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Benefits of a Group Bicycle Tour

The main benefit for a cyclist for these group bicycle tours is that the routes are organized, you get to meet plenty of like minded people, with accommodation and sometimes meals are provided in the entry fee making the planning real easy. It really is a great way to see an area you may not be familiar with or in other cases help out a charity organization.

Distances will vary depending on the organizer with many offering several routes each day. You can find these tours which range from 3 to 10 days in many states and provinces with some attracting thousands of cyclists. Examples include trips along the Eire Canal and Hudson in New York State, a tour to Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan and the famous ride across Iowa each year.

I cycled across Wisconsin last year (my first visit) on the annual SAGBRAW tour with almost 500 others and with the opportunity to see what the state offers, apparently corn, cheese, cows and beer. We camped on different school grounds each night while others preferred to just lay out their sleeping bag in the gym.

Luggage trucks moved our gear each day and great breakfast and dinners were included and available in the school cafeteria. F

A nice touch was that as we arrived at different small towns the local community offered snacks for sale (in support of a charity) sometimes entertainment. Also in each community we stayed at provided a variety of entertainment in the evening for us and the local citizens including a school band, rock band and local fair.

Each day we just were expected to follow the signs set up for the tour but this really was not necessary as you could always see lots of other cyclists. There were road bikes, tandems, recumbent bikes and people of all ages included children. If anyone had difficulty there were plenty of sag wagons along the route to assist.

The only con was that many were eager to depart early each morning so expect to get up early as people make some noise as they take down the tents, however quiet they try to be.