The Mix Tape

You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party

Meet The Mix Tape.  It's not a gravel ride.  It's not a road ride.  It's not a mountain bike ride.  It's not a gran fondo.  It's not a race.  Well it is a race... if you want it to be a race.  But you don't have to race.  But you can totally race.  So, it's kind of a gran fondo.

The Mix Tape is our answer to the lack of something different down our way.  We wanted something that's as challenging as you want to make it with a little bit of everything.  Since we don't have many hills we had to get creative.  So we designed you a 50-60 mile rolling party that covers pavement, light trails, fire roads, a little singletrack, and some challenging tech that's brief but impactful.  What all of this means is that there's no perfect bike for this.  On the roads you'll hate your mountain bike and when you're climbing The Ledge you'll be wishing you had it.  So we feel that the perfect bike for this is the one with drop bars and the biggest tires that fit.  But you decide what works for you.  Just don't bring your road bike.  You won't get far and you will hate us when really you only have yourself to blame.

The course will be provided via a GPS file.  We will lightly mark some sections but know from past years that those markings may "evaporate" so you cannot rely on them.  For those of you racing, the Strava segments will be marked, hopefully.  The entire course is not a race, only those segments.  This encourages everyone to enjoy the event and party on, together.  It also discourages racing through intersections and traffic signals.  Obeying the rules of the road are important for safety and the future of the event.

Course maps and navigation files get emailed to participants just before the event and are not posted online.  We change it a little every year.  Sometimes we change it quite a bit!

This event is capped at whatever we're told until we prove to the towns that you'll ride through that we're not jerks.  Participants of previous years get a password to register early before registration opens to the public.  Sometimes this will sell out the event before it actually opens.

On My Darkest Days I Wear My Brightest Colors    

April in New England can be a mixed bag of conditions.  It could be hot, cold, or wet.  It could be hot, cold, AND wet.  Who knows?  You'll need to dress for changing conditions.  For visibility on the road sections every participant is recommended to run a rear tail light for added safety.  We also recommend bright colored clothing.

Everybody's Looking For Something   

This event isn't about the prizes, or the swag.  It's about the journey.  But dammit the prizes and swag are sweet too.

Here's how getting competitive works:  You have to run a GPS recording device capable of uploading to your Strava account through your phone when you finish.  We will not have computers for you to upload through because that did not work out in any year.  You can also run Strava on your phone.  Competitive riders have 5 hours to complete the course and upload and we post the results at 2:30pm.  There are 6 timed and marked segments, broken into three categories for awards.  Riders get their times of each category combined.  We award one male and one female winner of each category.  You can only win one category so in the event of someone sweeping all of them we award second place the prize.

ROADIE ($200 Endurance Threads Gift Card):  Combination of timed road segments

CLIMBER ($200 Endurance Threads Gift Card):  Combination of timed off road climbing segments

SHREDDER ($200 Endurance Threads Gift Card):  Combination of timed off road trail segments

MIX MASTER ($250 Cash):  Combination of all timed segments

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Not convinced that this is for you?  Ask someone who's come before, but it might be sold out by the time you do.

Course maps and navigation files get emailed to participants just before the event and are not posted online.

For Those About To Rock We Salute You

This event is years in the making.  Hours of concept, arguing about the route, finding a venue, planning police details, town meetings, food, etc.  We do it for you, because we love you.  And we have to fight for it every single year.  Now get out there and crush this thing.

Refunds & Transfers

We're not jerks and we believe that a "no refunds policy" isn't a very encouraging thing to get you to commit to an event in advance.  So we give refunds up until 2 weeks before online registration closes, because that's plenty of time for someone else to take your place.  You just have to email us with a legit reason that isn't, "I don't like the weather forecast".  We also allow you to transfer your entry to another racer anytime up until online registration closes.  This costs an additional $5.

Refund requests less than two weeks out are denied.  At that point everything has been paid for and a refund directly impacts the charitable donation.

Ride4Claire Charity Entry

We've got room for some charity slots in the event and they are a $150 donation to Ride4Claire.  If you're already registered for the event you can transfer to the Ride4Claire category which will free up your regular entry spot to someone on the waitlist.

Want to know about Claire?  You can listen to the WEEI interview HERE.