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2009 Tour de Donut winners

In case you're wondering who won Saturday's Tour de Donut in Staunton, Ill., the Boeing Employee's Bicycle Club posted the results last night at its Web site. Over 1,200 people signed up for this year's ride, a new attendance record.

For the men, Andrew Mullins of Kirkwood, Mo., took the top overall honors by eating 22 donuts and finishing with an adjusted time of -0:01:01. Cyclists receive a 5-minute time bonus for each donut eaten. Mullins edged out defending champ Steven Meinke of Chicago, who ate 31 donuts and finished with an adjusted time of 0:02:57.

For the women, Anna Witt of Milwaukee took top honors by eating 15 donuts for an adjusted time of 1:08:14, edging out Tammy Bauer of O'Fallon, Mo., who ate 12 donuts for an adjusted time of 1:09:09.

I didn't make it up to Staunton this year, but reports from people who made it up there indicated organizers ran out of donuts at both stops.

Labels: Tour de Donut

Roger 1 comments links to this post 9:57 AM

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Tour de Belleville, Tour de Donut safety tips

Two of the St. Louis area's largest group rides are coming up -- the Tour de Belleville on Friday night and the Tour de Donut on Saturday morning -- and it's time to offer these tips to make your ride a fun and safe experience.

These same tips can be used for rides such as the St. Louis World Naked Bike Ride on Aug. 15 and the Moonlight Ramble on Aug. 29-30 in St. Louis, as well as other similar rides throughout the country

Tips for newbies:

• If you're a slower rider, try to ride as far to the right as safely possible so faster riders can pass you. If you have to walk up a hill, walk your bike as far to the right as safely possible.
  
• Groups of cyclists should not take up the entire lane, again so other people can pass.
• If you plan to stop, be sure to give some type of warning. At a minimum, give a verbal warning such as "braking" or "stopping." It's also a good idea to give a hand signal by extending your left hand toward the ground. For a good illustration of that, download the Illinois Bicycle Rules of the Road (pdf file).
• If you're stopping for an extended period of time, pull off the road so other cyclists can pass safely.
• Use your gears. Most new cyclists tend to use a gear that's too big for them. Find a gear where you feel comfortable riding 60 to 90 pedal strokes a minute. When you approach a hill, you probably want to shift to a lower gear before you start climbing.
  
• Above all, ride at a pace that's comfortable for you. The Tour de Belleville is not a race, so don't get tempted to ride at a faster speed than you're used to just because you want to keep up with other people.

Tips for experienced riders:

• Be patient with the less experienced riders. Remember that you once were an inexperienced rider yourself.
• Ride defensively. When approaching a family with young children, give yourself plenty of room to get around them because you never know when someone will suddenly veer to the left or right.
• Use caution on hills. There's a good chance someone will try to climb a hill only to run out of gas and suddenly stop. Give yourself plenty of room to maneuver around them.
• Slow down. This is not the time for a 20-25 mph training ride and long pacelines. Events like the Tour de Belleville are meant for fun, so slow down and smell the roses. The exception here, of course, is Tour de Donut, which is a race.
  
• Be a good ambassador. The way you behave will influence whether a newcomer will stick with the sport.

After riding last year's Tour de Donut, I have to say I'm concerned with some of the riding I saw last year. Way too many people were riding three or more abreast on portions of the course that are open to motorized traffic -- which is most of the course -- and too many people were crossing the yellow line to pass them.

Too many people think that because the first part of the course through Staunton is closed to traffic that the entire course is. That's not the case. Once cyclists make the turn off Illinois Route 4 on the southern edge of Staunton on Renken Road toward Prairietown, the rest of the course is open to motorists. This year, please use common sense and obey the rules of the road.

I hope all of you have a safe and fun experience on whatever big ride you choose to do.

Labels: bicycling, safety, Tour de Belleville, Tour de Donut

Roger 2 comments links to this post 11:37 AM

Monday, June 08, 2009

A small town's effort to promote cycling

I'm all supportive of the big efforts to promote bicycling such as Bike to Work Day, but I'm also supportive of the small efforts as well.

The ITS Trail Committee -- based in Staunton, Ill., the home of the original Tour de Donut bicycle race -- is starting an effort called Second Saturday Tour.

In a press release distributed by ITS Executive Director Jarid Ott, the group says the purpose of the Second Saturday Tour is to encourage everyone throughout the Staunton area to be outdoors between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon on the second Saturday of every month. There are no distance requirements or timetables. Just walk or ride your bike around your block, neighborhood, town or trail on the morning of the second Saturday of each month.

