Conference noted::bicycle

    im not real sure of the miles between major cities, but i imagine that
    the first day would put you between sturbridge and hartford, then near
    stamford, then into new york
    
    if thats the case, there are 2-3 river valley to traverse late friday
    	and then several more during first ~60miles saturday
    my car doesnt really like travelling the hills on 84, i cant imagine
    	'plebe' cyclists doing well
    
    sounds like a case of over-zealous promoters or donators, or at least
    	very ambitious
    the ride is basically 2 back to back centuries, not for the weak
    i bet there were some seriously sore butts after that escapade
    
    .02
    --roger
    

    There were even a few mtn bikes in the picture the Globe printed
    (on Monday I think).  Ow!

    I did the ride.   The promoters were paid well, but a huge portion of the 
    costs for the ride were covered by Tanqueray (an interesting corporate 
    sponsorship considering no alcohol of any kind was served during the 
    ride).   The event raised approx. $6.5 million for the Fenway Community 
    Health Center in Boston and two similar agencies in New York City.
    
    That said, I agree there were a lot of people on this ride who
    were not prepared (despite numerous mailings and warnings from the Ride
    Staff that this was a challenging event).  Many people could not finish 
    on day 1 and day 2 and had to be picked up by SAG vehicles.  
    
    It was a long, scenic ride.  My bike computer says I did 96.8 miles on 
    Friday, 101.4 miles on Saturday and about 60 miles on Sunday.  The 
    route went southwest out of Boston thru Needham, Dover, Sherborn, 
    Holliston...and then on thru Milford and Mendon, Uxbridge, Douglas and 
    Webster.... Into CN (don't recall the towns).  First night's camp was 
    at UofC at Storrs.   The next day we went mainly south, turning west 
    just before New Haven.  Then we had a fairly easy ride along the coast 
    to the 2nd night's stop in Bridgeport.  The third day we took Rte. 1 
    all the way into New York.
    
    The hills at the end of the day on Friday and through the morning and
    early afternoon on Saturday were (to me...someone who until this ride
    had never done a century and who trained almost exclusively on Cape 
    Cod all summer) very difficult.   Still, I rode every mile and was
    actually among the first several hundred riders to finish each day.
    
    Overall it was a fun, if exhausting, experience.  It really should have
    been a 4-day event (in my opinion).   
    
    /Greg
    

  I rode in this charity event as well.  The organizers did a very good job in
  the logistics department (everyone had hot food, hot showers, massages,
  tents, and entertainment), however it was clear that the organizers were not
  cyclists.  Emphasis was made in all the wrong places.  This was most
  annoying.  The first example of this was their letting all 4,000 cyclists
  onto the road at once without breaking up the riders into groups of skill and
  speed categories first.  This made for a very dangerous mix of experienced
  and inexperienced cyclists.  The faster riders were hemmed in by mountain
  bikers swerving all over the road in a casual stroll chat with their friends
  and had to sprint their way past the blocked-up roads via sidewalks and other
  unsafe avenues.  The poor slower riders who just wanted to swerve a lot and
  talk with their friends, had to pay attention to the annoying faster riders
  coming by around all sides of them.  I have never been in a more dangerous
  pack of riders (4K of them!) and my brains were screaming "get the heck out
  of here." Since I was first to register my bike in the night before day 1, we
  all were the last bikes out.  I didn't get clear of scary riders who had no
  idea what holding a line meant until I had ridden all the way out to Dover.
  Imagine being on an over-registered crit course with 200 riders, then turn
  the 200 into 4,000, and then make many of them first time riders.  Scary!! I
  thought having a range of experienced to first time cyclists was great, but
  mixing them all up together at the start of the ride was very dangerous, and
  unenjoyable for both the slower riders as well as the faster ones.

  The organizers basically lied about the toughness of this course.  I am most
  upset at this above all else.  This ride was billed as an event for first
  time cyclists, the ride to ride your first century on.  Introduction video
  clips for this ride taken from the previous CA ride showed grandmothers and
  other 'non-racing' cyclist types out doing the ride, illustrating how
  possible it was for people to bike this far.  The description given for day 1
  (Boston-UCONN) was that it was "rolling terrain, with only one big hill, at
  the very end of the ride, where the campsite is at the top of the hill." Many
  of the experienced riders were even riding with their straight crit blocks
  on! This includes me as well.  I didn't even think of putting my hill
  climbing 24-t freewheeel on the rims I happened to be using.

