I wanted to see if anyone would be interested in doing some kind of spring training during reading week. I went down to Alabama during reading week last year for training and it really helped my road season to get some nice long rides in (off the trainer)
What I am proposing is renting a cottage in some place warm-ish, (I am thinking South Carolina) driving down there over reading week and doing some long rides every day. Reading week will be Feb 21-27, 2 weeks before Rutgers so it could be a great opportunity to get some good miles in, get used to the real road again and that sort of thing.
Just quickly looking around, I found a place that sleeps 17 and the rate is $250/night, so if we were to go and fill up the place, accommodations would be about $115 per person for the week! Not bad! If less people were interested I could try to find a smaller place that would be more affordable.
Of course we would need food and transportation, but I would guess we could pull it off for around $300/person.
Please sign up if you might be interested. There is no need to commit to it right now, but I want to see if people would actually be interested in this kind of a trip before I put too much effort into organizing a trip.
I’m interested time dependent. Would it be half of reading week or the whole thing. Because odds are I’ll have work to do that wouldn’t get done while getting to ride all day.
Adam,
It would probably be the majority of a week with possibly one of the weekends back in Montreal. This is all very TBD at the moment. If it helped I could try to find a place with an Internet connection.
I am going to wait until the end of this week for people to indicated their potential interest (no commitment required) then I will try to work out some cost figures over the weekend for that number of people.
I have compiled a cost estimate of a trip down to Rocky Bottom, SC for spring training camp, home of the legendary Sassafras mountain, South Carolina’s highest point. (Elevation profile here)
I made 3 cost estimates based on internet quotes on van rentals from Enterprise and Discount, assuming we stay in this cabin. There are many cabins available in the area and if there is continued interest after this cost estimate I can call around and I’ll likely be able to find a cheaper one, or a bigger one if the pricing is so compelling that MORE people want to come.
The High Estimate assumes we need to rent 2 vans for 8 people (I am assuming at least one person will bail) and I use the high quote for the cabin.
The Low Estimate assumes I go home and get my car for the trip and then we only have to rent 1 van, I also use the low quote for the cabin, which is probably more realistic given it is not the high season for cottaging.
The Super Happy Awesome Estimate assumes some marvelous person has a minivan they will lend us for free and we have to rent no cars. (I didn’t include the possibility that costless teleportation will be invented by February which would be pretty sweet, but as we all know that won’t happen until the early 22nd century.)
All Estimates assume 8 people and $50/person food costs for the week. I assume we leave first thing Saturday morning (20th) arriving Saturday night in SC, then leaving camp Saturday morning (27th) returning to Montreal Saturday night. This gives 6 full days for riding. If you think 6 days in a row is too much, you can take a day off and chill around the cabin, catch up on homework, etc.
Wow. Very thorough. I’m impressed, and tempted. If I don’t have a steady job yet, and miraculously have $400 kicking around, I would love to come. Consider my registration as a 45% possibility.
I might have to pull out…just found out I’m going to be doing zero-g trials the week before. Last time flights spilled over to the following week because of weather and that is even more likely in winter time.
Ok,
So there are still a number of people who haven’t responded to me, it would be really good if I could have your e-mail for future communication, so please PM me as soon as possible with your e-mail address, but I will post the latest information here for now.
I ran some numbers and got more detailed quotes on a van rental and cabin rental in SC. Both were higher than initially anticipated but the total costs of the trip are still reasonable. Also, the van rental could be about $200 cheaper if the primary renter on the van has insurance through their credit card which would help out.
Depending on how many people end up coming, the costs are between $300 - $400 per person. There are a few cases where things get way out of control (when going between not needing to rent a van, and just barely needing to rent a van) and it can go as high as $520 in which case I would say it won’t happen, and in fact I don’t really want to see it go higher than $350 which I think is possible if we are organized, and if we are sort of on that threshold of just needing a van, maybe we can convince other people to come to make it cheaper for everyone.
A few points of information:
This will be a primarily base miles camp, the rides are likely to be pretty long with fair amounts of climbing, here is one example route we will likely do. Note: the ride is about 90 km with 3500 ft (a lot) of climbing. While we won’t be going especially fast it is important to have kept up your fitness enough that you can ride for 4-5 hours at an intermediate pace with perhaps a short stop 3/4 of the way through for coffee, etc. There is no broom wagon and if you bonk, you will have to wait out in the boonies until we get back to the camp and can come pick you up, so please consider that. (Yes it’s kind of heartless but I can’t think of any realistic solution to this given the nature of our trip)
-Weather in South Carolina in early February has a historical average of 60F or 15C, so knee and arm warmers are a must, as well as vests and full leg warmers for below average days.
Ride etiquette will be strictly observed, this is for everyone’s safety and I don’t want anyone to have to go to the hospital in America, as that will bring the cost of the trip well over $350. If you haven’t done many rides in a pack before please review this guide
I invited my dad to come and he said he’ll likely bring a friend. If anyone has any major objections to this please let me know. He’s a good mechanic so he’s not a bad guy to have around. Also if you want to invite a parent or friend that’s cool with me. Ronniewheeler said she might get her dad to come too so I ran a few cases where he might come (and drive her)
The initially proposed cottage was not available on the week we want to go, so either this one or this one is where we would be staying.
I am going to ask for some money to pay for me to retrieve my car if we use it (its currently back at home) I am asking $150 split between everyone on the trip (this will be a bit less than my costs of going to get it)
Calculations here (Case 5b is probably the happiest/realistic case but might involve roping a few more people to come)
I NEED EVERYONE TO GIVE ME A HARD YES OR NO CONFIRMATION BY SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE ABSOLUTE LATEST SO I CAN EITHER BOOK EVERYTHING OR KILL EVERYTHING.
IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS PLEASE PM OR E-MAIL ME
Sorry no Papa Wheeler, which is a pity, because I’m sure he would bring a couple dozen eggs with him (which makes sense if you understand that we have a chicken farm), or some other goodies from the root cellar. That and he’s bomb at making pancakes.
Is there any chance that someone (general team question) knows someone who could get us some rental discounts?
Or has car capabilities themselves for those signed up…?