Favorite organized rides in your area?

[roguedog]

Wondering.. if you had to recommend one ride in your area/part of the country that best represents your area/part of the country, which one would it be and why?

For context, I could be an acquaintance from out of state that's coming to visit for a few days and happens to ask you what ride should I do? What would you suggest to this person?

(I thought this would be a cool thread for those of us who might actually consider traveling to events just to see the sights and enjoy the scenery .. er your scenery. I haven't done anything but the Cindy so I can't recommend any except the Cindy *was* quite fun, and was quite scenic.)

[maillotpois]

The Holstein:

http://www.wmss.org/holstein/

Less popular than the Marin Century, but a great ride, well supported, good cause and beautiful scenery.

[snapdragen]

I'll second the Holstein. I try not to miss it - no matter what shape I'm in!:rolleyes:

[makbike]

I'd have to vote for the Old Kentucky Home Tour http://www.okht.org/. It is held the weekend following Labor Day. You have your choice of a 50, 72, or 100 mile ride on Saturday. This ride starts in Louisville and winds its way through some beautiful countryside as you make your way to historic Bardstown, Kentucky (home of Stephen Foster). Once you arrive in Bardstown you fill find plenty to do on the lawn of St. Catherine's College (free massages, yoga, food, bike fittings, etc). You can book a room at one of the local hotels/motels/B&B, camp out on the high school's baseball field or sleep in the high's school gym. A filling breakfast will be supplied Sunday morning as you prepare for the ride home. The best awaits you at the second SAG stop - simply known as the "Cookie Stop". You will be greated by more cookies than you could ever image eating so pace yourself. The return ride is 55 miles. Both days will challenge you but will also treat you to many, quiet rural roads. The scenery is out of this world (okay maybe I'm a little bias but it is beautiful). So, ladies pack your bikes, mark your calendars and join in the fun - you won't regret it.

[li10up]

Hotter n Hell 100 in Wichita Falls, TX. I haven't ridden this one myself yet but I hope to do so this year. But, according to the number of riders who take to the streets on this one it must be pretty good. I believe they had over 10,000 participants for last years ride.

[Veronica]

10,000 participants sounds like no fun to me.

That's the real reason I like double centuries, so few people - no lines for food or bathrooms, not so much poor behavior...

Stop Signs - mean stop
Riding Two Abreast - should not take up the whole lane
Music Players - Don't belong on an organized ride
Big Groups - Don't stop in the middle of the road to wait for your stragglers

But I'm a grinch. :p

V.

[li10up]

10,000 participants sounds like no fun to me.

That's the real reason I like double centuries, so few people - no lines for food or bathrooms, not so much poor behavior...

Stop Signs - mean stop
Riding Two Abreast - should not take up the whole lane
Music Players - Don't belong on an organized ride
Big Groups - Don't stop in the middle of the road to wait for your stragglers

But I'm a grinch. :p

V.

Yeah, you have a point. But I think it would be really cool to see that many people on bikes all riding at once. It would be a huge wave of color. I just think the atmosphere would be great - especially the night before the ride when everyone is just hangin' out chillin'. I gotta do it at least once. :)

[AllezGirl]

I gotta put a plug in for my club's event on May 12...the Quad County Metric
http://www.suburbancyclists.org/quadcounty.asp :) It's a great ride & the best stocked rest stops in the mid-atlantic!

But, I have to admit, my favorite ride in the area is the Lancaster Covered Bridge Ride in August http://www.lancasterbikeclub.org/cbm.php

here are some pictures from last year that I found when I googled it
http://groth2005.princeton.edu/~groth/random_pics/BIKERIDES/cbr_2006/CBR_2006.shtml

[silver]

Nice idea!

For Mr.'s general area....the Hilly Hundred near Bloomington IN. It's 50 miles each day of the weekend. It's pretty popular and has maybe 5,000. But it didn't seem too congested. Nothing compared to running the Chicago Marathon. :p

http://www.hillyhundred.org/GenInfo.html


However the Kentucky ride that Mak mentions look great and actually it's about the same distance from me. Maybe we can do BOTH.

