Well …we’ve certainly had an “interesting” run of weather recently, haven’t we?
For a lot of us (most, actually) all that strange white stuff falling from the sky and piling up on the roads and trails just made us look at the calendar and start counting the days and weeks until we could again be assured that our biggest weather challenges would be wind and rain.
That in turn, led to flipping over another page or two (maybe three, just to be sure) and contemplating rides under blue, sunny skies wearing shorts and a jersey and maybe even breaking a sweat! We can dream, after all!
There are a few among us (I’m not naming names of anyone who owns an e-bike store here in Sequim or runs a well-known coffee roasting establishment or has a landscaping business or an organic farm off Town Road) who are completely undaunted and unfazed by apocalyptic weather. For them, our recent “Snowmageddon” was simply a rare chance to indulge in a slightly different kind of riding madness — breaking trail through knee-deep snow.
When you think about it, though — especially in retrospect, nestled in a cozy chair in front of a toasty fire — they simply took advantage of the situation in the same way as kids with sleds. Remember the crazy exhilaration of speeding down a hill and plowing through drifts, coming to a stop at the bottom all covered in snow, your cheeks stinging, your hands tingling, your heart singing?
Ah, yes, “those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end … ”
Well, for the un-named above, they didn’t. They’ve just found another conveyance to transport them to that wondrous state of mind. I’m gonna stop here, because my envy is starting to show!
Save the dates
Looking ahead just a few weeks on the calendar, it’s not just the prospect of better weather we’ll see; it’s the return of some signature cycling events to the area. On Saturday, March 9, the Tour de Dungeness once again kicks off the road-bike racing season in the Pacific Northwest with the first series of races; it concludes on the following weekend.
Here’s the chance to get out and see some first-class athletes in action, including local cyclists like Luke Moilanen, Jeffrey Youde and Liam Barber, to name just a few.
Organized by local legend Mike Van Doren and sponsored by Kryki Sports, the Audi Cycling Team, the Bike Garage in Port Angeles, and others, the “Tour de Dung” is back for its 22nd year in Sequim. Some 400-500 cyclists will ride a 12-mile loop course covering varying distances.
The races start across the road from the Dungeness State Park and Recreation Area–the Wildlife Refuge. Cyclists head east on Lotzgezell on a 12-mile loop that follows Anderson and Sequim-Dungeness Way to Woodcock and then turns back west to Kitchen Dick and the start.
It’s a flat, fast course with only a few rollers–but the wind is almost always a huge factor.
For an up-close and personal view of road-bike racing without actually doing the race, come to the start-finish area and enjoy the show! Bring a cowbell if you have one and ring it as the racers fly by!
(Oh, and if you want to be part of the event itself and still not race, well, let me know (email contact below) and we’ll get you signed up as volunteer support. Each year about 8-12 locals help augment the volunteer staff and that’ll be true this year as well.)
In April, its time for the Northwest Cup Downhill Race series kick-off at the Dry Hill course in Port Angeles. The NW Cup started in 2006 with three races at two locations. Today, it consists of eight races at six locations in Washington, Idaho and Montana.
Amateurs and professionals participate, separated into four different skill-based categories broken down further by age and gender.
Races at Dry Hill are scheduled for Friday, April 5, through Sunday, April 7, and the second round is the first weekend in May — Friday, May 3, through Sunday, May 5.
The courses are steep and technically challenging, and the races are thrilling to watch. So mark your calendars and make your way over to Dry Hill for one or both weekends!
May also marks the start of the BMX racing season at the Lincoln Park BMX facility in Port Angeles. For those who don’t know, BMX stands for “bicycle motocross,” a form of racing where cyclists sprint around a short man-made track, with a smooth surface linking large jumps.
The BMX season last pretty much throughout the summer, but early local single races are on the Lincoln Park schedule starting the first weekend in May.
Last but far from least, on Saturday, May 18, the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Alliance (OPBA) will hosts its second-annual Bike Rodeo in Sequim. The bike rodeo is a great fun way for kids from kindergarten through 5th grade to learn and practice their bike handling skills, safe-cycling habits, and good bike etiquette.
Last year, OPBA hosted more than 50 young cyclists, many spending hours on a gorgeous spring day happily riding through a special course designed to improve their skill and confidence on two wheels.
The Bike Rodeo is part of a broader OPBA program, Kids Outdoors on Bikes, aimed—as the name indicates—at getting kids outdoors on their bikes.
As part of that program, OPBA is looking to hold informal, supervised rides to give kids and their parents the chance to ride together, whether it’s down the road a ways or out on the dirt at Dungeness Trails.
We’ll take a closer look at the region’s other major cycling events — the Tour de Lavender, Ride the Hurricane, and Tour de Forts, all of which occur later in the summer — in our next column.
See you down the ride! Stay safe out there!
Ken Stringer is President of the Olympic Peninsula Bicycle Alliance. Cycling Around is a monthly column focused on cycling in Sequim and the surrounding area. For more information, go to www.olympicpeninsulacycling.com or contact the author at opcycling@gmail.com.
