I was surprised to find this ride listed on our event page this year! I grew up in this area and had not been back for almost 24 years.
This event was very good. It was very hot and humid, so a 35 mile ride was enough! The terrain was almost completely flat. The majority of the ride was through farmland and 'rural towns'. The rest stops were typical -- portapotties, water, gatorade, granola bars, pretzel bread bagels with optional PB&J, watermelon, bananas.... There was a photographer, allowing you to buy pictures on line based on the times you started and finished. At the end of the ride there was music and a tasty catered lunch of BBQ chicken, salad, mac n cheese, black beans n corn, water, soda and desserts.
The Hyatt at the Princeton Forrestal Center was a decent choice; if you think you may be longer then noon, you check out in the morning and they allow you to come back to the hotel after the event and shower in their fitness center.
After this main event, the rest of the weekend was spent walking around Princeton (Thomas' Sweets Ice Cream), finding my old house, and then on to the antiquers'/shoppers' paradise of Lambertville NJ/New Hope PA. This was about 35 minutes away. These are 2 historic adjoining towns straddling state lines. Based on the numbers of cyclists on Sunday morning and the roads I traveled, this must be great for cycling, though not the flats of Princeton area. Peddler's Village is a couple miles from there -- a tourist trap of little shops and amazing landscaping. I used cc points to stay at the Golden Plough Inn, which was very nice (much too hot to enjoy the gas fireplace across from my lace-covered canopy bed).
This was a great weekend getaway that I intend to do again; preferably in cooler, less humid times. There is the D&R canal -- 70 miles of paved & gravel right through Lambertville-- and obviously a lot of road cycling at both my stops. I will research other cue sheets prior to my trip.
