Two Months ’til Reach the Beach 2021
Washington County Wanderings, August 2020. Ann Morrow, Dick Weber, Barbara Brady. This is where Dick and Barbara went right, and the others went left for a shorter ride!
It’s March and we’re quickly moving toward May which is typically Reach the Beach month. Reach the Beach is a popular cycling event sponsored by the American Lung Association (ALA). The event is still on the calendar for Saturday, May 15. For at least a couple of decades Portland Bicycling Club (formerly Portland Wheelmen) has reached out to help riders get ready so they actually do reach the beach and not just reach Amity, Oregon.
Reach the Beach is a charity ride – a non-profit uses a cycling event to encourage the participants to raise money for their cause. Usually these are really nice events which have been perfected over the years with beautiful routes, great support, and well supplied rest stops. But as passionate as one might be to keep the world’s lungs safe, that same person may not be an avid cyclist. That’s where PBC comes in – to help those compassionate people improve their cycling skills so that not only is their fundraising for their cause successful but also the bike ride itself. ✎
Over the years a traditional schedule of training rides has developed. Approximately 13 rides are shared weekly from late February to the weekend prior to Reach the Beach. These rides start at 30 miles and culminate in a full century.
Dick Weber has been our ride leader extraordinaire over the past many years. Other club members have joined in as well to assist, encourage or to train themselves. However, in 2020 and 2021, what with a pandemic and all, it’s not feasible to invite strangers to gather in groups and then lead them on a group ride. So, the Reach the Beach team, working with the organizers at ALA, has gone virtual. Each week we are posting the same route we would have done LIVE if it were a normal year. We include a description, some modifications to make the route shorter and any hints about coffee and bathrooms we may know.
Feel free to use this information posted on our website for your own purposes. Train for Reach the Beach – live or the Ride Your Way edition – or just to add to your route inventory to broaden your horizons. Go to PortlandBicyclingClub.com/Events/Reach the Beach Training.
If we get back to a more open protocol, then we will start listing these rides as club rides and invite you to join Dick for the real deal. And that will require some training as well!
Ann Morrow, RTB Training Series Ride Co-Leader