The event itself is only part of the journey. That journey begins today.
Now that we all know where we’re headed, I’m sure many of you are already counting the days until we converge in Elgin and begin what’s bound to be another epic adventure. But, as veterans of this event already know, in reality Day One of Cycle Oregon doesn’t happen in September – Day One happens today.
That’s because Cycle Oregon rises above the cliché – it really is about the journey and not the destination. It’s about a commitment to a lifestyle, and months of training, preparation and hard work. It’s about the great days in the saddle as well as the not-so-great days where you need to reach deep to keep on going. It’s about celebrating the rural Northwest and reveling in one the most beautiful places on Earth. And it’s about old friends, new friends and being part of a unique community with a shared passion.
So, whether you ride year ‘round or you’re just getting ready to get back on the bike for the first time this year, welcome to a new riding season – and welcome to Cycle Oregon 2010.
The Cycle Oregon Green Team helped make the composting program a huge success.
One of the challenges for Cycle Oregon each year is how to keep things fresh. There’s always something that can be done to make the event even better. For example, last year we instituted the Cycle Oregon Green Team volunteer group and worked with Zero Hero to recycle and compost as much material as possible on the Week Ride. (And we cut our garbage total by 79%!)
This year – as you obviously know since you’re reading this – we’re venturing into the world of social media, to give people even more ways to connect with, be part of and follow our event. It’s a never-ending quest to refine the event for everyone involved.
One of the main focuses as we continually assess and improve the event is “How can we help first-time riders?” Veterans of Cycle O notice and appreciate our efforts to improve, but a lot of what we change is aimed at making it easier for first-timers to get excited about, and ready for, the event. Here’s an example: This year we’re adding an interactive site map of a typical camp site to www.cycleoregon.com. The idea is, if you’ve never been around this traveling two-wheeled circus, you probably have no idea what it’s like to be in our sprawling, bustling camp. So we came up with idea of creating a generic map, with rollover pop-ups to explain the main resources and elements of our camp site. It’ll give you an idea of the breadth of services available, and give you a mental image of how things typically lay out.
And one more thought on this topic: A lot of what we implement has its roots in feedback from riders. So if you have a good idea for what we could do to make the event even better, let us know.
Now there are more ways than ever to stay connected.
For 2010, Cycle Oregon is taking the plunge into the wonderful world of social media to provide you with new ways to connect with fellow riders and share the experience with friends and family. These include:
A Facebook Fan Page
A flickr photo group
A YouTube Channel
A MapMyRide Training Group
The Facebook fan page will be used to provide news, training tips, information on some of the towns we’ll visit and links to a host of additional resources that will help you make the most of the season and beyond. Those of you who are already active on Facebook – and there are a lot of you – are encouraged to add your own thoughts, comments, links, snapshots and insights. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account, you can still view the page, and we encouraged you to check it out.
Have you ever noticed that it’s sometimes hard to remember all those individual moments of beauty and bucolic splendor you encountered during Cycle Oregon? Do you ever wish you had stopped to take more pictures? Do you ever wish you could see all those great shots that other riders are taking? We’ve created a place on flickr, the world’s most popular photo-sharing site, where everyone can upload their images for their fellow riders to enjoy. You do need to be a member of flickr to post photos, but, like Facebook, anyone can view the page. Best of all, basic flickr memberships are free. If you’ve got some good pictures from previous years, please post them. Be sure to tag your images by year so the photo pool is easy to search.
The Cycle Oregon YouTube channel has a few videos from previous years, and our goal is to add to the collection after the Weekend and Week rides. If you’ve made videos of Cycle Oregon you’d like to share, please e-mail us at info@cycleoregon.com.
For those who like to take a more scientific approach to training, we’ve set up a group on MapMyRide.com just for you. There you can create training goals, log your progress, share maps of your favorite training routes and download maps or GPS files of rides that others have contributed. Data-heads and those with GPS cycling computers or even iPhones will find this site a particularly compelling place to visit and celebrate your inner geek.
Over the next few months, we’ll be providing tutorials on this blog to help newcomers get more acquainted with these sites. In the meantime, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know. Just don’t forget to step away from your computer from time to time to actually train!
Finally, if any of you have the urge to provide a guest post to this blog, you are welcome to do so. Just email us at info@cycleoregon.com.
We realize that some people just aren’t into social media, and that’s OK too. If it just isn’t your thing, fear not. We will continue sending the newsletter and important updates by e-mail.
