While it was raining for many of the Danskin racers, the conditions for the RSVP riders couldn't have been any better. Weather for most of the ride was warm with partly to mostly sunny skies all the way to Vancouver, B.C.. I did the RSVP because I thought it would encourage me to do more riding and help with the bike portion of a tri. However, with so many other things going on, I never got around to training for the ride. I only started training for it two weeks before, with my first century only being only 1 week before the ride. Yikes! Needless to say, I was nervous about the ride because although it's shorter than the STP, I heard it was much hillier and harder.
Well, it turns out all the hype about the hills and difficultly of the ride is just hype. The toughest part of the ride was the climb out of Woodinville on the Woodinville-Duvall road. Although, Chukanut is all up hill, it's gradual and the scenery is so beautiful you don't really notice how hard it is because it's so gorgeous.
The route is well marked all throughout the ride (however that didn't stop my friend & I from getting lost and ending up in a seriously awful road construction project detour that cost us about an hour). Unlike prior years, this year the route in Vancouver was well marked throughout.
The "party" was a bit lame. The food was so-so and the Coast Hotel is a bit old. One nice thing about the party location was that it has an outdoor grassy area that was great to lay down on and just hang out.
I don't think I'd do the ride with CBC again only because for the $175 it cost to do the ride the level of support that I'm used to on Tri's wasn' there. There was no traffic cops or signs warning drivers that there would be close to 1,300 riders on the street. And although most drivers were overly courteous, often giving us bikers the right of way when we didn't have it, there were many areas that could have used some police presence.
Nevertheless, the ride was still a lot of fun and I'm now eager to do something more challenging. Maybe do the North Cascades National Park Traverse from Newhalem to Mazama at the end of Sept, anyone interested?!
Well, it turns out all the hype about the hills and difficultly of the ride is just hype. The toughest part of the ride was the climb out of Woodinville on the Woodinville-Duvall road. Although, Chukanut is all up hill, it's gradual and the scenery is so beautiful you don't really notice how hard it is because it's so gorgeous.
The route is well marked all throughout the ride (however that didn't stop my friend & I from getting lost and ending up in a seriously awful road construction project detour that cost us about an hour). Unlike prior years, this year the route in Vancouver was well marked throughout.
The "party" was a bit lame. The food was so-so and the Coast Hotel is a bit old. One nice thing about the party location was that it has an outdoor grassy area that was great to lay down on and just hang out.
I don't think I'd do the ride with CBC again only because for the $175 it cost to do the ride the level of support that I'm used to on Tri's wasn' there. There was no traffic cops or signs warning drivers that there would be close to 1,300 riders on the street. And although most drivers were overly courteous, often giving us bikers the right of way when we didn't have it, there were many areas that could have used some police presence.
Nevertheless, the ride was still a lot of fun and I'm now eager to do something more challenging. Maybe do the North Cascades National Park Traverse from Newhalem to Mazama at the end of Sept, anyone interested?!
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