Tour de Cure July 28, 2012

[DarcyInOregon]

The last official training ride for Tour de Cure was on Saturday. The Event Ride is on July 28. Members will continue to create and post rides on the meetup site, which is a great way to continue to bike with others after the Event. However, it is nice to have a SAG vehicle with us, got all of the cyclists spoiled.

Saturday's two rides were incredible. There were about 35 of us for both routes. We congregated further south in the Willamette Valley at Willamette Mission State Park. Both routes went over the Wheatland Ferry, which is a lot of fun to ride. The shorter 24-mile route turned right at Hopewell and rode Webfoot Road for a few miles, then a right turn to bike the perimeter of Grand Island. It was a push for the cyclists riding cruiser bikes because cruiser bikes are not designed for distance, but quite a few cyclists on cruisers were able to do the ride. Grand Island is a special place, all farmland and one park, orchards of cherries and peaches, fields of raspberry vines, corn and truck farm crops. The longer route of 37 miles went climbing over the Eola Hills twice, for two category climbs, and rode the roads winding through the farmland southwest of the small town of Amity, all exceptionally scenic, and the climbs giving a bit of challenge but not so difficult as to be impossible to bike up.

Photo one is the shorter route posing for a group photo on Grand Island, including our SAG volunteer. Photo two shows cyclists for both routes walking onto the river ferry.