How was Novemberfest 2008?
 

Novemberfest 2007 had routes over horrible roads and the organizers promised to fix it for 2008 with new routes. Did anyone ride the 64 mile route on Novemberfest this year? How was it? I am speaking of the ride near Stephen F. Austin park.

Bob

Do you mean the one for the Mentally Retarted? ( I know I spelled it wrong, but BF edits it to *******ed if I spell it right)

If you do, I did the 47 yesterday and it sucked. Everyone rolled out at once (even though they tried not to) and I ended up passing people for the 1st 10 miles looking for a group to ride with. I ended up riding about 20 miles alone and I missed rest stops 3 AND 4...I have no idea where they were, but I ended up riding without water for about 10 miles.

I've heard good things about this ride in the past, so maybe I just had a bad experience, but I doubt I will do it again.

Yeah, that's the one. Some of the route markings were screwed up last year, too. Their long route was also 5 miles shorter than advertised. It would seem they have the party part down, but not the actual routing and marking. I'm beginning to lose faith in organized fund raising rides, in general. I would say at least half of the rides I've ridden in the last year had something significantly wrong (traffic control missing, routes poorly marked, poor maps, poor routing). I guess I'll mark Novemberfest off my list altogether.

Bob

I spoke to two family members last night who rode Novemberfest 2008. Their opinion: "We won't ride it again". comments:

1. Some of the new routes still had bad roads (worse that last year!).
2. One of the rest stops ran out of snacks.
3. One of the rest stops was not set up in time.

Every group ride will have an oops or problem occasionally. This one seems to be persistently plagued with problems. I am putting it on my NOT RECOMMENDED list.

Its for a good cause - donate directly but skip supporting the ride.

Bob