The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
45°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Ticket to ride

Cyclists pedal along Lake Coeur d'Alene during last summer's Tour de Coeur, an American Cancer Society fund-raiser, one of numerous organized cycling events. (File / The Spokesman-Review)
Rich Landers Outdoors editor
Cyclists pedal along Lake Coeur d'Alene during last summer's Tour de Coeur, an American Cancer Society fund-raiser, one of numerous organized cycling events. (File / The Spokesman-Review)

As the spring pedaling season shifts into high gear, some of the region’s classic mass bicycle tours are showing signs of running their course. The Spokane Bicycle Club already has announced the cancellation of the Autumn Century, the north-Spokane 100-miler that celebrated its 26th year last September. Club officials cited the difficulty in recruiting volunteers combined with the growing competition from other rides.

“At least for this year, the board decided to let the ride rest,” said Jon Rascoff, club president and the Autumn Century chairman for three years.

“At the time the Autumn Century was started, there were only a handful of organized bike rides around. Now the choices are staggering. Various charities are doing a very nice job of putting on rides.”

Rascoff isn’t complaining. Bicyclist club members would much rather ride an event instead of organizing one, he noted.

Indeed, the eagerness of cyclists to flock together wherever there’s catered food has made cycling events ripe for fundraising. The Scenic Tour of the Kootenai River, a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser based out of Libby, Mont., isn’t until May 13-14, but the 350-rider registration limit was reached by mid-February. Last year, registration for the 98-mile one- or two-day ride filled on March 8.

RATPOD, the Ride Around the Pioneers in One Day, a June ride out of Dillon, Mont., is gaining popularity from riders who love the scenery sans traffic of the Big Hole Valley. Cyclists take on the killer elevation profile to raise money to help kids deal with a killer disease at Montana’s Camp Mak-A-Dream for cancer patients.

Meanwhile, the granddaddy of the region’s catered mass cycling events is struggling.

In the early 1980’s, the Tour of the Swan River Valley, known as TOSRV-West, filled its 750 rider slots within days of releasing registration forms. Last year, the 200-some entrants left plenty of riding room on a course that’s already been revised to address concerns over the surge in traffic on a portion of the route.

The two-day, 230-mile ride starting and ending in Missoula debuted in 1976. The reputation for personal challenge rewarded calorie-for-calorie by five generous food stops a day quickly made the third weekend in May one of the most important dates on the calendar of the region’s long-distance cyclists.

For the first time in 36 years, the ride date has been changed.

Nobody has a better perspective on changing the ride to June 10-11 than Mark Buescher of Spokane, who has ridden TOSRV-West for a record 30 consecutive years.

“The tour is still a great ride, but they’ve had really bad luck with weather,” the 45-year-old cyclist said. “Four years in a row with rain and temperatures in the 40s.”

Organizers of other rides have told Buescher that a bad rain year almost always causes registrations to drop in the following few years. When TOSRV-West was the only ride around, riders took the rainy events, and a few snowy ones, in stride with the sunny years.

They didn’t have much choice.

“With four bad years in a row, none of my friends want to do it again,” Buescher said.

However, being a record-holder, Buescher is going back. “It’s going to be beautiful in June, and it will give me a little more time to train,” he said.