Good post Tanstaafl. I agree that the MS Society didn't have any say in whether the finish had to move. The one thing I don't miss about going into downtown was the cone lined hills with traffic backed up around them. Every single year I rode to Austin, I saw at least one very serious bike wreck due to speed differential between riders and the shifting of cones due to traffic. After you watch somebody go down at 30-35 mph after bullseyeing a cone, and then try to stand up clearly concussed, with a likely broken collarbone, and with most of the skin taken off of their right arm and leg from sliding down the asphalt, it changes how you feel about the trip into Austin. I liked the iconic view, but I got tired of seeing people get hurt due to the tight quarters on the roads leading in. Sure it is a big challenge to ride and I appreciate the heck out of people for doing it, but I hate watching people get hurt in the process. So to me, even though I miss the view, the wide open spaces and safer roads into COTA are a big plus for me. They still have some things they can do to improve traffic flow getting out, but overall the system worked much more smoothly this year and they proved they listened with many of the improvements.