The idea was hatched last month when Jarid and a group of recumbent tricycle riders took what they called an adventure ride from Staunton to Worden on the Quercus Grove Trail. There were no timetables or schedules whatsoever, which made it all the more enjoyable. They visited the Yellow Dog in Worden for coffee and had brunch at the Staunton Family Restaurant upon their return.

Trail committee members want people to ride for health and environmental reasons, but there's more to the effort than that. "The Second Saturday Tour is all about you, so you are encouraged to smile and wave to your neighbors, meet and visit with those around you and enjoy walking or riding on your tour," says the group's press release. "Perhaps you will discover a new trail, an old coffee shop or an old friend along the way."

The first of the Second Saturday Tours is slated for this Saturday, June 13. A group will be leaving from Duda Garden, 205 N. Union St. in Staunton at 8 a.m., riding to Worden and back.
The next Second Saturday Tour happens to be July 11, which is the same day of this year's Tour de Donut.

Speaking of Tour de Donut, the deadline to register at lower rates -- $20 for solo riders and $40 for tandem teams -- is June 15. After that, the fees go up to $30 for solo riders and $50 for tandems. You can sign up for the ride at BikeReg.com. There is no day-of-ride registration, so you have to sign up online.

Labels: bicycling, Illinois, Tour de Donut

Roger 1 comments links to this post 12:06 PM

Friday, March 13, 2009

Tour de Donut registration open

Ladies and gentlemen, registration for the 21st annual Tour de Donut is open! The ride takes place July 11 in Staunton, Ill.

For some reason, the Boeing Employee's Bicycle Club doesn't have a link to the registration page yet, but you can sign up for the ride through BikeReg.com. If you sign up by June 15, the ride costs $20 per person and $40 per tandem team. After that, the price goes up to $30 per person and $50 per tandem team.

Ride organizers are hoping for 1,000 riders this year, and they plan to add more categories this year so more people can win prizes.

Although the event has been duplicated in other parts of the country, this is the original Tour de Donut that I had a role in creating some 20 years ago. The Boeing Employee's Bicycle Club has done a great job of taking the ride to a higher level, and the city of Staunton does a great job of getting behind the ride.

For those of you who are on Facebook and have done the Tour de Donut, there's a new group -- I Survived the Tour de Donut -- that some of those great Staunton volunteers have created. If you've survived the Tour de Donut and want to brag about it, this is the group for you!

Labels: Tour de Donut

Roger 0 comments links to this post 2:31 PM

Monday, July 21, 2008

Rules of the Road

Over the couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of thinking about cyclists and their obligations to follow the rules of the road. One of the reasons why I do a lot of thinking about things like that is my role in leading one of the St. Louis area's largest group rides, the Tour de Stooges, and other smaller rides for the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society.

Here's what got me thinking:

• A post over on Gene Bisbee's BikingBis blog about the Cascade Bicycle Club issuing "traffic tickets" to participants on the Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic on July 12-13.
• The riding habits of some cyclists on Tour de Donut in Staunton, Ill., on July 12.
• An article by Dean Schott of the League of Illinois Bicyclists about the recent rise in bicycle fatalities in the state.
• And, finally, an article at MSNBC titled "Deadly Tension on the Roads: Cars vs. Bikes."

Gene reported a while back that Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Chuck Ayers said one of the biggest complaints from motorists, staff and other cyclists during STP has been about participants who don't follow the rules of the road. To curb the problems, the club had patrols looking for cyclists disobeying the rules of the road and issuing $25 "tickets" with the money going to the group's education foundation.

"Those tickets don't carry the force of law, of course," Gene wrote. "They do imply, however, that your peers on the bike ride think you're riding like a jerk and you need to pay attention."

The Cascade Bicycle Club also has been pushing a "Single File Is Safer" program this year. The club contends riding single file ultimately is better for cyclists and motorists because it means cyclists don't have to go three or more abreast to pass slower riders and motorists can more easily pass a single-file line of cyclists than groups of two or more abreast.

That leads to what I saw on the Tour de Donut. The Tour de Donut is a unique situation because of the mass start. Cyclists receive a police escort through Staunton at the start of the race, but the problems become evident when they turn off Illinois Route 4 onto Renken Road toward Prairietown, the first donut stop.

