Gary and I did the Red Hot Chili Pepper bike rally this weekend. We had fun, however I would have to say I was rather disappointed with the rally for several reasons.
First of all, it was difficult to get to the Calumet Community Center starting point due to the road being blocked. The directions on the website said to come in off of Jefferson and follow the signs to the rally. However the route to the center from Jefferson was blocked. We eventually found that it would have been much easier to come in from Davis on the North.
Unfortunately, due to the problem getting to the community center, we were off to a late start. The 20-mile route participants started at 8:00. By the time we got going, everyone else was gone. This also caused us trouble in determining where to go. We had a map, but it is rather unusual based on the other rallies we’ve been to, to not have the turns marked. We’ve started late before and never had a problem finding the route. In this case, we got to the end of the driveway of the community center and had to consult our map. OK… our fault for starting late, but not totally since the late start was caused by the first problem.
The next problem was that the route immediately took us out on to high traffic roads. Again, since we were late we didn’t have the luxury of the police blocked roads. Once we were out on Davis (which was a 3-lane busy road), a police car did come along and tell us that he would help us get through the Loop 12 intersection. The rest of the route, we found the police support rather lacking. It was understandable on the first part of our ride, since we did start out late. Everyone else would have already passed and the police could certainly have thought there were no more riders. On the second half of our ride however, we were in amongst riders who did the 40 & 60 miles routes. There was one particularly bad intersection where we had to cross 6 lanes (3 each direction) and the cross traffic did not have to stop. There was a hill, which would have made it difficult for the drivers to see us. I really don’t understand why they wouldn’t have had police at that intersection all day. Everyone had to pass that point twice. The police were there the first time we crossed it, but they weren’t there on the way back.
The rest stop was also disappointing, consisting of warm water, uncut oranges and some cookies. There were port-a-potties but no shade or chairs. We normally see rest stops with water and ice, sliced fruit (much easier to eat), cookies etc. and they are usually located somewhere with some shade.
There was a large hill at the end, which we knew about from reading the website. The problem with the hill was it was on Davis (the busy 3-lane road). Most cyclists took to the shoulder of the road since they were probably going 10mph at best. The shoulder was *covered* in glass. I’m surprised I only saw one person fixing a flat along there.
On top of all this, this was the most we’ve paid/donated to do a rally. The website indicated that they raised the price this year in order to have more police assistance. Hmmm…. I would hate to see what last year was like, if this year was an improvement.
I think I’ll pass on this rally next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment