-shirt? I mean, I don't think anyone did... but isn't that kinda expected for these rides?

Cruised through the garage and rode up the exit ramp... why were people walking up it? Worn out already? Too early?

I cruised up to the start and left with the front row. News even showed me front and center... but the Gaurantee Bank team got in my shot

I loved the route... only a few complaints.

Rest stop 1 at the toll booth. I didn't like the food being separate, then U-turning, going against traffic, merging back into the riders, and riding through the remainder of the stop (porta-lines). Not a fan of that setup, it all should've been on the toll-road. Was cool to grab a pic of my Bike in the EZtag lane

Rest stop 2, I didn't really care for the setup either. Same deal, everyone was told to ride through the rest stop... I didn't and u-turned. No reason to send us creaping through a stop with poeple hobbling around in roadie shoes when I didn't want to slow down, much less use the rest stop.

The Hills started to hurt a little getting close to the 40mile mark... wind+hills+fixed gear = tough

Rest stop at 40 was GREAT.... everything in one place, and didn't have riders going THROUGH it.

The whole way back south I was spinning at 21mph all by my self... pace lines had me spinning too fast for my 44x17 fixed gear. I got curious and sprinted a downhill... 34mph is my LIMIT... I bet I looked like a mad-man spinning my *** off down hill as others fought to get up in the other direction The return trip was AWESOME... I had so much fun cruising by everyone and trying to keep my speed up all the way into downtown... with 3 lanes to pass... there was no hold-ups.

Cruised by the finish, rolled around the block, and rode straight into the parking garage... AWESOME... air conditioned, shaded slow cruise up to a nice cool truck. Best finish of any ride to date.

Cons: rest stop layout, parking cost, T-shirt.

I'll DEFINATLY be back next year.

wrobertdavis

Well, I guess I'll have to irritate you. I got to packet pickup downtown EARLY. I think I was there right at 6:00a.m. They had Large shirts still available. I wear an X-large, but what the heck.

bluebottle1

I understand they wound up with about 1,000 more folks turning out for this than expected. The previous year, there were t-shirts left over. I know because that's how I got mine. I was a ride marshal last year as well, so I didn't have to pony up the ride cost. Often you don't get the bag of goodies as a result, but since there were leftovers last year, we did. No such luck this year, though.

chevy42083

Ok, now I have reason to be upset.... seeing as how i pre-registered way ahead of time, and did packet pickup at 6:10am. As far as more folks turning out than expected.... well, I was pre-registered... they shoulda "expected" me

wrobertdavis

Predicting rider turnout is like designing a paint job that will sell more bicycles. Its a shot in the dark - we are such a flaky bunch.

Bob

CCFISH81

I am glad some of you really enjoyed this ride. I did it two years ago and had a bad-experience, and haven't been back. Perphaps next year.

bluebottle1

I heard the ride wasn't very good a couple years ago. (I think that was the first TdH?) Anyway, I think they've gotten better at it since then. Give 'em another shot, CC. If future tours are as good as the last two (and in particular, the most recent one), you won't be disappointed.