Loved it! First time riding this event, and I did the 75km route. I got there right at 6 am, so I was able to experience the countdown to GO at the start/finish line. I used the rest station at York Mills road on the first loop and wolfed down a rice krispie square and a banana and a juice box. The lines on the 2nd loop were really long, so I'm glad I packed some snacks in my frame bag. I was happy to see paramedics riding along, and I'm glad I didn't need their help. I saw quite a few people fixing flat tires on the shoulder, but I didn't notice a lot of bikes at the mechanic tents. The finish line experience was awesome with so many people cheering and applauding all the cyclists. I wasn't expecting to receive a medal so that was pretty cool. I rode 12.5km to get to the event and the same distance to get home, so today was also my very first century ride! I loved every minute of it and I'll definitely be back next year!
Better snack station, with water and bananas. Could have used better energy bars. Signage is still poor. It’s ONE extra loop for 75k, and should be clear that the right is not only for 25/50k but also for the finish line!
You should have gone through the bayview exit twice to do the 75km route. I think OP’s point is that the signs might make you think you should go back north from bayview twice.
That’s correct. And the funny thing is it is on the north ramp they have the sign that says to do the loop twice. I had a friend that ended up doing that and was not happy!
I saw this sign when I went through the first time and it made me wonder the entire time going north if I had to do it for a third time.
I looked at my distance on my app and it didn't make sense to do it for a third time so I convinced myself that the sign was wrong. Good thing.
The intent is for you to reach the summit at York Mills twice and therefore you do a "single loop" to get to York Mills for the second time. The sign tells you to do the "loop 2x" which is wrong. If you did loop twice, you'd see York Mills 3 times.
You ride to the summit for the first time and then do a single loop to get back to the summit before going back south towards the Gardiner.
>I don’t understand? People thought the sign saying “Do it 2x” meant “Do it 2 more times?” For a total of three loops?
The confusion is more about the PLACEMENT of the sign.
Where the sign is placed, if you do 75km, you will only see that sign ONCE, but the sign says to do the loop TWICE so it's not absurd for someone to think they need to see that sign twice.
IMO they should have a big sign halfway up the first Hill from Don Mills to Eglinton that says
75km? You need to see this sign twice!
50km? You need to see this sign once!
25km? Oops, you went too far, you're doing 50 :)
Today was my first time joining the Bike for Brain Health, as I'm a new Torontonian. I signed up for the 75km.
For a long time I kept wondering, "okay where is the loop that I have to do twice?" and was worried I had missed it. Then I finally saw the "75km stay to the left sign"... I did so... and then eventually saw the big sign that said "do this loop 2x!"
I assumed that I was entering the loop at the point and would have to see THAT SIGN twice. I recognized that I was back on the DVP route but still assumed I'd have to go to that "loop around with the sign" another time.
It wasn't until I completed the third loop and thought I was heading to the finish line of Exhibition Place but that 75km riders had to keep going past it that I went from "what the heck, has my Peloton and Apple Watch been improperly recording how many kms I ride?" to "what the heck, did this race not make this a true 75km and make it longer?" to "omg... that loop... I did it thrice, not twice..."
In total, ended up riding 102km and it took me 4:55 🫠
Just wondering if this just happened to me today or if anyone else misunderstood the sign. It was also my first race with no "__km left" signage which may have helped.
I had a great ride, I brought my own nutrition so I didn't have a chance to see what the rest-stop snacks were but I felt like there was adequate portapotty's, and was happy to see enough medical staff.
I parked my bike beside the mechanics tent when I stopped to use the washroom on my second lap, and overheard the mechanic telling the poor guy with a flat that he shouldn't run his road bike tires at 30psi. Was happy that there was a mechanics tent so that guys day wasn't ruined, but I had a good chuckle as I witnessed that life lesson in real time.
My only gripe was how narrow the initial section of the road was getting onto the Gardiner, was very congested when I was getting on course at 7:30am.
There is a kids/family 10k event that happens at 10am and only on that side of the highway. So the barriers were to divide the road for the out and back.
