Tour de Blast
June 17 – Mount St. Helens
The eruption of Mount St. Helens was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States, but in the aftermath we are left with a striking landscape and an intriguing region to explore.
Tour de Blast takes you on a journey through the “blast zone” on an intense ride that’s both challenging and rewarding. It’s one of those rides you’ll forever feel proud to have accomplished, and you most certainly will never
forget those amazing views.
Photo Gallery
Filmed by Bike Film Festival
May 4-6 – Hollywood Theatre – Portland
Portland is one of the coolest bike cities in the world, and the Filmed by Bike film festival is certainly one of the reasons why.
The festival features the world’s best bike movies with six distinct themed programs playing over the course of three days. Just what makes these films the best in the world? The festival spends eight months hunting for movies and a panel of jurors reviews them all to select the very best. This year’s jury included notables such as Chris King of Chris King Precision Components and Barry Braverman, a Director of Photography involved with many Wes Anderson projects.
Street Party
Filmed by Bike is an inventive arts and culture event, with bike-themed activities all long. Our favorite is the Street Party on opening night. New this year, the part will take place in the street in front of the Hollywood Theatre.
- Beer garden
- Street dancers
- Photo booth
- XRAY.fm DJs
- Food trucks
+ much more!
Festival Pass: See it All!
With a wealth of movies and activities all weekend long, the Festival Pass is by far the best way to experience Filmed by Bike. You’ll save money, get access to exclusive activities and be able to reserve your tickets in advance.
More Info
Flower Power on Petal Pedal!
Petal Pedal is a stunning ride with four beautiful routes that meander through the Willamette Valley. This much revered event is considered one of the best organized rides in Oregon.
Petal Pedal highlights the Willamette Valley’s gorgeous scenery, tours low-traffic roads and provides unrivaled support.
Registration includes admission to The Oregon Garden, live music, a fully supported ride with delicious stops along the route and a gourmet dinner with unlimited wine and beer. This ride is particularly perfect for friends who love to ride but have different distance preferences. You can choose from 30, 50, 70 and 100-mile routes – which means there’s a little something for everyone.
The ride is capped at 1,500 and is expected to sell out.
Ride Basics
DATES: June 23
LOCATION: Silverton, Oregon
HIGHLIGHTS: Gorgeous routes, amazing start/finish location, premier support, fun finish line party
MORE INFO >
EvergreenHealth 7 Hills of Kirkland
May 28 – Kirkland, WA
What does your summer riding season have in store for you?
Set the tone for a powerful season of strong riding with the EvergreenHealth 7 Hills of Kirkland – a hill climb challenge on gorgeous routes. Your legs will thank you all season long. There are several routes to choose from, each one of them guaranteed to make you feel victorious at the end.
This Memorial Day weekend, travel at your own pace through urban, suburban and rural roads. This Memorial Day weekend, the cyclists will outnumber the cars on these hushed roads. This Memorial Day weekend, do something special on your bike.
Columbia Century Challenge
June 16 – Scappoose
Just outside of Portland is a region so quiet most people don’t even realize it’s there.
Columbia Century Challenge takes takes you on a journey through times past as you explore the old logging towns around Scappoose and Vernonia.
Backroads. Rolling through the old Oregon timberlands. Farm roads through the open fields. Pastures along the Columbia River. An optional jaunt along the unpaved historic Crown-Zellerbach trail.
Add to all of this charming rural towns and you have the perfect recipe for all day fun on your bike.
The start location adjusts every year so repeat riders – and there are many of them – have the opportunity to explore a different town each year. This ride came out of the gate strong, earning prestigious Best Bike Ride award in just the very first year.
Mt. Adams Country Bicycle Tour
June 30 – Trout Lake, WA
Let the Mountain be Your Guide
The southern slopes of Mt. Adams in June are a bicyclist’s paradise with smooth roads, exceptional weather, cool temps and unparalleled vista.
A Serene Country Ride
The Mt. Adams Country Bicycle Tour is the perfect way to enjoy and explore this spectacular sun-drenched area in the fresh mountain air. Ride against the glorious snow clad backdrop of magnificent Mt Adams. The ride is known for having a well marked course that snakes along quiet country roads. Relax and let the mountain show you the way as you wind through the countryside.
Enjoy the Routes
Select from four route options: An 11 mile family ride, a 51 mile loop, a 105 mile infinity loop or a 54 mile Forest Loop that rides up and down the flanks of Mt. Adams.
The organizers are cyclists in the region who know and love the roads. They’re being out some of their best kept secrets for you to enjoy for this splendid day of riding.
An Oregon Classic: Coast Hills Classic
April 15 – Newport
It’s muddy, soupy and sloppy – just the way you like it.
The Coast Hills Classic mt. bike race is a spring tradition. With a lush wooded course and surprising sweeping ocean views, this race is the perfect way to kick off the season. This year the race is slightly earlier in the season, meaning you just might get more of the mud everyone love so much at this event.
It might be raining, but in true Oregon fashion there is always a sea of broad smiles at the lively finish line festival for this beloved race.
This event is well known for having a killer course, a fun finish line and hoards of awesome bike people. Make a weekend of it and head to Newport!
Photo Gallery
Cycling is a tough sport – there is no doubt about that
An idyllic ride through the countryside sounds like a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon but riding is never that simple. Mountains would be difficult to walk up – let alone cycle. Overcoming nutrition and hydration issues or saddle sores is a staple of the sport. In three-week grand tours, there’s the day-to-day fatigue and close proximity to your teammates to take into account.
But whilst races through the Alps and Pyrenees are par for the course when it comes to pro cycling, and known by all cycling fans, there’s nothing quite like the spring classics to condense all of that excitement, drama and indeed pain into one afternoon. They are just different races, but for anyone who is only a casual follower of cycling as a spectator sport, it’s this sort of variety that makes the whole calendar so interesting.
