Crawf wrote:Thanks Michael, what's the general consensus? Good value? Do they supply feed stations with actual snacks, not first in bad luck for the rest?
Hi Crawf, good value? We'll I guess that's each to their own but in my opinion, not really. For the price you gets jersey (which is good quality I have to admit), some lunch, a ferry ticket and the chance to ride on roads that's for a lot of it you could do any day. Ok you get to ride over the Westgate bridge but that's not that big a deal.
In saying that though, would I do it again? Definitely. While it has it's frustrating bits because it has become so massive, this year I did it with a group of 20 or so work colleges and it's as much about the ride as it is the comradery and getting the 'weaker' riders across the line. I've done it solo and in a group and definitely much better in a group.
I've only ever done the 210 and I've heard that the extra 40 or so you do to make it up to 250 is really boring.
The lunch stop is good. Very welcomed after 100km. From memory is was a chicken sandwich (you can tick vego options too), Gatorade and some sort of cake thing. Definitely good to get real food. Any other stops are just water and BYO food / gels. They mark your wrist band when you get your lunch so as far as I'm aware there is enough for everyone.
One thing to be aware of is the ferry timing. It only runs every hour and as you arrive you get a coloured sticker to indicate which ferry. We were lucky last year that we only had a 15 minute wait. If we'd arrived 5 minutes later we would have had to wait an hour for the next ferry. I did hear stories of people having 2+ hour waits later in the day. If that was the case I would just turn around and ride back the way I came.
Also the M-Q-S-M route sells out very quickly. It seems to be the preferred route.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Norco VFR1 Disc, Merida 903, Mofo Single Speed, Giant MTB, soon to be vintage Gazelle fixie