At the risk of having my wrists slapped by GvA … this feels like a useful thing to do - and we had a post on another thread today about ToS feedback (thanks @simonjday )
There are obviously a host of threads from the last 10 days in the tour so this goes hand in hand with the top 3 thing list we have celebrating the best bits.
Is it worthwhile centralizing them in to a thread? @David.McQuillen.KoS if there’s something else doing this then just delete my post …
If we do - can we please be concise/ specific in our feedback and not get in to drawn out conversations on any one persons feedback while we do this (risk of 2,000 people having an opinion in an opinion)
So - one specific bit of feedback (raised in 2019 and 2020 as well) that @simonjday noted again this year:
— There was not an obvious note made to people that the Dashboard is one of the (most useful) tools for tracking ToS progress - with it recording whether you’ve completed so did the window, people not being aware feels like it could be a useful thing to highlight at the start, and during the year —
One for consideration by the delivery team for future challenges like ToS or others (and once considered, deleted if that’s the choice of course)
It was challenging, fun but most import it was great to have something to focus on. With all the cycling events cancelled for the foreseeable future it was great to have something to focus on after the Xmas holidays.
If this is to be the TOS2021 Feedback post/thread then here we go …
The TOS at 7 days was perfect in length based on the current pandemic.
The daily CSO and Sir Dylan ride were hilarious, however I would like to see a better format than YouTube, mostly useless for interaction.
The whole YouTube “policy violation” crap ruined the final stage.
Trying to use this forum for nay type of Suff Group cohesive interaction is useless. I only used this to see if it actually could work. There are way too many feeds etc and trying to keep track is a waste of time. Maybe you can figure out something better for those who do not use FB.
Really enjoyed the challenge! Went “Nuclear” and did every session full blast.
Given where we are at in the UK right now and the weather we had leading up to the ToS week, it was the perfect distraction/ motivational tool to deal with the downer the latest Lockdown in the UK has become!
Sign me up for 2022!
PS. Would ask is there any record of what the previous years’ Tour’s Stages were- asking for a friend!
They suggested they might want to do use a previous “Tour” as a big week’s training block in readiness for an Ironman.
If you are going to have a dashboard it has to be easier to find. Like maybe on the home page of the app during the tour or in your passport.
I appreciated the reason for the seven day tour. I don’t miss days 9 and 10…it looks like this is the new tour, which is fine.
Always always please have a brand new workout/video in the tour. It gives me something to look forward to.
I wonder if it would be good for us to have clarity in general around the goals/purpose of the tour from a SUF perspective. Challenge yourself, raise funds for DPF, that sort of thing, they Why as you know is important.
I love the banter, I am glad things are still on Facebook even with the Forum. I do and myself having trouble navigating the forum, and I am ob the Beta forum as well. Maybe I just need more time there. Sometimes it just feels like one more D@#m place to go online…
Thank you for everything, for the joy of suffering and the challenge and the opportunity to invite others to support it and share their generosity!
It was great to have a challenge to focus on!
The good:
Norway was fabulous - and even better by not riding before the tour. Loved having something new to look forward to mid-tour. Perfect format and timing!
Pictures of ‘the eyes’ - great idea and can’t wait to see the exhibit - hope there is a way to view it online
The daily rides with CSO and Dylan are the best - they are such great sports about doing funny things to raise more money. And it works - I do donate more!
Sponsorship is great this year - seems like the prize pool increases each year. Nice!
Could be better:
Agree that having the challenge page within the app would make it easier to follow progress, and for first time tour riders to find it.
Also agree that there is a lot happening on the forum, and it’s easy to miss things. It is a time sink if you try to keep up with everything…
I am not a FB fan at all, but you really miss the spirit of the tour if you are not on it. It would be nice to find another forum that everyone could be on for the tour.
It was an awesome tour, best time of the year for sure! While there is always room for improvements, it gets better every year. Thanks for all the work it takes to make ToS happen!!
How about a Certificate that could be personalised and printed off for a token donation to mark completion. Also could a ToS medal be sold, they could be dated encouraging collecting each year.
As others have said it was great to have a new stage for the tour, maybe next time it could be as a last stage tailored to a Champ Elysees style finish.
Overall a fantastic tour (my first but certainly not last), thank you to all involved in putting it together.
I offered to organise and dispatch a medal for ToS on both here and the FB group.
I needed a MOQ of 100 medals. The company I use also make the proper London Marathon medals etc so the medal would be proper quality.
They cost under £10 depending on volume and I had planned to charge £15ish inc P&P and would have given all profit to the DPF.
There wasn’t enough interest for me to meet the MOQ for whatever reason - maybe it was because I’m just a random bloke on a forum and not someone from official SUF.
I’m happy to organise next year if I’m still about but feel it would need to be SUF based to gain traction.
7 Days felt perfect. In a non-covid year I could probably do another couple days. But, my wife and family also felt 7 days was perfect.
The individual stages were nice, but did feel like there needed to be a officially named “Queen Stage”.
The daily stages felt like the perfect difficulty and length so that we could all add on crazy stunts for additional fundraising.
Loved the daily live rides, but…
a. I never had time to sit and watch someone else ride and chat for an hour or two.
b. The streaming options needed to be better and more live community friendly than YouTube
c. Would have liked a good summary video for those that couldn’t join live
d. I loved Pierre’s videos because they were really well done, short, entertaining, and didn’t require an hour of my attention.
Challenge page needed to be an obvious link in the app and on the website.
It was hard to bounce back and forth between Facebook and the forum. Neither seemed the perfect place, and I don’t know that there is a perfect place.
I want to see the final 2021 ToS Bib Wall (i didn’t see mine and want to see them all!)
Can’t wait to see the final result of the ‘Faces’ Photo Project
Wish I could have joined in a Group ride, but they just never worked out with my schedule/time zone
There were some cool one-off custom projects that deserved to get some more love and promotion (ToS medals, passports, custom graph posters, daily videos, etc). Perhaps some of these things can get SUF recognition and/or promotion/organization in the future so more will join in on them.
Bonus point. I loved and hated the 50 hour window. Probably because I live towards the end of the window. So, it allowed me to start Day 1 early and work around my schedule. But, when I got “on schedule” then I always seemed to be behind everyone and too often doing “yesterday’s workout”. I don’t know that there is a “fix” to this. Just felt like venting, I guess. lol.
Seems like a few more cons that pros, but they are really mostly nit-piks, really, and overall - as this was my first ToS - I felt it was an amazing experience and for the most part it went rather well and I enjoyed 95% of it, including the suffering parts.
Thank you!