[makbike]

Silver and Mr. Silver - please if you decide to participate in the OKHT let me know by all means. I'd love to meet you guys and hopeful pedal a few miles if not more with y'all.

Silver - do you by chance have any information on a fund raiser for the Indy Zoo? A friend told me in passing of this ride and said it ends on the INDY 500 track. I'd love to treat my BF to this ride.

[makbike]

I've never riden this ride, The Horsey Hundred, but am going to sign up this year (the joys of quitting my job I now have Saturdays off to ride!). It takes place Memorial weekend in Georgetown, Kentucky. It takes in the horse country in the Lexington, Kentucky area. There are several routes to choose from both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday they have available a 29, 50, 75 or 100 mile courses. You can select from a 37, 52 or 70 mile loop on Sunday. I've filled out my registation form and hope to mail it this weekend. It looks like fun and I know the countryside will be out of this world not to mention all the pretty horses to look at along the way.

I plan on riding the century on Saturday and am not sure about Sunday at this point. I will be commuting from home so that I can avoid putting my dogs in the kennel for the weekend (cuts into my fun funds). There is lodging available at the local college as well as some campgrounds, hotels, etc in the local area.

Check it out at: www.bgcycling.org/horsey

[silver]

not quite.....http://www.cibaride.org/niteride/best.html

Ohhhhh.....here it is.!!!!!looks like fun!!!!

http://www.indyzoo.com/content.aspx?cid=724

[makbike]

Thanks Silver. It looks like a lot of fun. It appears it is time to start planning for a weekend get away!

[Xrayted]

Well, I just moved to OR so I haven't any favs out here yet although the Cinderella in CA was very cool.
Back home in Lancaster, PA (Amish country) my former bike club has the covered bridges ride... http://www.lancasterbikeclub.org/cbm.php which is a century ride. They deliberately made the route not too hilly to encourage people to ride because that area is not known for liking biking. The other one I could suggest is the Bucks County Covered Bridges ride. http://www.cbbikeclub.org/?body=covered_bridge_ride&PHPSESSID=e1cfd77428411e0d3a04872fbdbec185 That one is very hilly and tough. Even the shorter routes are nasty. The scenery is gorgeous though. They were a little disorganized last year. The way it was setup, you could have actually ridden in it without registering and no one would have known. They had complaints about it so hopefully they will get it together at the start this year. The shirts are great though. They have a local artist do a painting of one of the bridges each year and feature it on the t-shirts. Like I said, you truly earn that shirt with every revolution of your pedals though. :D

[MomOnBike]

RAGBRAI.

Last week of July. Iowa. 10,000 of your closest drinken friends on bicycles. Heat. Humidity. Hills.

I've never ridden in a large organized ride before, preferring my rides to be small and disorganized, but the rolling party known as RAGRAI has been on my Life List since I first heard of it. DH & I are riding this year. :D

[Fredwina]

I'm also putting a plug for my club's , the tour de foothills (www.tourdefoothills.com), you do some climbing (1/4 way up Mt. Baldy), plus lot of riding thourgh SoCal Surburbia. The route may change this year now that GMR will be open to cars.....)
Other clubs, I like two centurys the Orange County Wheelmen (www.ocw.org) put on.
The Amtrak century goes from Irvine to Sand Diego, the Last half of the ride is along the coast. Once you get to San Diego, you board a commuter train and ride back to Irvine
Ride around the Bear goes from Redlands to Big Bear Lake and back. it has 9,000+ feet of climbing. It tookme about 10 hours, but it was worth it.

[Aint Doody]

Here's my plug the CROC--Century Ride of the Centuries--in beautiful eastern Oregon over Memorial Day Week-end. It's cheapo--$110, fully supported, lotsa food, night at a Dude Ranch, themed SAG stops, great scenery (only time Eastern Oregon is green), limited to 250, so much more.

www.cyclependleton.com

Xrayted--take a look!

