Has anyone tried Cycling Escapes (or other supported bike trip companies)?

[khg]

As the fall and winter roll in, I'm daydreaming about nice-weather cycling adventures... I'm wondering if anyone has feedback about different tour companies. Right now I'm considering doing Cycling Escapes' Santa Monica Mountains climbing camp in March. http://cyclingescapes.com/bicycletours/california/climbingcamp/biketour.html It works well with my schedule and goals, and I could do it on a tighter budget than other tours. I'm also interested in doing a trip in Utah, like their 5 National Parks tour, though that might not be possible this year.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has had experience with this company, and/or with others, and have any recommendations or feedback. Thanks!

[Crankin]

I think there's another thread about tour companies.
I've never heard of this one, but I would say, get recommendations from people who ride like you do.
We've used several companies. The key is, how do they act under bad conditions, stress (i.e. bad weather). One company we used, was fine for the first trip. The second trip, we had pouring, dangerous thunderstorms with lightning, and they didn't stop the ride. One of the leaders drove by my friend sitting by the side of the road, fixing her own flat. On my recent tour, the leaders and group decided how to work around bad weather, took the terrain into consideration (dangerous descent on cobbles, with rain), and changed our rest day, planned a new ride for another day, that allowed us to beat the rain.

[Trek420]

Touring section: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77

:)

[rebeccaC]

Don’t know about cyclingescape but i luv riding in the Santa Monica mountains. It would be nice to have someone providing water/food and mechanical back up on a lot of those routes and having someone who knows the roads, lots of canyon roads so it's fun to just ride and discover whats up them on your own too.

With your Dolomite/Alps ride in mind you shouldn’t have any problems with the climbs even on the 94 mile day 4…..PLUS when you come down the west side on Mulholland on day 4 you have an ocean!!!

Pm me if you decide to do it.

eta...i posted some photos a year ago of one of my SM mountain (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=51946&p=677453&highlight=santa+monica#post677453) rides...there are probably another couple of posts too.

[marni]

woman tours.com a d great bicycle tours are both excellent. woman tours has a southern utah/
grand canyon and a moab tour,not to mention longer trips like the southern tier cross country and some foreign tours.

great bicycle tours has a new zealand tour that I am lusting over.

[khg]

Thanks for the responses!

rebeccaC, those photos are amazing--I'm even more interested in doing the SM climbing camp trip now. And if I commit to it, I will have extra motivation to stay in bike shape over the winter... If I'm headed that way, I'll drop you a line :)

I wasn't sure if the Touring forum would be the right place to post, since I'm not doing loaded cross country-type touring, but rather wanting to cycle in an area and have some support while doing so--but it sounds like folks there could maybe speak to their experiences with different companies, so I'll check in there too. Thanks!

[Boudicca]

I've not used these guys, but I've been on a number of organized trips, from wonderful to totally evil. I still shudder thinking about the totally evil one.

[khg]

I've not used these guys, but I've been on a number of organized trips, from wonderful to totally evil. I still shudder thinking about the totally evil one.

Oh my! I'll admit, my curiosity is piqued... But if you'd rather not publicly shame the evil one, any recommendations from the wonderful organized trips?