A Sunday in Hell
First and foremost, the spring classics are for the strong men. You win the Tour de France in the mountains, but you win the classics with the power in your legs. Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara spring to mind instantly: powerful men who are suited to the one-day races. This year, you’d expect Peter Sagan and Philippe Gilbert to be up there.
They are not idyllic Sunday afternoons on the road. Indeed, the most difficult of the lot is Paris-Roubaix – the race they call A Sunday in Hell. And a race that was dominated by Boonen and Cancellara in the last decade.
What makes it so hard is not its length or its hilltops. It is not the field you race against or the speed you go at. But if you were to race the whole thing on the nicest of roads – the kinds of which you’d find on a Tour de France sprint stage – you would get a very different race to what you’ll see at the Paris-Roubaix in the second week of April – the 8th this year, to be precise.
It is the terrain that makes it such a special race and nothing else – the patches of cobbled roads that have not been covered in asphalt are part of the lore and the difficulty. The winner gets a trophy made of a cobble stone and the glory of being able to say he is a Paris-Roubaix champion – a badge of honour and toughness. Currently Peter Sagan is tipped to win the Paris-Roubaix in 2018, but this can all change on the day!
PHOTO: Cycling Tips
The Unpredictable Cobbles
The cobbles – sections of pavé, as it is known in French – are a staple of northern France and Flanders. It is a region known for its World War One memorials and its love of bike racing, and you can see why the pavé plays such an important role: it is not just there for show. It adds to the drama in a way you might not expect at first glance.
Cobbles make for an unpredictable race, but they’re used sparingly. Most of the day is spent on normal paved roads, but for several stretches of a few kilometres, the peloton hits the pavé and all hell breaks loose for a few minutes.
Pavé turns the race into a spectacle. Not the whole thing, but in parts. For the viewer, it is a treat to encounter them. Like the meat in a stew, you savour them while you’re watching. They are the main event, but made better by their scarcity.
And it is a boneshaking few minutes. For the riders and almost for the spectators, too. You can see the bumps and the potential bruises, the difficulty these professional riders are having in keeping their bikes going straight. The power you need to glide over the cobbles is massive, and only the strongest can do it.
A spectator sport
If you can’t, you are at the mercy of luck.
When the riders come up to a section of pavé, they are supposed to stay in the middle of the road. That is where the cobbles are at their most difficult to navigate, but it is also where the road is cleanest. Fall away to either side and you’ll find it easier to push the pedals, but you’ll also be cycling in silt, stones and shards discarded by bikes, cars and the wind. In other words, you are cycling in a whole world of potential punctures.
That’s why it’s a test of the strongest. Those who can deal with the cobbles the best, and those who can use it to pull away from the field by the time they get to a clean stretch of road. They are the riders who will win the event.
As hellish as it might be for those in the thick of it, Paris-Roubaix is one of cycling’s most thrilling races for those watching on.
The Trails Are Calling!
Life doesn’t get much better than Mt. Bike Oregon
Some of the very best mt. biking in the world is located right here in Oregon! Every summer, riders from all over the world flock to Oakridge, Oregon for Mt. Bike Oregon, a three-day mt. bike getaway that’s all inclusive. Once you set up your tent, you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Make This Your Daily Routine
- Wake up
- Grab your bike
- Slam some yummy breakfast
- Hit the lunch making station and pack a bag
- Head to the shuttle
- Ride sweet singletrack, all day long
- Return to camp
- Rinse off in the river and go for a swim
- Unwind in the Drinking Garden
- Dinner time!
- Tell trail tales all night long under the starry night sky as you sip local beer, wine and cider with your new riding buddies from all over the world.
- Rest.
- Repeat!
Event Details
Two events to choose from, or attend both.
ALL OF THIS IS INCLUDED!
- July 17-19 and August 20-22
- Oakridge, Oregon (between Bend and Eugene)
- Shuttled rides every day
- Camping on site
- Complimentary breakfast and lunch
- Food truck festival on site
- Free beer garden featuring regional beer, wine and cider
- Trail guides on every ride
- Workshops and clinics
- Nightly entertainment
- Limited to 350 riders
- A gigantic site with plenty of space for all
Photo Gallery
Sneak Away Memorial Day Weekend
Art of Survival Century – May 26+27
Seems like the world is so busy these days. Hectic. Noisy. Crowded.
This Memorial Day Weekend, get away from it all. Sink into the wide open landscape your pedal your way through a region where nature knows no borders. Tucked away where Oregon and California meet, wildlife refuges, wetlands, and flocks of birds dominate the scenery.
The Art of Survival Century is hosted in Tulelake, California – just outside of Klamath Falls.
Highlights
- Ride one or two days.
- Friendly volunteers and excellent support.
- Camping on site with plenty of room for all.
- Homemade granola bars on course.
- Gorgeous routes that are flat, unique and fun.
- Rangers and historians at rest stops talking about the region.
- Farm roads that are oh-so0-quiet.
About the Routes
DAY ONE
It’s Century Day! Several route options along smoothly paved routes. Ride through the Lava Beds National Forest and explore. Check out petroglyphs and many other unique features.
There is also a mt. bike option.
DAY TWO
Day two is all about gravel! The best gravel is often tucked away in the middle of nowhere, and for this ride it’s in Doris, CA, just down the way from Tulelake. Two route options and awesome support. This is going to be a fun one!
A Special Ride Experience
We love the Art of Survival Century for so many reasons. The community developed the ride as a way to show off their special region, teeming with birdlife and wetlands. The region is sunny nearly all year round. Life is relaxed; it’s a take-your-time kind of a pace.
Tulelake feels worlds away, but it’s really just outside of Klamath Falls.