  The line we took out of Boston brought us close to the RI border, which I
  knew to be all flat.  That corner of CT would be too I thought.  Imagine my
  surprise to find that NE CT is as hilly as the Berkshires!!! :-) I was the
  30th rider in on day 1 (despite the 45 min last-one-out delay) and 13th in on
  day 2.  I was in decent shape to ride two flat centuries (also one who
  trained on Cape Cod) and used to be strongest in hill climbs when I used to
  race.  That was four years ago, but mentally I still had a mindset that
  climbing is fun.  Despite that, I had a very difficult time climbing the last
  large hills of day 1!! My legs were totally wiped out!! I can't imagine how
  all those first time cyclists dealt with facing those many hills for the
  first time.  I wouldn't blame them if they never went for another group
  century ride ever again, and were turned off of the sport completely.  I was
  most upset at the organizers for this.  What a shame.  Many riders were just
  not prepared for this.  At the start I overheard many people saying how their
  longest ride was just over 60 miles.  How they managed what felt like several
  Mt.  Wachusett auto-road climbs in a row at mile 100 I have no idea (can
  believe that 700-900 were picked up on the hills).  Every time you reached
  the top of a large hill climb you thought "this must be the camp site like
  they said," and it went on for many 'last climbs' like this.  I was ready to
  kick the orgainzers who put the signs up on the telephone poles - "Last
  Hill!!!" and then when you hit another large one "Sorry, I lied." They messed
  with rider's psychology.  I wished they had told everyone that they would
  indeed face many hills in CT, so they could mentally prepare themselves for
  that; rather than lying to people in total fear of scaring them away like
  children.

  Why they chose to sleep at Stoors and drag all the riders over those unending
  hills, I have no idea.  A flat century through RI would have been a far
  better choice for all those first time century riders.

  At the start of the next two days, the organizers placed emphasis in all the
  wrong areas yet again.  By 6AM the sun was up and rays of sunshine were
  coming down.  Instead of letting riders start early (the ones who got up
  early to avoid the dangerous congestion), the let everyone pool up around the
  start line fence because "It's not safe enough since it hasn't reached the
  brightest light yet." Instead they let the huge held-up pool of riders onto
  the road at once, because it was safer in their minds (emphasis on brightest
  full morning sun rather than the actual pack riding conditions).  They
  repeated the same thing the next day as they held up riders for what felt
  like over an hour in the drenching rain, until they let everyone rush onto
  the slippery wet roads at once yet again (with everyone sprinting for
  position out of the congestion). Really dumb calls.

  Overall the event was pretty well run and was a lot of fun in all the other
  areas.  It's just that they needed people with race director experience (or
  even just any riding experience) up there advising them as well.  It felt a
  lot like "Boy Scouts throw their first ever bicycling event" in the actual
  bike riding department.

  The first day in the hills of CT, a local asked me "You guys are biking up Rt
  44, that road is mighty hilly!!" I showed him a map of the side roads they
  had us going up ratehr than Rt 44 instead.  He exclaimed "Those roads are
  even worse!!" At the time he said that I thought "How hilly could CT be??" I
  later learned to regret that remark.  :-)

  I hadn't done any hill training because from their description I didn't
  expect any hills.  As a result of that lack of hill training, and facing so
  much hill climbing on day one, and falling into a hill-climbing groove when I
  was in no shape to be (paced with a guy from NY who rides RAAM and who biked
  up to Boston from NY for the event the day before - covering the distance in
  one day!!, this was a casual ride for him) - as a result of the hills I had a
  severe case of tendonitis in my right knee after the first day.  I have never
  had that before, not during the Mt.Washington hill climb races and all the
  other hill climbing I did in years past.  However the hills of CT did me in
  (doc said because my tendons hadn't been used to hills this year yet).  I
  rode the rest of the ride with a bum knee (but still had a great time
  however).

  This is a long answer to "Yeah, you can blame the riders a little for not
  being in better shape, but most of the blame goes to the organizers who at
  every opportunity minimized the toughness of the difficult course they
  chose." This was not the "ideal first-time rider event" it was billed as.

  The event raised a lot of money for the cause and on the whole was a lot of
  fun (met a lot of great people on the ride).  I just hope they learned from
  this year and have a cyclist onboard in the planning staff for the next
  one...

  -Erik

    I grew up in CT.  No mountains but I cant recall too many flat spots in
    central and northern CT...
    -Larry

    I entered a note on this in the Spring (2921) and did go on the ride.
    We clocked 271 miles for the trip and I agree that most people did
    not realize how difficult it was going to be.  I was not in as good
    a shape as I should have been and admit that I did get off my
    bike on two of the hills and walk.  However, considering that I
    hadn't biked for the past 5 years and probably only put about 
    500-600 miles in training I felt good about my accomplishment.
    (This 50+ year old woman was biking by a lot of young macho men
    walking).
    
