Originally Posted by
RichinSC1
Thanks for the replies and your advice rings loud and clear. We will not have a support vehicle following us per your recommendations.
I have biked a few week long tours across a few states with support vehicle but it was not following us. It would stop every 20 miles or so and set up a rest stop with food and drinks. And yes my son was a on an athletic college scholarship and he is way better than I am as far as speed goes. But we have been on a few long rides and he is fine with it.
This sounds like a good decision.
FWIW, if someone is going to support you, it's nice to meet with them every couple hours -- that's when you'll need more water! On flat terrain, that's usually about 20 miles between meet-ups. It gets more interesting when you hit rolling terrain or mountains. I figure 5 mph uphill (may be optimistic), so every 10 miles going up. But 30 mph is easy to hit downhill, and
nobody wants to stop on a downhill! Balance that with keeping the support driver interested but not paranoid -- a small town is often a nice place to stop, or some other point of interest like an overlook or even a historical marker -- so there's something for the driver to do instead of gnawing at fingernails counting how many seconds you're overdue!