Join the Studio for

A Five Day Solo Riding Challenge

Check Rider Standings Daily

RSVP here to the TotU Post-Challenge After Party!

All About the TotU

The Studio is proud to host The Tour of the Unattended presented by Low Pressure Promotions from 20 through 27 August! This 5- stage solo cycling challenge is open to riders of all abilities - and you can ride anywhere from one to all five stages. While the routes might be familiar to our weekly ride participants, we encourage anyone and everyone who is up for the challenge to join in! Here's how it works:

Starting Monday 22 August and running each day through Friday 26 August, riders complete each stage on its designated day
At the end of each day, we collect each rider's start and finish time
At the end of each day we post that day's standings--based on time--along with the cumulative standings on the Studio website
We have men's and women's classifications and prizes
It's just like the Tour de France, only it's way more fun!
Question? Email us.

Why Ride the Unattended

Why? Because of the Five P's!

Parties! Yes, plural. The Tour of the Unattended Opening Night Party on 20 August was a blast, and the TotU Post-Challenge After-Party on 27 August. Both parties will be worth be even better--join us to toast the winners of the TotU!
Prizes: The top three men’s and women’s Tour finishers win some cool prizes AND the winners each get a handmade übercool trophy! Plus riders will be awarded prizes in creative categories such as KOM and Most Number of Flats.
Promotion & Incentives: Through 28 August, all participants get a 10% discount off any Garmin 500 or 800 when purchased through the Studio. RSC Club members get two unique benefits:

First, a 20% discount off any Garmin purchase
Second, two drinks on the house once you’ve registered on bikereg.com. Show RSC proof of registration and you’ll receive two drink tickets worth an average of $6.

Personal Challenge: Test your fitness compared with others or just test yourself on the fun routes.
Phun: As with every RSC events and ride, we want everyone to have fun. Even if it rains. The Unattended Facebook page is a place to keep in touch about what's happening every day.

Course Details

We have great routes planned from the good folks at Hup United NE and Cascade Bicycle Studio. Thanks to all who helped map out each stage! The stages range from a 0.88 mile time trial to a 27.3 mile jaunt.

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Rules & Directions

You may register for a single stage or all five stages, but the overall results are based on participation in all five stages.

To participate, sign up at bikereg.com.

Please submit the following data to results@cascadebicycle.com by 9:30pm eastern time.

Last Name, First Name, Moving Time, Distance (in miles), Average Moving Speed, Gender.
TCX File (Garmin file).

Ride solo. No drafting or pacelines, meaning, no "Group Doping."
Ride safely. We know you do this anyway: adhere to all rules of the road.
Agree to and sign the RSC riding waiver. Unless you are already in the Club or have signed an RSC waiver before, in which case you're already covered.

Ride each stage on its assigned day.
Ride at the time of your convenience. Feel free to ride each stage when the time is tight for you, but we ask that you send the day's GPS file to us by the end of the day. Otherwise we can't guarantee that your time will be tallied.
Start each loop at any point you prefer. Each loop stage can be started anywhere on the loop, but we ask that each participant rides in the designated direction. Of course, start the point-to-point stages at the beginning.
Use Mother Nature to your advantage. Optimizing weather conditions is acceptable. "Weather Doping" is AOK.
Don't draft behind road vehicles. No "Transportation Doping."
Use a road bike without aero bars or disk wheels. "Aero Doping" is not a part of the TotU.
We're tallying ride times based on what Garmin terms "moving time"; see the FAQ below for an explanation.

Frequently Asked Questions

"How do I submit my results from my Garmin computer?"

Simple:

Plug your Garmin into your computer
upload your ride to www.connect.garmin.com
choose the “export” button
save the file as a TCX file
email the file to results@cascadebicyclestudio.com

"What is the cut-off time each day for submitting my results?"

Please submit the following data to results@cascadebicycle.com by 9:30pm eastern time.

Last Name, First Name, Moving Time, Distance (in miles), Average Moving Speed, Gender.
TCX File (Garmin file).

"What if I don’t finish a stage; can I still continue through the week?"

Yes, you’ll be given the slowest time of the day for that stage toward the overall rankings.

" Can I just do one stage, and if so, how do I register for just that stage?"

Yes, any participant can ride in just one stage, or in any of the stages the rider chooses. We don't have a separate registration for this type of participation; there is one price to register for TotU, and at $20 for seven days of fun and prizes, it's quite a deal!

"Can I do a stage multiple times, and submit my best time?"

The spirit of this solo cycling challenge is that you ride the course one time. While difficult for us to verify, that is the intention of the event.

"What if I get caught in road traffic, or lots of stop lights, can I stop my time and start it?"

The time used for results reporting is the “Moving Time” so it’s only calculated based on when you’re actually moving. You can set this feature on your Garmin under Menu>Settings>Bike Settings>Auto Pause>Choose “When Stopped”.

"I’ve heard that even on the Garmin Edge 500, I can load a map into my computer. Can I load a course into my 500 and follow it?"

You’ve heard correctly! Yes, most people don’t know about this function. You can take each Stage’s TCX file, and “Send to your Device” using www.connect.garmin.com. Once the course is loaded, you’ll have a visual map to follow the stage.

"What if I don’t have a Garmin computer, can I still participate?"

We have two ways to track your ride results:

Through a Garmin computer. Of course, we're partial to Garmin for cycling because they work so well and are extremely durable for the harsh environment and endless vibration that comes along with bike riding. We believe that a Garmin will hold up better than other non-cycling specific options.
You can buy applications for some Smartphones to record your ride via GPS, and then turn the file into a TCX or GPX.

It really doesn’t matter what device you use, as long as you can produce a TCX - Garmin - or GPX - universal GPS format - file.

"Strava is a great application for this type of event; why didn’t you tabulate in Strava?"

We agree that Strava rocks. Strava enables some great networking to as well as an ability to create a communal event such as the Tour of the Unattended. Up until last week, Strava’s free account limited the amount of uploads per month. Rather than requiring people to have a pay-for account to participate, we choose to make it simple on participants, and not require a Strava account.

"I have other questions?"

Email us!

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We are excited that the Studio is hosting this event, and we hope that riders from all over New England and beyond head to Lexington to join us for this fun and exciting challenge! Totally TotU.

We want to thank the following people for helping put this project together:

Low Pressure Promotions for developing this idea and inviting the Studio to host at TotU.
Cascade Bicycle Studio for putting on the first TotU event and helping RSC figure out how to put one together.
Hup United New England for helping test the rides - on short notice - and spreading the word.
Chip Baker for ~~helping~~ managing so much of the event, testing the rides - on short notice - and for putting together the Facebook page.
Michele Smith for figuring out some of the rides.
Natasha Boltukhova for providing great photography.