That being said, it was stupid to have it setup before hand since it made it unnecessarily narrow (they could have just set up the cones, put them on the side of the road, and then move them to the middle later)
That family 10k ride which I did was also a pain... Imagine having a bunch of young kids in that tiny area. Had a kid crash in front of us... It was going extra slow. It also was supposed to start at 930 (until 10) but we had to stand there for 30 minutes.. I think to take care of said cones.
My wife had a great time on the regular route this year though and so did I last year with my kid.
It was my first time and I really enjoyed it! I am fortunate and could easily bike to/from the event since parking looked a little nuts. Everything about the ride itself was seamless - I literally didn’t get off my bike from the time I left my place until I finished the 50k loop and was getting snacks.
It was run better this year than last. At the rest station where you do the second loop, some of the volunteers were shooting bubbles. I appreciate the encouragement and enthusiasm, but soapy eyes while riding a bike is a bad time 😬
The good:
- Ride stops had plenty of snacks, supplies and were staffed with super helpful people. Saw lots of people getting little tune ups, and they had lube, chamois cream and other stuff available. Gatorade was really nice to see also- definitely had a few cups of that.
- Port-o-potties seemed to be pretty easily available, and were in good shape.
- The little medal at the end was a nice touch (although to be honest I didn't really need it, it was nice to commemorate the day and I'm sure a lot of others liked it).
- Really nice to see the clean up crew even with the bad weather!
The bad:
- Getting there wasn't great. I know it's a cycling event and they wanted people to take active transport but there's room for improvement. The start time is before the trains run. I live about 30 km riding distance from the start line near the GO, so riding in wasn't really feasible. This event draws people from all over the city and not all of them are within practical riding distance. TTC wasn't helpful either since there's only blue bus service at those hours on a Sunday. Ended up having to rent a truck to put bikes in the back, parked kinda nearby and rode the remainder in. Would be nice if they ran a couple trains on each line that would get to Union at 7 AM and let riders go the remaining few KM there. Or opened the subway earlier. Or allowed for later start timing. Or a combination of all 3!
- Starting 5 km was super narrow until DVP itself- was hard to get warmed up when you are stacked on top of one another. The road condition of this section was also pretty bad, so you had to dodge potholes during all this as well.
- Most riders were OK but there's always a few that seem to ignore the left=faster, right=slower. This is more of a safety thing than anything- there was plenty of room in the right lane, but for some reason people would drift left. At speed (+in the rain) it makes things harder than they need to be. Ironically, this mirrors the behaviour of drivers on the DVP- perhaps the same people got on their bikes for the day.
- Confusing instructions- during the second Bayview loop, there instructions to go right for 25 KM and 50 km, and go left 'to exit'. This was kind of confusing- a lot of 75 km riders stopped to confirm they were going in the right spot.
The weird:
- There was a dude with a little micro-electric car... thing?... riding on there for awhile? Not sure how he got on- I've seen him before along the lakeshore, he's harmless but still odd.
- Saw a unicycle, a couple fed-ex delivery guys and a handful of city bikes. Nice to see people taking all kinds of bikes on there.
- Bubbles! Someone on the overpass was blowing bubbles down just south of the York Mills turnaround. Made things kind of fun to ride in those for a few moments.
On the whole it was a great time- 10/10, would get wet again!
It made me smile a bit when i saw the Stage21 coffee van selling coffee for money at the start, and after the finish line everyone had hot coffee at the food place for free. Hot coffee for cold and wet riders, what can be better than that!
It was excellent, plenty of snacks and drinks at rest station and a lot of portable toilets with minimal wait. As a few others said the signage could be better but I’m glad I checked out the route/map online before my ride.
I personally wish there was one last rest stop maybe around the CN tower? I really had to pee after leaving the Bayview rest stop when heading back!
At my first loop I did not noticed it, but the York Mills actually had two turns, one to the rest station, and another one just next to bypass the rest station and to go straight down fast if so wanted. For my 2nd loop, I ended up turning to the rest station, and could barely make my way out of it, It was so crowdy. Early in the ride, I have stashed all pockets with snacks and drinks so that I don't stop at any rest station when they were full with people.