[KayTee]

The Peanut rides, each year outside Emporia, VA, on the weekend after Labor Day - http://www.greatpeanuttour.com/. You see everything from families with little kiddies on pink bikes w/streamers to fatfree racer types on carbon flyweights. There are beautifully marked routes and distances for everyone (13-100+ miles), and terrain is fairly flat except for the more rolling Lake Gaston routes on Friday. The big draw, however, is the FOOD. You gain weight riding from food to food, especially on Saturday and Sunday. Rest stops all feature different offerings - you might expect a Peanut Stop, a Cookie Stop and a Cake Stop at an organized ride, but how about a Cucumber Stop, Gazpacho Stop, Homemade Ice Cream Stop, Watermelon Pickle Stop, Popsicle Stop...on and on. My favorite is the Tomato Sandwich Stop. The website says they don't offer lunch - what a laugh! Registration is limited to about 1200, so the roads are never too crowded. It's a party. Come on out!

[SandyLS]

The primere ride in Michigan is a 4 or five day camping tour of the state called the DALMAC. It is held just before Labor Day weekend each year.It starts in East Lansing and ends at Mackinaw City. Riders choose from several routes some of which include riding across the Mighty Mac bridge that connects the upper and lower penisulas of the state. There are 500 riders on each route and all routes fill up just days after registration starts in early Feb. This will be my second year to do this ride. Three grandkids, a daughter and S-I-L, are riding with me along with my DH, our faithfull support driver.

[AuntieK]

Gotta put a vote in for Little Red Riding Hood:
http://www.bbtc.net/Calendar/annual/lrrhinfo07.htm

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver and Mr. Silver - please if you decide to participate in the OKHT let me know by all means. I'd love to meet you guys and hopeful pedal a few miles if not more with y'all.
.

I could go for that. Bardstown is a neat place...(but I don't sleep in gyms...)

Come join us at the Hilly Hundred...we have a condo in Bloomington...no camping necessary :)

[Starfish]

RAW (Ride Around Washington) every August. Don't have the URL, but you can Google Cascade Bicycle Club (of Seattle) for ride info. They do it every year, it is a week of touring through a different area of Washington state every year. REALLY well organized and supported, and limited to 200 riders.

And, the Olympic Cycling Classic (May 19 this year) in Port Angeles WA. I am doing the organized version this year for the first time, but I have done the whole route in my own bits and pieces...amazing scenery, from salt water beaches to glacial lakes to rivers to mountains... This is a one-day century with metric and shorter options, stuff for kids, etc.

[Trek420]

I'll second the Holstein. I try not to miss it - no matter what shape I'm in!:rolleyes:

I've never done the Holstein, but it looks good!

[Kathi]

I could go for that. Bardstown is a neat place...(but I don't sleep in gyms...)

Come join us at the Hilly Hundred...we have a condo in Bloomington...no camping necessary :)

Mr. Silver, no one sleeps in the gym at OKH, unless you want to sleep with your bike!:)

Since the event takes place a week after the tourist season (Labor Day)motel rooms are inexpensive and transportation is provided to all the motels.

And, yes, OKT is a great ride.

Another ride that is my all time favorite and hope to come back to do some day is the Horsey Hundred on Memorial Day weekend in Georgetown Ky. http://www.bgcycling.org/horsey.htm

The routes tour the horse farms and you will see barns worth more than your house. You will also see the foals racing around with their mothers.

Accomodations are at Georgetown College or motel rooms.

Everyone we recommended this ride to has fallen in love with it.

There are rides from 25 miles to 100.

[snapdragen]

I've got to throw a plug in for jobob and my club's ride - the Tierra Bella. I had one rider tell me that it's the only ride he's done where he's in danger of gaining weight (we have some of the best rest stop food in the land);)

[Mr. Bloom]

Another ride that is my all time favorite and hope to come back to do some day is the Horsey Hundred on Memorial Day weekend in Georgetown Ky. http://www.bgcycling.org/horsey.htm

.

Wow! I could do that too. Some parts of Kentucky have the most beautiful countrysides imaginable!

