RAGBRAI bicycle tourists get parties and pie. Cycle Oregon cyclists get warning signs and tacks in the road.
At least those are the extremes of two separate bicycle tours that started last weekend in Iowa and Oregon.
The 34th annual Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGRAI) is legendary. Sponsored by the Des Moines Register, upwards of 9,000 cyclists are riding more or less en masse from Sergeant's Bluff to Muscatine, a distance of 444 miles.
Along the way, hosting towns lay out the red carpet. There are festivals, church feeds, lots of pie, and even chicken poop bingo. Newspapers along the route cover the ride like the Tour de France has come to town. Lance Armstrong is even scheduled to join the ride for a day.
A different reception faced the 700 cyclists for the Cycle Oregon Weekend Ride on Saturday and Sunday. According to the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard, pink directional signs were replaced and tacks were strewn on the road.
Tour officials checking the route Saturday morning discovered that signs they had put up to warn motorists of the impending ride were replaced. The signs included: “Attention Bicyclists: Find a Safer Road,” and “If I wanted to travel at 10 mph, I would be on a bike.”
At one rest stop, a bicycle mechanic said he had fixed at least five tires punctured by tacks.
As ride officials removed most of the signs, only the cyclists suffering flats noticed a negative reception on the ride from Eugene to Oakland on Saturday, which retured to Eugene on Sunday.
Cycle Oregon also sponsors a week-long ride from Sept. 9-16. This year, the 490-mile route — plus options — starts in Lake Wallula, proceeding to Heppner, Starkey, Sumpter, Union, Baker City, Athena and back to Lake Wallula.
Participation in the September ride, in its 19th year, is limited to 2,000 cyclists.
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