Reflections
On the tour: The Ride the Rockies organizers are very professional and the overall smoothness of the tour reflects it. Everything wasn’t perfect, but it was very well done. My only real complaint would be the over-reliance on third-party vendors at aid stations. That meant no key supplies like sunscreen, etc. at most of the aid stations. For the most part, this is a non-issue, until you’re That Guy that forgot to bring some that day and forgot to make a quick stop at a connivence store along the route to get one. Don’t be That Guy!
I do also wish the ride had organized ways to drop off some of your extra clothing at aid stations and have it returned to you at the next nightly camp. The Bicycle Tour of Colorado folks did this in 2009 and for some of the big mountain pass days it made perfect sense – you would need a lot of warm clothing for the first half of the day, but the second half you were hot and needed to get rid of some of that bulk.
On the route: It was awesome. They certainly made it difficult, and I thought they should have thrown in a rest day in the middle. But in hindsight, it was so easy to take your own rest day, and the majority of people did ride all 7 days, so clearly while the route was hard, it was not too hard. From having done two tours in Colorado now, somewhere between 450 and 550 miles does seem like the right amount for a week-long tour.
On the equipment: My new bike was awesome. The frame was lighter and more comfortable than my previous bike, and the compact gearing with the 11-28 cassette made climbing the big, steep hills a lot easier for a flatlander like me. I could have done the ride with standard gearing and an 11-25 cassette, but my knees would not be thanking me now.
And the power meter? For something that you totally don’t need, it’s totally worth having. But then I’m a data junkie so my perspective might be a bit skewed.
I also avoided carrying extra equipment with me this year – no camelback backpack for holding extra clothes, etc. – everything went into my jersey pockets. I just made sure I bought jerseys with big enough pockets and it worked out just fine. I even managed to carry my rain gear almost the entire tour except on days with no chance of rain.
On coaching: Totally worth the price. Yes, you can self-coach, and yes, once you know what coaching is all about, it’s more likely that you could self-coach and be effective. But the information and insight I gained, along with the planning of my training season to match my priorities, was easily worth the price. If I had tried to do this myself again, I would have not ridden as much total volume, nor would I have utilized the build-up and recovery cycles effectively and would have not been in peak condition for the tour.
Ride Your Bike
If you haven’t done a long bike tour yet, especially somewhere in the mountains, put it on your list. If you like to ride, there is something really special about being out on the bike for a solid week of riding. The event itself will be amazing, and if you properly train for it that effort will be life-changing all on its own.
All of the pictures I took on the ride are on my flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26521676@N00/sets/72157624320722734/show/
Thanks for your review. I’ve done 2 BTC’s (2008,2009), but no RTR.
I’m considering doing either the BTC or RTR (but not both) in 2011.
Based on your experiences, would you recommend 1 of these tours over the other, and the reason(s) you might prefer one over the other?
Since the RTR is a lottery, I would sign-up for that one and if you didn’t get in then do the BTC. If you haven’t done the RTR it’s worth doing, but it’s not a ton better than the BTC. The RTR organization is definitely more professional than the BTC, but it’s not like that winds up being a big difference, in the end.
Also I think it would depend upon the route next year – if the RTR is another hard route in 2011, that’s fantastic – if it’s an easy route like 2009, eh, skip it.
But, doing both would be even more fun!
@Frank
Another tour to consider is Colorado Rocky Mountain Bicycle Tour. Check out this years route at crmbt.com. We went to Mt. Evans and Trail Ridge Road both. I also rode it in 2008 & 2009 and loved the routes.
Before that I’d ridden 5 BTC events. The biggest difference is touring with 250 people on CRMBT as opposed to 2,000 in the big tours. When you arrive and start looking for food, it’s much easier to find a place to eat. Also CRMBT usually overnights in places that have some restaurants and motels.
CRMBT is also the first week in August if that fits your schedule. And it has always been a loop.
I always stayed in motels so can’t speak to the camping situation except they seemed to stay near schools like the big tours.
To me the #1 consideration has been the route so this gives you another choice.
[...] June, 2010, I rode the wonderful Ride the Rockies event in Colorado and used the ForeRunner 310XT to track the entire week of riding. One problem I [...]
Just seeing your blog-I was there with you and thoroughly enjoyed the week. We were probably up on the Monument about the same time. I would totally agree with the bumpy section of road from Delta to Ouray-plus it was just a grind getting to Ouray as it was a slight uphill grade the last half.
Your favorite climb was the only spot I had issues that week. I didn’t realize I had not eaten enough and just totally bonked riding out of Silverton. Somehow I made it to the top and got a Coke and some sugar and revived. Each day afterwards I made sure I stopped and ate pancakes at the 1st rest stop-those were great!
If you had ridden into Pagosa you might have hit a faster speed for the week. That was one wickedly fast descent for a good stretch heading into town.
Had to love that last day after all the hills we did the week before!!
Hope to see you out there next year.
I do wish I would have ridden the Pagosa Springs day in retrospect, but it is really easy to say that now from the comfort of the back patio when nothing is sore!
I’m not sure if I’m going to try for the RTR again, or the BTC, or some other fun event, but riding in Colorado, somewhere, is definitely on the schedule.