PromptCritical 

Anyone ridden with these folks?

https://lizardheadcyclingguides.com/...ll-bike-tours/

Or, any recommendations for other tour companies in the US?

sam.g

I've ridden four tours with Lizard Head and will participate on their upcoming Texas Hill Country trip on April 5th. This occurs during the total Eclipse on the 8th and am looking forward to it. highly recommended.

Sam in Cincy

pdlamb

Tell me more! What's the average cycling speed? How much climbing is "normal?" Are the SAG stops reasonably spaced? How does the outfit handle stragglers?

indyfabz

Have you read this?:

https://lizardheadcyclingguides.com/...his-bike-tour/

Personally, I think this sort of information should be prominently accessible on any tour website. The question you ask are often in a FAQ section directly accessible from the home page.

As noted, distances between rest stops will vary. One consideration is terrain. For example, if your day starts with a 30 mile descent from camp, like one day on Cycle Oregon 2007, you’re likely not going to find a stop at mile 15. But if it starts with a 13 miles climb from camp, like a day during that same event, you’ll likely find a stop at the top of that climb.

pdlamb

Yabbut...

I think it's worth asking someone who's been on one of their rides what it was like. As you note, indy, rest stops should vary depending on terrain. But it's still worth asking, did they lay them out smartly? If it's 20 miles from the last rest stop to the bottom of a 10 mile climb, for instance, do you have to get to the top for water? Or are they laid out with a water stop at the bottom, or a rest stop halfway up?

Lizard Head will let you hop on for a ride to the top. Does that mean there are 15 riders all stopped at the bottom waiting for a ferry to the top of a long climb? (I've seen a group like this -- and it wasn't even a hard climb!)

Is there a time cutoff for riding every last inch, and if so, do you have to average 15 miles up a 10 mile, 6% climb to get past the cutoff?

Does the last SAG wagon start at a fixed time, and when it catches up to you, you have to get on whether you're 0.5, 5 or 35 miles from the end? Or does the SAG driver pace the last rider up and down until they finally give up and hop in?

I've seen most of these on various rides, and heard of a couple more. I have my guesses based on reading the FAQ and route descriptions what LH does, but I do think it's worth asking someone who's ridden with them multiple times to confirm or refute my armchair surf guessing.

indyfabz

Of course it’s worth asking. My opinions were offered, in part, in case there are not a lot of responses based on actual experiences. I also offered comment on what I think is a lack of complete and easy-to-to find information that should be included on the website.

As another example for one of the Cycle Oregon editions, a good number of participants expected rides to the top of some of the climbs. Some even later admitted that they went into the event with that expectation because of the route difficulty that year. After that, the website was supplemented to clearly explain that SAG is primarily intended to assist people who encounter unexpected difficulties like injuries and mechanical problems, not for those who otherwise can’t/don’t want to do the climbs, and that, as such, long waits may be involved.