ORbike would like to send out a huge congratulations to all of the bicycle advocates, bicycle riders, city planners, Portland Department of Transportation and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance for their stellar work making Portland an amazing city in which to ride bikes. All of this hard, innovative work was recently acknowledged by the League of American Bicyclists when they designated Portland as a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community.

The Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign is an awards program that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling, but not just any city receives Platinum status. Portland is the first major city in the US to be honored with this top designation. WAY TO GO, PORTLAND!

( Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign ) ( League of American Bicyclists )

Reach the Beach is well known for its beautiful courses through rural Oregon. The quiet rural routes meander through Oregon wine country along the way to Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City where a Finish Line Beach Party, and your pint of Pelican Pub beer, awaits. That's right, a party directly on the beach, as in sink-your-toes-in-the-sand. The Pelican Pub features award-winning beers and in recent years they have expanded to include a broad deck overlooking the ocean. The Finish Line Beach Party takes over the outside of the pub so you can relax in the sand and celebrate your ride at the same time. You're going to love it.

Riders have a $50 fundraising goal to meet, and the American Lung Association of Oregon makes it easy to reach that goal. They have also added in some pretty sweet fundraising prizes for motivated fundraisers. Top fundraisers will get a pass to the sold-out Cycle Oregon "The Wild Wheeled West" ride in September. Riders can also qualify for an InFocus home entertainment projection system and many other impressive prizes. Not sure where to start? Their website offers easy tips for fundraisers and people who use the online fundraising tools can qualify for a Yakima rooftop Skybox. On top of all that, you can feel great knowing you're supporting clean Oregon air and healthy Oregon lungs.

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This is an ORbike member event. If you're an ORbike member you'll save $10 on registration.

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Team In Training is saving lives... one mile at a time. You may have seen their signature purple colored shirts and jerseys at events last season and wondered "what's that all about?" Members of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (TNT) conquer distance bike rides while supporting efforts to find a cure for blood cancers. Through this unique program, whether you are a novice or an experienced cyclist you will be placed on a training program to address your individual needs and prepare you for an event. The program is packed with supportive features including personalized fitness training by certified coaches, training clinics and a supportive group of teammates striving along side you.

Training for and participating with TNT is a proud acknowledgement of the human spirit, physical ability and mental endurance. It is also a celebration of life. TNT weaves connections between all of us through the use of endurance event training as a symbol of hope. Participants raise money for cancer research and services as they honor patients and their families with every pedal stroke.

Recruitment is just around the corner. Registration for new riders to train for their next event, Peach of a Century, will take place in May.

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This is an ORbike member event. If you're an ORbike member you'll save $10 on your Team in Training registration.

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In Eastern Oregon they like to refer to their side of the Cascades as the "dry side". Maybe that's why their ride, the Century Ride of the Centuries, has been so popular with those from Puget Sound, Portland and the Willamette Valley: the "wet side". The ride is organized by the Pendleton on Wheels bike club and it looks like they're putting together a really great ride for 2008.

Riders enjoy three days of riding in the rolling wheat country of Eastern Oregon around Pendleton and through the small communities in the surrounding area. Along full or metric centuries you'll explore the Umatilla River, Blue Mountain foothills and the (optional) 3,500 ft. Cabbage Hill.

Each day's rides are fully supported with lots of good food and fun along the routes, including Saturday evening's BBQ and a catered dinner on Sunday, both with entertainment. The ride serves a catered full breakfast all three days at Wildhorse Resort & Casino, free tent camping, access to the nearby RV Park showers and laundry, and an outdoor heated pool. Rides depart daily from the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, the museum of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

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Get lost in time as you participate in the second annual Gorge Ride, a celebration of the "King of Roads" - the Historic Columbia River Highway (HCRH). Pedal from the Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles, along America's first scenic highway and the HCRH State Trail to the Senator Mark O. Hatfield West Trailhead near Hood River. This out-and-back 38.5 mile ride with world-class scenery is a fundraising event for the Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway. The route is a gorgeous, quiet combination of historic highway that is open to motor vehicles and a paved state trail that is open only to hikers and cyclists.

Along the way you will enjoy breathtaking views of the Columbia Gorge from Rowena Crest and you'll ride through the remarkable restored Mosier Twin Tunnels. Riders will be rewarded with a rest stop break on the impressive grounds of the historic Mayerdale Estate.

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ORbike member Heather Watson starts her e-mail messages to people with an enthusiastic, "Aloha!" That's because Heather, who is new to Portland, moved here from Hawaii, where she loved participating in organized bike events and triathlons. "The very first time a crossed the finish line in my first triathlon, what an amazing feeling. All that hard work and determination paid off and even though I was in pain it felt sooo good, I wanted to do it all over again."

Heather's favorite bike event is one she had to leave behind in Hawaii, "I love riding the century ride on Oahu because we start at dark and when you ride over top of Diamond Head Mountain the sun is rising. It just lets you know it's gonna be a great day." We hope we can help Heather find many new favorite rides here in Oregon.

Heather was off touring the globe for three years and is excited to get back into riding. She says she is looking forward to Reach the Beach, an ORbike member event coming up on May 17th, where she hopes to meet other members out there on the ride. "I signed up with ORbike to meet some great people to ride with at local events and to find out all the different events and races going on here."

Join Heather (the taller one in the picture) and the hundreds of other ORbike members out there. Sign up today!

( Join now! ) ( Discounts, perks and VIP! )

Cirque du Cycling, presented by Laughing Planet Café, is a bike event like no other. It is part circus, part street fair and part criterium race.

The whole event kicks off at 4:00 with a free three mile family ride to Peninsula Park. There is also a bike parade (advance registration required) featuring all sorts of wild sculptural bikes: tall bikes, choppers, swing bikes and more. Get your biking buddies together, come up with something creative and you can enter the parade.

There's live music all afternoon, plenty of entertainment to watch including the Sprockettes bicycle dance troupe and the SEI Soul Choir and Drum Corps. In the event there is a criterium street race with a two-way racing right down the middle of Mississippi Avenue. Come relax in the beer garden, bring your bike, settle into your lawn chair, peruse the shops of Mississippi Avenue and numerous exhibitors and be prepared to be awed by spectacular bicycle tricks and riding feats.

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This is an ORbike member event. If you're an ORbike member you'll get VIP treatment with complimentary food and drink.

( Parade details ) ( More info )