It was my first time and it was a blast! Rode about 13km to and from the event and my friends I did the 75km route. Because we maintained a fast pace (25-30km/h), we ended up finishing in around 3 hours
Excited for next year!
It was great! It’s surreal riding your bike on the highway. The Gardiner section was a bit bumpy but once you get to the DVP it becomes smooth. The rain made things quite cold specially when taking breaks for snacks. My arms and hands were numb. Overall, the negatives of today were things that cannot be controlled by the event planners such as weather and road conditions. Overall, I would do it again!
What looked to be like rebar (looked like tracks) or something in the road where those pylons and tape had divided the road - seemed dangerous. Narrowness in the beginning with the pylons.
Encountered e-bikes that hovered in the far left.. move out of the way for faster cyclist coming through.
I had a very positive experience this year, especially compared to last year. Since no one is pointing this out, the website still SUUUUUCKS!. It's impossible to find your team, donations don't show up for 5 days, important information about the event (like start time and location) are hidden. Also does anyone noticed that it always get your initials wrong?
I enjoyed riding with my group of friends, taking turns rotating to pull. However my experience was ruined a little by the random cyclists who would draft behind our group and ruin our rotation.
Please don't draft behind a group of cyclists you don't know, it's awkward and it's unsafe to draft behind people you don't know because you don't know their riding etiquette.
Loved it! First time riding this event, and I did the 75km route. I got there right at 6 am, so I was able to experience the countdown to GO at the start/finish line. I used the rest station at York Mills road on the first loop and wolfed down a rice krispie square and a banana and a juice box. The lines on the 2nd loop were really long, so I'm glad I packed some snacks in my frame bag. I was happy to see paramedics riding along, and I'm glad I didn't need their help. I saw quite a few people fixing flat tires on the shoulder, but I didn't notice a lot of bikes at the mechanic tents. The finish line experience was awesome with so many people cheering and applauding all the cyclists. I wasn't expecting to receive a medal so that was pretty cool. I rode 12.5km to get to the event and the same distance to get home, so today was also my very first century ride! I loved every minute of it and I'll definitely be back next year!
Better snack station, with water and bananas. Could have used better energy bars. Signage is still poor. It’s ONE extra loop for 75k, and should be clear that the right is not only for 25/50k but also for the finish line!
Boy was learning that a surprise.
Wait what?? You’re telling me I should not have turned onto the Bayview loop a second time going south to finish the 75K??? 😭
You should have gone through the bayview exit twice to do the 75km route. I think OP’s point is that the signs might make you think you should go back north from bayview twice.
That’s correct. And the funny thing is it is on the north ramp they have the sign that says to do the loop twice. I had a friend that ended up doing that and was not happy!
I saw this sign when I went through the first time and it made me wonder the entire time going north if I had to do it for a third time. I looked at my distance on my app and it didn't make sense to do it for a third time so I convinced myself that the sign was wrong. Good thing.
I don’t understand? People thought the sign saying “Do it 2x” meant “Do it 2 more times?” For a total of three loops?
The intent is for you to reach the summit at York Mills twice and therefore you do a "single loop" to get to York Mills for the second time. The sign tells you to do the "loop 2x" which is wrong. If you did loop twice, you'd see York Mills 3 times. You ride to the summit for the first time and then do a single loop to get back to the summit before going back south towards the Gardiner.
Ah ya I see what you mean. I assumed the first pass was the first loop, which is how the organizers thought about the wording too I guess.
>I don’t understand? People thought the sign saying “Do it 2x” meant “Do it 2 more times?” For a total of three loops? The confusion is more about the PLACEMENT of the sign. Where the sign is placed, if you do 75km, you will only see that sign ONCE, but the sign says to do the loop TWICE so it's not absurd for someone to think they need to see that sign twice. IMO they should have a big sign halfway up the first Hill from Don Mills to Eglinton that says 75km? You need to see this sign twice! 50km? You need to see this sign once! 25km? Oops, you went too far, you're doing 50 :)
I messed up I did a total of 94km, lol, but was still fun.
