Okay, so, Tour de Brooklyn.

[camwyn]

18 miles of bike riding through parts of Brooklyn that remind me of why some people are scared of Jersey City, with a couple hundred, maybe a thousand or so, other riders- all packed together so closely by the ride marshals that we had to dismount and walk too many times to count. And traveling so slowly that there were in-line skaters in the pack keeping up with us.

There were cobblestone stretches. There were areas with potholes and big missing bits of street.

There were a lot of people honking at other people because they couldn't see that traffic was stopped to let the bikes through. There were no turn sheets that I ever got, and there were no mile markers, and the rest stop was more than halfway along the route.

Still, I got to see where they make Manhattan Special coffee soda, and I met interesting people, so that's cool. And I got to ride over the Brooklyn Bridge to get there, which was really cool and I wish I had taken pictures. Alas, alack, etc. And I got a T-shirt for $6.

Verdict: Unless it sounds like they improved the organization next time, I'm not gonna do next year's TdB. I'll have to ask around and see who's done the Tour de Bronx and see if they're any better before I even consider registering.

Comments

Organization; comparing to the Tour de Bronx

[(Anonymous)]

My wife and I were out on the TdB yesterday. I think the organization was fine; there's probably just only so much you can do if you're marshalling that many riders but not closing the route they're taking to traffic all day long. (That's probably the only reason that, say, the Five-Boro Bike Tour works as well as at does. Which is to say, decidedly badly until you hit the FDR, at which point it becomes somewhat tolerable.)

Back to the TdB, though: it did end up being pretty painful/tiring spending ~2.5 hours of saddle time to go 18 miles. And yes, the rest stop was only 5 miles or so from the finish.

Compared to the TdBx: the 40 mile ride, mixed with traffic, looked pretty okay. My wife was new to cycling back then, though, so we signed up for the marshalled 25 mile ride. This ride turned out to have dynamics similar in kind to yesterday's TdB, to a lesser degree (there weren't as many riders, and only one major, major slowdown). The problem we had was it was cold that day, and the low exertion level required wasn't keeping us warm! After the first rest stop (~5 miles in) we peeled off and went for our own ride.

Re: Organization; comparing to the Tour de Bronx

[camwyn]

I guess I was sort of spoiled by my first organised ride, the Twin Lights Ride. They had a lot fewer people on the route I did- I think it was 30 miles- and there was no police escort; we had marshals here and there but there were few enough of us that we had to share the road. It didn't seem too bad at the time. Like I said, though, first ride. Plus, it was in a much less complicated area to drive or bike in.

I guess I was just frustrated, that's all.