The kickoff party was last week. The route is revealed, registrations are underway and its time to start making plans.
Cycle Oregon is very effective in keeping its secrets. They plan each route more than a year in advance and they keep it a secret until the announcement party. Registration begins at the party after the announcement, and their web site is usually activated at that same time. So, why go to the party?
- A chance to catch up with old biking buddies that you haven’t seen since last fall.
- See the new lines of very high end bikes you wish you could afford.
- Bike booths. This year we got hugs from the girl at the BTA.
She was excited we were members, and had lots of good things to say about Alice B Toeclips dinner in March. - A close up look a the new “Share the Road” license plates.
(Ya well, we got ours 2 weeks ago!) - A very early look at the route, the flyers and, if you are so inclined a bit of a head start in making reservations for lodging in some of the very small towns that this ride stays in. The last time the ride stayed at Wallowa Lake for two days, we got reservations at the Eagle Cap Lodge within an hour of the announcement, and they indicated they were nearly out of rooms already.
- Free stuff.
- Gleukos, the new official Cycle Oregon energy drink. Looks like is mostly glucose, citric acid and salts. It comes in a plastic pouch shaped like a bottle, though not sure its package is real bike bottle cage friendly.
- Paydays. interesting choice for energy bars, and not friendly to those with peanut issues, but I will usually eat anything during bike season.
The route for the Week Ride is a mix of routes they have done in the past. Specifically, parts of the routes of 1999 and 2003 covers nearly all of this years route. But it is a beautiful ride, with something for everyone. The organizers are really trying to appeal to all levels of riders with this route including two layover days and mileage options on all days except the first and the last.
This years host towns are Elgin, Union, Baker City, Halfway and Wallowa Lake.
Here’s the mileage that you can ride on each day:
- 44
- 44 or 82
- 52 or 70
- 34 or 79, or not at all
- 77 or 83
- 5 or 47 or not at all
- 58
This means you can ride as little as 275 miles or as much as 463.
Not too many miles by Cycle Oregon standards, only one difficult climbing day, by Cycle Oregon standards.
But everything else will be up to Cycle Oregon standards I am sure.
If you book early enough you can even get the tent service where they set up/take down your tent each day and deliver your bags to the tent.
You can find lots more Cycle Oregon stuff on their site.
I will talk about the Weekend ride on another day.