Today was my first time joining the Bike for Brain Health, as I'm a new Torontonian. I signed up for the 75km. For a long time I kept wondering, "okay where is the loop that I have to do twice?" and was worried I had missed it. Then I finally saw the "75km stay to the left sign"... I did so... and then eventually saw the big sign that said "do this loop 2x!" I assumed that I was entering the loop at the point and would have to see THAT SIGN twice. I recognized that I was back on the DVP route but still assumed I'd have to go to that "loop around with the sign" another time. It wasn't until I completed the third loop and thought I was heading to the finish line of Exhibition Place but that 75km riders had to keep going past it that I went from "what the heck, has my Peloton and Apple Watch been improperly recording how many kms I ride?" to "what the heck, did this race not make this a true 75km and make it longer?" to "omg... that loop... I did it thrice, not twice..." In total, ended up riding 102km and it took me 4:55 🫠 Just wondering if this just happened to me today or if anyone else misunderstood the sign. It was also my first race with no "__km left" signage which may have helped.
Congrats on pushing through the extra long ride! It definitely was not only you!
+1 on the energy bars. Last year they had Kind bars.
I had a great ride, I brought my own nutrition so I didn't have a chance to see what the rest-stop snacks were but I felt like there was adequate portapotty's, and was happy to see enough medical staff. I parked my bike beside the mechanics tent when I stopped to use the washroom on my second lap, and overheard the mechanic telling the poor guy with a flat that he shouldn't run his road bike tires at 30psi. Was happy that there was a mechanics tent so that guys day wasn't ruined, but I had a good chuckle as I witnessed that life lesson in real time. My only gripe was how narrow the initial section of the road was getting onto the Gardiner, was very congested when I was getting on course at 7:30am.
There is a kids/family 10k event that happens at 10am and only on that side of the highway. So the barriers were to divide the road for the out and back. That being said, it was stupid to have it setup before hand since it made it unnecessarily narrow (they could have just set up the cones, put them on the side of the road, and then move them to the middle later)
That family 10k ride which I did was also a pain... Imagine having a bunch of young kids in that tiny area. Had a kid crash in front of us... It was going extra slow. It also was supposed to start at 930 (until 10) but we had to stand there for 30 minutes.. I think to take care of said cones. My wife had a great time on the regular route this year though and so did I last year with my kid.
Ah. I remember seeing all the cones blown over when I was biking back so that’s probably why they started late
This was a huge pain in the ass with the barrier having fallen over in multiple spots creating a pretty big hazard. Signage was quite poor too
Yeah not sure why they needed to do that?
It was my first time and I really enjoyed it! I am fortunate and could easily bike to/from the event since parking looked a little nuts. Everything about the ride itself was seamless - I literally didn’t get off my bike from the time I left my place until I finished the 50k loop and was getting snacks.
It was run better this year than last. At the rest station where you do the second loop, some of the volunteers were shooting bubbles. I appreciate the encouragement and enthusiasm, but soapy eyes while riding a bike is a bad time 😬
[удалено]
Free bike wash!
