It’s nothing about Wagga. It’s just that it’s no better than any normal riding I can do close to home on a regular basis. It’s the same reason I don’t do Fitz’s Challenge.
It’s exactly like riding around north-east Canberra, just with an entry fee and a long drive each way.
I’m not going to try stop anyone else from going, I’m just giving my reasons for not
i lived in wagga last year and did the gears and beers, long story short if you only plan on riding it then you really need the whole weekend there to get the most out of wagga. i think they’ve still done it so it coincides with a monday public holiday? anywhere has roads and gravel stretches, and the big selling point of the ride is the festival and the riverina. there’s some fantastic places to eat and drink in wagga, even the chocolate factory in junee (which itself can be a 100km return ride from wagga on another day) and the cheese factory in coolamon, where the ride passes through. the festival part was a bit diminished last year, as they had to relocate it last minute to the streets as the remembrance parklands where it was planned to be hosted was over saturated with a weeks rain leading up to it. and even then wagga has its own brewery around the down the main street with its own large selection of beers and coffee (which only had a few beers on tap at the festival).
i’d happily do it again if i still lived there, and would recommend it to others to make a trip out of it. theres some fantastic riding around the region which isn’t touched upon by the gears and beers, and you really cant experience the best parts of wagga in an afternoon post festival. i am biased though - i loved living in wagga, and the fact that community events like the festival are consistently put on by the region with a big brand sponsor like rapha is worth supporting. nowhere else i’ve lived has put in such effort into community events and advertising and supporting their growth.
Thread dig.
It looks like this years is going ahead, but only the 130km ride capped at 1000 riders. is anyone from FOAmafia going?