[makbike]

Mr. Silver - from what I understand the gym can be an interesting and entertaining place to camp out in (I can't speak first hand given I've never elected to sleep there) and it can't be too bad for the perimeter of the gym is air mattress to air mattress thick with people. However, if you're not up to the gym bring your tent and claim your spot out in the baseball field (I've claimed some choice spots the past few years out in right field). My brother, elects, every year to rent a room so that option is also available. No matter where you decide to spend the night the two days you will spend on your bike between Louisville and Bardstown will be two days packed with smiles, lots of good food and a ton of memories to cherish.

Seriously, if you and Silver venture down for the Horsey Hundred in May or OKHT in Sept. please let me know for I'd love to meet you guys.

[texascyclist]

I have to second The Hotter 'n Hell 100 in Wichita Falls, TX. Although I have not ridden it yet either, which I will this year, my DH has. I went with him last year and actually there were close to 12,000 participants. It was an amazing site. Taken from the local newspaper......[The 25th anniversary cycling event on Aug. 26, 2006, The Hotter 'n Hell Hundred, is one of the oldest and largest events in the United States and this year attracted 11,806 bicycle riders and racers.]

The Hotter n Hell is extremely well organized and the rest stops are out of this world, with each having their own theme, doctors and repair area. It's a whole weekend of fun.

I copied this from the website......Several things happen during the Hotter'N Hell weekend. The activities that comprise the HHH are: Registration, Consumer Show, Spaghetti Dinner, USCF Criterium Race, USCF Road Race, the Hotter'N Hell Hundred Endurance Ride , an Off-Road bicycle race, off road trail run along with entertainment food and fellowship at the Finish line Village. In other words HHH is not just one day it is at least 3 days of challenging and inspiring activities.

Endurance cyclists will face wind and heat with the help of 4000 event volunteers on routes up to 100 miles. The Hotter'N Hell Hundred route is rolling with some long inclines accentuated by incessant wind. With the huge consumer products show, off road mountain biking and USCF Races over the weekend, the Hotter'N Hell offers an awesome start and the greatest weekend on two wheels. If you are going to ride 100 miles, the best place to do it is at the Hotter'N Hell Hundred!

It was the fear from the amount of participants that kept me from actually riding in it myself. But after going with my DH and experiencing all the excitement and fun first-hand.....and meeting so many people who love to ride, I will definetly not miss out this year.

[roguedog]

awww..shoot. i better start racking up frequent flyer miles.. these look fun and interesting...

[missymaya]

The HotternHell ride looks fun. Would give me a good reason to go out west;)
We have the Horrible Hundred held in November and includes all of central Florida's "mountains" :rolleyes: like Sugarloaf and Citrus Towers. A lot of cyclists show up for this one,but not as many as 10,000! http://www.horriblehundred.com/

[PinkBike]

el Tour de Tucson. definitely.

[IntenseRide]

RAGBRAI.

Last week of July. Iowa. 10,000 of your closest drinken friends on bicycles. Heat. Humidity. Hills.

I've never ridden in a large organized ride before, preferring my rides to be small and disorganized, but the rolling party known as RAGRAI has been on my Life List since I first heard of it. DH & I are riding this year. :D

As a former Iowan, you will love it!

[roadie gal]

"America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride". It goes around Lake Tahoe. Going around the lake itself is 72 miles. They add an extra out and back to Truckee to get you to a century if you want.

Also, in this area is the Tahoe Sierra Century. It goes from Squaw Valley up over Donner Summit and winds through Truckee. A TON of climbing. This ride is run by a friend of mine and the money goes to a great cause: music programs in our middle and high schools. http://www.tahoesierracentury.com/


Another challenging, but very pretty century is the Sierra Century in the Gold Country area. You wind through small towns and vineyards. I did it about 6 years ago. It was one of the best supported rides I've ever done. It looks like they've changed the route for this year, but I'd bet it's still a great ride.
http://www.sacwheelmen.org/sc2007/07home.html

[Daydrummer]

Hotter n Hell 100 in Wichita Falls, TX. I haven't ridden this one myself yet but I hope to do so this year. But, according to the number of riders who take to the streets on this one it must be pretty good. I believe they had over 10,000 participants for last years ride.

I'm from there, and have done it twice in the past...it is truly exhilarating :)