If the letters BRAG, RAGBRAI, GOBA, TRIRI and SAGBRAW are dancing in front of your eyes, either you're eating alphabet soup or you've been checking the 2011 line-up of Across State Tour Bicycle Tours.
For the past few days, I've been updating this website's list of these multi-day, mass bicycle rides offered mostly by nonprofits. Many of your favorites have posted dates for 2011, although most are still working on the actual overnight stops.
The organization offering the most bicycle tours is, not surprisingly, the Adventure Cycling Association. They're presenting 45 multi-day bicycle tours in 2011; most are a week to 10 days long, although a few head down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts while others go coast-to-coast.
Adventure Cycling
Originally conceived as Bikecentennial, the association created the cross-country TransAmerican Bicycle Route for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration and led a few guided bicycle rides for that event. Later changing its name to Adventure Cycling, the group still produces maps, but also offers a wide variety of guided tours. More than 1,000 cyclists rode in 2010.
A list and full descriptions of the guided bike tours can be found at the Adventure Cycling website, along with a matrix comparing location, cost, trip size, duration and other factors. The guided bike tours also are scattered among the state-by-state listings at the Across State Bicycle Tours list.
Their tours essentially fall into two groups — self-contained and fully supported. Riders in the self-contained groups carry their own gear and the 14 participants share cooking duties. The fully supported groups number from 40 to more than 100 riders; their gear is carry by sag support and they eat catered meals.
New for 2011
Adventure Cycling's Winona Bateman tells me that the van-supported tours fill up first. These are fully supported bicycle tours that are limited to about 13 people. They share the cooking duties, but have the benefit of sag support if needed.
New bike tours for 2011 include Atlantic Coast, Allegheny Loop, Black Hills Inn-to-Inn, Cascadia Traverse, Freedom Flyer, Great Lakes Inn-to-Inn, Katy Trail Family, and Pueblo to Peaks.
I've also included Adventure Cycling bike tours on the Cross-country Bike Tours page.
Mass rides for 2011
A lot of the other bicycle tour outfits have announced their dates for 2011, but are still working on routes. Sometimes these route choices make for big announcements.
The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is rolling out July 24 – 30, 2011 for its 39th year, but the much-awaited announcement of the host cities won't occur until Jan. 29, 2011.
Bike Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN) is posting hints at its forum regarding the 2011 bike tour, such as; “We sure could use some polar temperatues & precipitation right now” and “There is some kernel of truth to Omega Man's best guess.”
The bike tours range from the moving cities of more than 10,000 cyclists for RAGBRAI, to small groups, such as Wally's Bicycle Tour from the White River Bicycle Club visiting the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Registration deadlines
In all cases, it's a good idea to check the registration dates and sign up as early as possible. Although some popular bike tours, such as RAGBRAI and Ride the Rockies, reward reservations based on a lottery system, other bike tours, like Ride Around Washington (RAW), are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Cascade Bicycle Club expects that RAW tour to reach its capacity within hours of registration opening on Jan. 4.
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