Tony Ingelido, Teeny (the dog) and I just came back from our 3 days in Mathews, Virginia at the Tour de Chesapeake. Though listed as a 3 day event, the SAG support is for Saturday only, though you are free to ride the routes Friday and Sunday. This was a different type of event for me, as it was several 20-something routes all originating from the registration site (a school). This spread out the riders, so it was never crowded. This is a flat area -- really flat. The area is beautiful -- lots of green forests, farm fields, marshland and water. The roads were in very good shape. There were no shoulders, but the majority of the ride was without traffic and the town did a great job of letting drivers know there would be cyclists out that weekend; drivers were very cautious and polite. During our ride we would stop at artist's houses/studios that were open for tours/purchases; there was also a farmer's market where I was able to purchase beautiful heirloom vegetable plants for $1, as well as home made treats and other things. This year rain started the day, but by 9ish it was fine -- just overcast, but warm enough for shorts/short sleeved jerseys. 1 route involved a water taxi -- we did not get to that, as we chose other routes to do first and just as we got there it started to rain, so we headed in. There was also the option of a 'poker run' for an additional $10 -- the 3 of us each bought a card to help the Boys & Girls Club. The home-baked snacks at the rest stops were great -- peanut butter cups baked in a cookie shell; toffee bars made with a cracker base; banana bread......we ate well! Though we did see some fast riders, I think this was more for the B-D groups. We also saw a lot of 'split couples' where the faster partner did their own ride while their slower partner went at a leisurely pace. I definitely would feel fine doing this ride alone -- a LOT of SAG support (on 1 route we saw probably 5 cars -- 4 were SAG!) and very friendly people. The roads were pretty well marked (I'm used to road markings, not arrows on signs, but we did okay!) and they gave us a very nicely detailed, color coded map which allowed us to not only keep on track, but to shave off some miles when we needed to (so if you don't want to do another 25+ miles, you can cut it back easily to come up with whatever total distance you feel like doing). We stayed in Gloucester at a Comfort Inn which was fine. We are planning on doing this ride again next year.
