The Portland Wheelmen’s annual Pioneer Century ride is coming up soon, Saturday, June 6th, to kick off the summer road riding season. This is one of the most popular road rides of the year — last year’s Pioneer Century drew over 1,200 participants.
The Pioneer Century is a very flexible ride. The usual route is a 55-mile loop through the Canby-Molalla areas, with a challenging climb up the Cascade foothills to Kokel Corner. The second ride option is a very rural and scenic 45-mile loop, from Canby to Champoeg (pronounced “shampoo-ey”), out to the Willamette and back. Do the whole century by riding the 55-mile loop through Molalla first, then riding the Champoeg loop.
New to this year will be a shorter, 32-mile route through Canby and Molalla, without the climb up to Kokel Corner. Beautiful rural Oregon with only 1000ft of elevation gain — you won’t even notice that you’ve gone uphill! If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also follow-up the 32-mile ride with the Champoeg loop for a three-quarters century ride.
The ride starts at around 9am from the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby (south of Oregon City); the course opens at 7am, and riders depart around 9am.
Breakfast is being provided by Bob’s Red Mill; lunch and raffle prizes are being provided by Chris King. Online registration ($25) is open now at the Wheelmen’s site, and your cheerful author is probably going to get the very awesome souvenir socks that are available too.
What: Portland Wheelmen Pioneer Century
Where: Clackamas Fairgrounds, Canby
When: Saturday, June 6; course opens at 7am, 55 and 100 mile rides must leave by 9am
thanks for the article dan…there will also be vendors, frame builders and musicians. hope you can make it!!
This is a great ride. I always like to use this ride as a gage to see if I am ready for the Seattle to Portland (STP) ride.
The Wheelmen have well stocked rest stops with different foods at each stop for variety. Okay, there was the year they had tofu — not a crowd pleaser but a good idea for protein.
They have sags too – some may have the motto “die before sag” but if you need help someone will come along and pump a tire or drag your tired sweaty body, along with your bike, back to the start.
I love this ride! It has great and abundant food, wonderful scenic routes with hardly any traffic and fun people. I look forward to it every year. I’ve done it most years for the past 20 and it just keeps getting better and better. The Portland Wheelmen really know how to put on an event. There is a distance for everybody so no excuses. See you there….