Favorite organized rides in your area?

[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/~grot...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.

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=cove...04872fbdbec185 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.

[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.

[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.