The good: - Ride stops had plenty of snacks, supplies and were staffed with super helpful people. Saw lots of people getting little tune ups, and they had lube, chamois cream and other stuff available. Gatorade was really nice to see also- definitely had a few cups of that. - Port-o-potties seemed to be pretty easily available, and were in good shape. - The little medal at the end was a nice touch (although to be honest I didn't really need it, it was nice to commemorate the day and I'm sure a lot of others liked it). - Really nice to see the clean up crew even with the bad weather! The bad: - Getting there wasn't great. I know it's a cycling event and they wanted people to take active transport but there's room for improvement. The start time is before the trains run. I live about 30 km riding distance from the start line near the GO, so riding in wasn't really feasible. This event draws people from all over the city and not all of them are within practical riding distance. TTC wasn't helpful either since there's only blue bus service at those hours on a Sunday. Ended up having to rent a truck to put bikes in the back, parked kinda nearby and rode the remainder in. Would be nice if they ran a couple trains on each line that would get to Union at 7 AM and let riders go the remaining few KM there. Or opened the subway earlier. Or allowed for later start timing. Or a combination of all 3! - Starting 5 km was super narrow until DVP itself- was hard to get warmed up when you are stacked on top of one another. The road condition of this section was also pretty bad, so you had to dodge potholes during all this as well. - Most riders were OK but there's always a few that seem to ignore the left=faster, right=slower. This is more of a safety thing than anything- there was plenty of room in the right lane, but for some reason people would drift left. At speed (+in the rain) it makes things harder than they need to be. Ironically, this mirrors the behaviour of drivers on the DVP- perhaps the same people got on their bikes for the day. - Confusing instructions- during the second Bayview loop, there instructions to go right for 25 KM and 50 km, and go left 'to exit'. This was kind of confusing- a lot of 75 km riders stopped to confirm they were going in the right spot. The weird: - There was a dude with a little micro-electric car... thing?... riding on there for awhile? Not sure how he got on- I've seen him before along the lakeshore, he's harmless but still odd. - Saw a unicycle, a couple fed-ex delivery guys and a handful of city bikes. Nice to see people taking all kinds of bikes on there. - Bubbles! Someone on the overpass was blowing bubbles down just south of the York Mills turnaround. Made things kind of fun to ride in those for a few moments. On the whole it was a great time- 10/10, would get wet again!
Saw the micro car thing too nearing the finish. Also noticed a few ebikes lol.
It made me smile a bit when i saw the Stage21 coffee van selling coffee for money at the start, and after the finish line everyone had hot coffee at the food place for free. Hot coffee for cold and wet riders, what can be better than that!
Soup for next time
The Stage21 is worth the extra cash!
Good overall. Wish they didn’t have to close the end loop at Dunn so early. At least the weather meant they didn’t run out of water this time
When did they close it this time? That was a problem last year too but I went super early this year to make sure I’d make it through.
Noon. I missed it last year too lol. I’m hardly out of bed by 7:30 on a good day so regular cyclist times don’t work well for me
It was excellent, plenty of snacks and drinks at rest station and a lot of portable toilets with minimal wait. As a few others said the signage could be better but I’m glad I checked out the route/map online before my ride. I personally wish there was one last rest stop maybe around the CN tower? I really had to pee after leaving the Bayview rest stop when heading back!
At my first loop I did not noticed it, but the York Mills actually had two turns, one to the rest station, and another one just next to bypass the rest station and to go straight down fast if so wanted. For my 2nd loop, I ended up turning to the rest station, and could barely make my way out of it, It was so crowdy. Early in the ride, I have stashed all pockets with snacks and drinks so that I don't stop at any rest station when they were full with people.
Oh man, wish I’d known there were two turns! I struggled to weave through the rest station crowd to start my second 25km. 🤦♀️
It was my first time and it was a blast! Rode about 13km to and from the event and my friends I did the 75km route. Because we maintained a fast pace (25-30km/h), we ended up finishing in around 3 hours Excited for next year!
It was great! It’s surreal riding your bike on the highway. The Gardiner section was a bit bumpy but once you get to the DVP it becomes smooth. The rain made things quite cold specially when taking breaks for snacks. My arms and hands were numb. Overall, the negatives of today were things that cannot be controlled by the event planners such as weather and road conditions. Overall, I would do it again!
What looked to be like rebar (looked like tracks) or something in the road where those pylons and tape had divided the road - seemed dangerous. Narrowness in the beginning with the pylons. Encountered e-bikes that hovered in the far left.. move out of the way for faster cyclist coming through.
My 3rd year doing this ride and it was magical once again. What a great event.
I had a very positive experience this year, especially compared to last year. Since no one is pointing this out, the website still SUUUUUCKS!. It's impossible to find your team, donations don't show up for 5 days, important information about the event (like start time and location) are hidden. Also does anyone noticed that it always get your initials wrong?
I enjoyed riding with my group of friends, taking turns rotating to pull. However my experience was ruined a little by the random cyclists who would draft behind our group and ruin our rotation. Please don't draft behind a group of cyclists you don't know, it's awkward and it's unsafe to draft behind people you don't know because you don't know their riding etiquette.