Ride Guide- August 2023: Travel Tips

RIDE GUIDE

This monthly newsletter will contain information and tidbits to help you prepare for the 2023 Tour des Trees. For more information, visit www.treefund.org.

Travel Schedules, Tips, and Reminders

As we approach ride time, if you have not yet put together your travel plans for this year's ride, be sure to do so as soon as you are able and check one more thing off your list.

Due to the nature of this year's point-to-point ride, there are some things you'll want to make sure to pay special attention to and pick the right course for yourself as you are planning your trip. Be sure to check the info on the Participant Resources page on the website, specifically the Travel Logistics document and the Itinerary. All addresses can be found on the itineary. We have highlighted some points below.

Flights:

If you are flying in, you'll want to fly into the Reno-Tahoe airport (RNO).

For those flying home, we recommend flying out of San Francisco (SFO), which is only about half an hour from the hotel and we are arranging shuttles to take people there.

If you are shipping your bike home, be sure to have a packing slip made up before you arrive so it can be placed on your bike box when we depart.

Getting To and Departing From the Tour

Since this year’s Tour des Trees is a point-to-point event, we strongly recommend that you fly into the Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) and out of the San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

For those who are flying out of SFO, Paul has been in touch with a couple charter services that can accommodate 40+ passengers, bags and boxed bikes. If there is enough interest and a willingness to consolidate a departure time, I will be happy to help coordinate. The preliminary rate for a chartered full size motor coach is $960, so depending on the number of people interested it could be pretty reasonable.

If you’d like to coordinate your own airport shuttle, the Half Moon Bay Lodge recommends:

• Gary - Palo Alto Limo - PaloAltoLimo@gmail.com - (650) 274-6666, or

• SF Pinnacle Limousine - www.sfpinnaclelimousine.com - (415) 518-0119

If you do decide to drive to the start of the Tour this year, there are several options for getting yourselves back to Reno from Half Moon Bay:

1. Please note that we hope to be able to offer a limited amount of space in our support caravan to shuttle riders back to Reno.

• Please let Jonathan (jcain@treefund.org) or Paul (pwoodbba@gmail.com) know of your intentions to drive in and your desire to join in the shuttle if there is available space. When we determine our available space to shuttle riders back, riders who have expressed a desire to join us will be selected on a first come basis and will be notified by Paul or Jonathan.

2. You can also fly back from San Francisco to Reno.

• United Airlines has a direct flight that departs at 8:38am that gets into Reno around 9:37am.

3. You can take Amtrak’s California Zephyr from Emeryville, CA to Reno. There is a daily train that de-parts at 9:10 am and gets into Reno at 3:56 pm.

4. You can rent a one-way vehicle and create your own carpool with your riding buddies.

If you need transportation back to Reno or to the San Francisco airport, please verify your intentions with Jonathan so we can get an accurate headcount and plan ahead for vehicles.

Pre and post-ride hotel:

Tour des Trees is covering your hotel nights from the evening of Tuesday, September 26 to Sunday, October 1, with our departure day of Monday, October 2. If you plan on arriving beforehand, we have a block of rooms available at the Whitney Peak Hotel.

Pre-ride

You may reserve pre-Tour rooms for Sunday, Sept. the 24th and Monday, Sept. the 25th, by:

• Using the link TdT2023 or

• Calling (775) 398-5505, please make sure to reference the Tour des Trees and/or TdT2023 room block when making your reservations to ensure you receive our group rate.

• Please note this courtesy block is only valid through August the 15th. You must make your pre-Tour reservations before next Tuesday to receive the group discounted rate.

Post Ride

1. For those who will be returning with us to Reno, we have negotiated a courtesy block with the Whitney Peak Hotel for Monday, October the 2nd.You may reserve post-Tour rooms by

• Using the link TdT2023- Oct 2 or

• Calling (775) 398-5505, please make sure to reference the Tour des Trees and/or TdT2023 room block when making your reservations to ensure you receive our group rate.

• Please note this courtesy block is only valid through August the 18th. You must make your pre-Tour reservations before next Friday to receive the group discounted rate.

2. For those who would like to stay and extra night or two in Half Moon Bay, the Lodge is currently setting up a link to do so, we will share this link as soon as it is set up. You can also call the front desk at (650) 726-9000. Please make sure to reference the Tour des Trees when making your reservation.

Stay Engaged:

We want you to connect with our other riders! If you have not yet joined our Strava group or liked the Tour des Trees Facebook page, be sure to do so now and prep for this year with everyone else.

Reno Shipping/Parking Info

The host hotel in Reno (the Whitney Peak Hotel) has asked us to collect the names of anyone that will be shipping their bikes to the hotel and anyone that plans on parking their car at the hotel.

If you are planning on shipping your bike or parking at the hotel, please reply to this email and let Jonathan know so he can get you on their list. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

The address for the Whitney Peak Hotel is 255 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89501. Anyone shipping their bikes should make sure to put ATTN: Tour des Trees on the label so that it ends up with our collection.

