Bridge Pedal

This last weekend I rode the annual Bridge Pedal in Portland. This was the 18^th year of this very Portland event, and being Portland it was a strange event… The idea is to ride over most of the 10 bridges that cross the Willamette River, of course some of these are freeway bridges and are not open to bicycles but for this event they close part of the roads. In this case they close the freeway in one direction for a better part of the morning. The traffic of course is affected but Portlanders don’t seem to care or mind, the other people do…

At the start on the Fremont

In any case I rode what is called the express start, which actually means you ride across 12 bridges (two of the 10 twice) and get a start on the other riders, which is good. There is a mix of riders, from the serious to the ‘hey let be stupid and slow’ riders. The express had mostly the serious rider who wants to ride fast, but there were some stupid riders in the group too. The other groups also have a mix but there is more of the slow stupid rider in those groups.

View from the Fremont before the start at 6:30

This year there was about 18,000 riders and they have groups that do 6, 8 10 bridges along with the express group. The distance of riding is between 20 miles to 38 miles so a lot of the slow riders do the 6 or 8 bridge loop. Now when I say stupid I mean people who ride with head-phones on, costumes so crazy they can’t ride safe, ride 3 or 4 or 5 abreast, stop suddenly, turn around and ride into the other riders, and on and on.. You get the point. Some people have no sense of surroundings or environment. Completely clueless… So this is why I ride out front and can stay away from these people….

Crossing the Fremont for a second time, mix of riders

 

The morning started off cloudy and cool. The start was at 6:45 so I had to be on the bridge by 6:30. No rain at least... The start is going down the Fremont Bridge which is a nice fast start, then follow the 405 freeway across the Marquam Bridge, down off the freeway and out to the Sellwood Bridge. This is a nice longer section on the east side of the river. Cross Sellwood and head north to the Hawthorn Bridge, back on the east side down to the Ross Island Bridge. Follow the rout back north to the Marquam Bridge again, then down and off to the Burnside bridge. Ride through downtown and cross the Broadway bridge, loop back and cross the Fremont Bridge again. Now the long ride west to the St Johns Bridge and crossing north bound, turn and head for home. After the long ride east, we cross the Steel Bridge and a finish downtown on the water front.

View from the Marquam on first pass

 

Only bad spots were when I crossed paths with the slower groups. Most of the time I was with 4 to 6 other fast riders. We would do the in-line riding like on the Tour de France and ride at an average 18 mph. The road in some areas are bad and a few big bumps, but no flats at least....

The St Johns Bridge not many riders yet

Of course at the very end, stupid people just stop at the finish to take a picture and not even thinking that there are people riding in behind. Portland is the land of the 'Me' people, never thinking of others.