    However, I believe the organizers did a tremendous job in putting
    this together and trying to have all the details ironed out.  The
    largest they had done in the past was the 1000 riders in CA this 
    year.  A number of the people responsible fore the event (planners and
    staff) did do the ride.  I attended a few of the training rides
    during the summer and the leaders continually stressed that this
    was NOT an easy ride and that there were HILLS in Connecticut.
    
    The initial plan had been for 2000 riders and they allowed it to
    move up to 3200 (which may have been a little aggressive).  Some
    people really wanted to do the ride because of the cause and were
    not prepared.  I don't know how you guard against this. The
    organizers did plan on sagging some people and needing to pick
    them up.  In fact, they were adament that nobody would ride when
    it started getting dark which was one of the reasons for the 
    large number of people sagged (approximately 500 Friday nite and
    1000 on Saturday).  Throughout the ride the organizers were 
    extremely cautious and both nights started picking people up
    at 5:15 to ensure they were not on the roads after dark.  
    
    I've done MS rides and the "Flattest Century in the East" ride with
    close to 1000 people and felt this was the best run, best marked
    and best prepared (the event, not the people) large event I've been
    in.
    
    There's always things that could have gone better but for a first
    weekend event on the East Coast for this group I believe they are
    to be commended.  Two more are planned for next year -- besides
    the San Francisco-Los Angeles and Boston-New York, I believe it's
    planned for starting from Chicago (to Minneapolis?) and another
    from Miami (don't recall to where).
    
    It is truly an experience and I would recommend it for most people.
    Because of the back-to-back centuries I probably would suggest that
    they be aware of what a large ride is like by riding in a one day
    event before taking on this multi-day.
    
    
    

    i'm assumign this was a pledge ride of some sorts. did you need a
    minimum amount or was it n$ per mile per rider?  i'd like to try the
    chicago/minneaplis ride next year (if i can train enough for it and it
    happens).
    
    who are the orgainizers?  
    
    the only mulit-day ride i was on ws in june. it was 3 days for the
    american lung association here in minneapolis. less than 200 people -
    it was FANTASTIC! the food was good and plentiful and routes well
    mark and SAG wagons at the tops of most hills.  i had 600 miles in
    before that ride and was able to do a 70 mile ride on the 3rd day.
    
    	ann
    

    My mental model over the years has been that a century is about equal
    to running a marathon - at least in energy consumption. So, following
    that logic, this was like running 2 and 1/2 marathons in three days.
    
    (100 calories per mile running, 100 calories per four miles cycling).

    I contacted the Boston Ride folks and for those of you who are
    interested I will put in contacts for the Rides during 1996.  All
    the detail information will be available in approximately one month
    so check back in this note at that time.
    
    The rides being planned with Offices being set up now include:
    
           Chicago to Minneapolis/St Paul
           Orlando to Miami
           Philadelphia to Washington DC
           Boston to New York City
           San Francisco to Los Angeles
    
    It is a pledge event.  The Boston/NYC ride minimum was $1200.
    The San Fran/LA Ride was $2000 I believe.  It's probably based
    on number of days (Boston was 3, San Fran a week) and reasonable 
    for the cities involved.  Same organizers running it so if you
    believe they need some help in running this type of event from a
    bicyclist vantagepoint, they do hire staff and take on 
    volunteers in each of the cities.
                          

Where do you come up with the # 100 calories per 4 miles?  I remember a chart
from bicycling, which I *think* gave me 950 cal/hour, or about 54 cal/mile,
which would be over 200 cal/4 miles.  The pro peleton in Europe was eating an
average of between 8 and 9 thousand calories per day during the TdF.  And those
were for 95-150 mile stages (approx)

YMMV,
Tim

    calories burned must also be tied to output which is really the most
    important variable.
    
    just helping...
    
    Chip

Of course.  I neglected to say "at so many miles/hour".  I think the chart was
for some "average" speed, which clearly is below your average speed, Chip.  It's
probably below mine.  

The ZKO lunch-time crowd of 5 did a 24 mile loop in 1:03:39 yesterday for an
average speed of 22.5.  A season high.  (22.5 on my cateye, although Larry got
22.6, and I do to if I divide 24 miles by 1:30:39)

Tim