Last year, an anonymous organizer put on De Ronde van Oeste Portlandia (Tour of West Portland) in honor of the legendary Ronde van Vlaanderan (Tour of Flanders) race held in Belgium since 1913.
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The ride was an unexpected hit, with 100+ riders showing up in rainy weather to challenge themselves against extremely steep climbs in Portland’s West Hills. The ride even inspired, Incredibly Steep, a great YouTube video recap that has been viewed nearly 12,000 times so far.
How tough were the climbs? One of them, on Brynwood Street, has a pitch of 24-28%, an incline that forced all but the toughest riders to get off and walk.
This year, the organizers have mapped out an even tougher route (if you can believe it). Here’s what one of the organizers wrote to me in an email with the route announcement:
“As far as last year, we were astounded that a ride intended for just a few riding buddies garnered so much attention through word of mouth. We want to keep things organic, low-key, non-commercial, fun and challenging. A non-event, really… just a bunch of friends riding together to check out some new routes.
Just make sure people know the route is horribly hard.”
The epic ride is set for April 5th, at 10:00am. Try it if you dare.
Check out the full route map on MayMyRide.