Padraig RKP on D2R2

[eippo1]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

the fact that he acknowledges that the ride is held to support the great cause of the Franklin Land Trust, and then goes on to bemoan the cost of the event over and over, including in the comments is just distasteful. "what am i paying sooo much money for if they cant hold my hand and serve me beer faster" - what a joke.

The beer line was only long (as in less than 10 min) long for about an hour. Then it thinned out again.

[velomonkey]

Originally Posted by eippo1

Funny thing is that he usually glows about it.

Look at his 2013 review:
http://redkiteprayer.com/2013/08/d2r2-2013/

to be totally fair - that's not him, but some other guy who writes for his site and is located in MA I think. It's just not a very good site, it's drama for dramas sake and the dude is just stuck on some things. Getting his hand held for rides he pays for seems to be one of them.

[merlinmurph]

Originally Posted by eBAUMANN

The 2013 review appears to be written by someone else who clearly GETS IT.

The 2013 review was written by Robot, a regular contributor to RKP who works at Seven. Robot's review was even pointed out in the comments to Patrick's entry. Kinda funny.

As Robot so eloquently put it last year, “D2R2 is not a ride you bang out and then head home to mow the lawn. D2R2 is your day, and the nature of the riding, mostly up and down in alternately daunting and thrilling bursts, defies your ability to over-plan it.”

I was surprised by Patrick's whine. And it wasn't just one whine, but a series of whines, it just never ended.

I made a comment about what I like about the ride:

I like everything D2R2 isn’t. No mass start, no big promotion, no loudspeakers, no vendor area – just show up and ride beautiful roads.

When does registration open for 2015?

@tele: Hey, we missed you.

[RudAwkning]

lol at "Red Kite Prayer - The Soul Of Cycling".

[moose8]

This was in his twitter feed linking to that post:
"Road bikes on dirt roads. It's fun. They're even more fun as part of an event when the promoter cares."

Someone definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I think if the people behind d2r2 didn't care it would not be the major success it is, raising money to preserve land and making everyone I know who's done it very happy (as demonstrated after hurricane Irene when riders donated a fair bit to recovery efforts to a part of the world most only ever visit because of the ride).

Way too much negativity in his article and it just makes him look kind of like a putz.

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Haven't ridden D2R2 (on the list), but I found it funny he was complaining about the lack of street signs. That's not an organizer problem, that's a New England tradition. As a transplant, it drove me nuts when I moved here. I'd get perfectly detailed directions somewhere, only to find there are no road signs. Happens in the city, in the 'burbs, and certainly in rural MA. Welcome to New England, Padraig!

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by mcteague

Just curious what your $90+ dollars goes towards if this is a self supported ride.

Tim

The Franklin Land Trust, so they can buy and preserve more land.

[Admiral Ackbar]

theres also breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and a pint of beer provided

[R3awak3n]

I also had the opposite experience from what he wrote.

With a GPS its hard to get lost and they provide you with gps files. A couple of times I used the cue sheet instead and it worked well. Some people hate GPSs so you have the option which I think its great instead of having directions at every turn.


Also not so sure he is so pissed about ridding 90 miles instead of 70, he got more bang for his buck.

Also the beer line was hardly ever 20 people and it moved fast, I never waited more than 5 mins.

[velomonkey]

Welcome to New England!!!! Anyone in N.E. know this is a badge of a group ride. This road sign is about as good as your gonna get, cause not only is a town line, it's the state line from R.I. into CT. (yea, we got the rock, too).

It's the 21st century, deal with it or GPS up.

townline by velomonkeys, on Flickr

[tiretrax]

I flamed him in the comments - what a tool.

[Bruce K]

Here's my take:

First year rider - will ABSOLUTELY go back

Toughest ride I think of done. Also the most enjoyable and the most fun

Great people, great route (100k)

The support was exactly as promised and as others have said, with the route loaded into my Garmin (I have a 500) and a few careful checks of the cue sheets I was able to navigate with no major miscues. If I added sny distance it did not exceed 300 yards total.

The post ride party was fun.

I would highly recommend the ride to anyone thinking about it (this means you Geoff! - )

BK

[Bruce K]

And by the way, if he thought the beer line was long at D2R2, let him try the PMC or other big event. He might have turned to a pile of dust.

I think the longest I edited was 4 people.



BK

[MattTuck]

Well, I haven't ridden the ride, but 1) it seems his expectations were totally unrealistic and 2) just because you had a bad day, and have a blog, don't assume that the event is flawed. This 'I'm above this event' attitude is ridiculous.

Reminds me a bit of Cosmo's 2006 review of Battenkill, how I remember reading that 8 years ago is a wonder of the human brain. Another example where you have a bad day and attribute your poor outcome to others instead of yourself or random chance. It is a normal human bias to do this, so I don't really blame them, but it is good to take with a grain of salt.

Next time, bring a GPS -- or ride with someone who knows where they're going.

[pdmtong]

I expect more from RKP than that drivel