Welcome New Riders!

We love to see new riders join our awesome group! Here one final new rider that will be riding with us. Please join us in welcoming:

Kirk Crecco (New York City, NY)

Welcome TdT Newbies!

Tips from Doren Crenshaw

Close to 80 riders and their support crew will be leaving Reno on the first leg of the 2023 Tour des Trees in a little over a month to fulfill our fundraising and community engagement mission on behalf of urban trees and the TREE Fund. There will be 21 riders joining us for the first time this year. Welcome to our Tree Family! Odds are high that you will have such a great time that you will want to ride again next year!

You may feel lost if you don’t know anyone or if you are worried that you won’t be able to keep up. There always seems to be a group of hammerheads who take off early and fast but don’t let them intimidate you! There will also be groups that plan to ride together all day, come what may. Other groups will just form out of a natural rhythm. Remember not to push yourself beyond your limits. It’s a long and scenic way to Half Moon Bay!

This year marks my twelfth Tour. In 2008, I was a volunteer with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. I would bike downtown to work and then when the workday was over, I would bike to KIB to help them with their volunteer database. One day, my “boss” Sarah mentioned a charity ride called Tour des Trees. KIB was putting a team together and she wondered if I would join them. It sounded like quite a challenge to ride 500 miles from Indianapolis to St. Louis, and I was intrigued! As it turned out, though, KIB did not form a team and I was joining this endeavor alone.

Through the yahoo group that was the “social media” that year, I met Timmy Womick who was performing at the Indiana State Museum, and Tom Ordway and Lindsey Purcell, members of Team Indiana. Those three are legends in the Tree World, but I was a number cruncher not an arborist. My love of trees, bicycling and adventure, along with the encouragement of those three eased my worries about the daunting task of fundraising and training. They were super friendly and made me feel welcome and excited about being a part of the fun.

I’m sure most of you are in the tree care industry and likely know at least a few of the participants. That should help ease some of the anxiety you may be feeling. Perhaps you have never biked so far and for so many days, or over so many mountains! Whatever your concerns, feel free to reach out to Jonathan or Paul, or go to the “unofficial” TdT facebook page called Tour des Trees and Other Tree Ride Discussion Board. You can just lurk there and get to know some of the characters or introduce yourself and jump right in with any questions or concerns!

As someone who biked often but usually alone or with my husband, I feel that what helped me the most for my initial Tour was participating in group rides here in Indy. I spent the spring of 2008 making new friends and learning the techniques of drafting and rotating in the paceline before riding in my first Tour.

Group riding in the Tour is a bit different than club rides at home. The Tour des Trees consists of riders that you have never ridden with or perhaps only ride with for one week out of the year. Before long, you will get to know many riders’ skills and habits but if a rider makes you uncomfortable for some reason, either mention it to them, or adjust your speed to move away from them. When I have ridden the Hilly Hundred in Southern Indiana, I found that nothing makes me climb faster than riders around me that make me uncomfortable. We rarely ride as a peloton of 70+ riders, although if the circumstances allow for that, it is an incredible experience! One of my most lasting memories of my first Tour is a large group of maybe 30 riders cruising effortlessly along at 20+ mph for an hour or more. But that is a rare event. Smaller groups of four or five seem to be the more common and most efficient. Larger groups often yo-yo and create more effort than the desired energy conservation of a paceline in the groove.

Groups may change throughout the day for any number of reasons. Some folks like to take their time at rest stops. I, for one, do not linger! I do what needs to be done and move on! But if you find a group you like to ride with and want to keep riding with them, be sure to communicate your desires to them. If you head off after a stop without a group, odds are high that you will catch up with another group or another group will catch up with you. If you want to join in with a new group, let them know. If it turns out that group is too fast or too slow for you, adjust your speed accordingly and look for that group that is JUST RIGHT for you!

There are many outreach events and tree plantings throughout each day. This is an important part of the Tour, engaging with local communities. Generally, there are enough folks that want to participate that you can ride on if that is your preference. Often, the riders will be asked ahead of time to volunteer to attend as needed for these events. This way, if the physical challenge of biking is all you can handle, you can choose to focus on that. But if it is important to you to be part of the community events, make sure to voice your desires to Jonathan or Paul and they will inform you when and where you’ll need to be.

Don’t be shy! Ask questions! In closing, I want to thank you so much for joining us this year and we all look forward to meeting you, riding with you, sharing our love of bikes and trees, and making new friends. Odds are pretty high that many of you will return next year as veteran riders.

Safety First!

Once again, RoadID has provided our group with a nice discount on their products to help keep our riders safe during their training and during our ride. Use the link below to get a 20% discount on RoadID identification tags and accessories. It will ask for your email and name and direct you to a code to use when you order.

https://roadid.com/?rfsn=6533527.e07ed7&of=6X8Y4