Groups of three to five cyclists often take up the entire lane, forcing faster cyclists to cross the yellow line to get around them. Even when a slower cyclist is riding alone, he or she often takes the middle of the lane, making it difficult for people to pass him or her.

Before the start, I heard Boeing Employee's Bicycle Club President Dave Sweeney try to tell riders before the start of the ride that the roads beyond Staunton were not closed to motorists, but I don't know how many people actually heard him.

Most of the local motorists know about the Tour de Donut and adjust their driving with the realization there are going to be lots of cyclists on the road that day. Also, the club and its volunteers from the Staunton area do a great job of monitoring the key intersections. Still, I wonder if we can make things a bit safer for everyone by following the rules of the road and keeping in mind it is illegal to ride more than two abreast on nearly all Illinois roads.

That leads us to the recent League of Illinois Bicyclists article. Here how it starts out:

The headlines have not been good for bicyclists this spring in Illinois. The recent rash of bicycle fatalities has us all alarmed about our safety on the roads.

My words of advice for bicyclists are twofold: Obey the traffic laws and expect the unexpected from motorists.

Some of us consider stop signs and traffic lights nuisances which can be ignored. Besides it being the law, bicyclists should stop at signs so that they can see oncoming traffic and the traffic can see us before proceeding safely through an intersection. ...

When riding in groups, bicyclists should not ride three or more abreast, blocking traffic, which can fuel the road rage of motorists. In heavy traffic, cyclists should ride in single file to let motorists pass safely and avoid bottlenecks.

Finally, the MSNBC story talks about how bicycling has become a more popular mode of transportation because of high gasoline prices. Here's a brief excerpt from that story:

Experts welcome the trend for all of the reasons you might expect: Transportation planners like that fewer cars clog the nation’s highways. Environmental activists like that fewer tons of greenhouse emissions are pumped into the atmosphere every rush hour. Doctors like to see more people pedaling off more pounds. But in the months since motorists began pedaling in droves, it has become clear that all those cyclists on the streets pose a significant problem: all those cyclists on the streets.

“I believe it’s definitely going to cause some problems, because people don’t know how to share the road with cyclists,” said Kirk Hendricks, director of advocacy for the group Idaho Cycling Enthusiasts. “[Drivers] need to know that we have as much right as an automobile even though we’re not as big.”

But the article goes on to say that bicycle accidents are on the rise. For example, New Jersey reported 12 bicycle fatalities in all of 2007. So far this year, that state has had 11 bicycle deaths.

Pam Fischer, director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, told MSNBC "in almost every case, the bicycle was doing something that put them at significant risk.”

As I've said before, and I'll say it again, cyclists and motorists share equal responsibility for knowing the rules of the road. Although I try to educate cyclists of the rules of the road on the Tour de Stooges map, I often wonder how I and the rest of the cycling community can do a better job of getting the word out.

For those of you who live in Illinois and Missouri, here's a couple of resources:

• League of Illinois Bicyclists' Illinois Bicycle Laws Card (PDF file)
• St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation
  

Labels: advocacy, League of Illinois Bicyclists, safety, Tour de Donut

Roger 0 comments links to this post 11:37 PM

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Tour de Donut results finally up

Just moments ago, I checked out the Tour de Donut Web site and the results for the 20th annual event are finally online from last Saturday's event in Staunton, Ill. In case you're wondering, here's the adjusted time adjusted time winners, the people I consider the true winners of the Tour de Donut:

• Men's 40-under: Bradley (Steven) Meinke, 33 donuts, -0:25:06
• Men's 40-49: Steve Stryker, 20 donuts, 0:20:13
• Men's 50-over: Dave Atchinson, 29 donuts, 0:16:41
• Women's 50-under: Lucy Robbins, 12 donuts, 0:59:28
• Women's 40-49: Lisa Kaplan, 11 donuts, 1:16:47
• Men's 50-older: Patricia Gross, 3 donuts, 1:22:49
• Tandem: John Casper and Kyle Jones, 31 donuts, -0:22:32

The unadjusted times are up as well. A trio of male riders led by Mike Wilkening did the 32-mile in 1:17:42, while the fastest woman, Jennifer Norton, did it in 1:22:16 to win the equivalent of the Tour de France's green jersey.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Labels: Tour de Donut

Roger 1 comments links to this post 12:55 AM

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Tour de Donut: DNF

DNF

Those are the most disappointing letters for a cyclist, whether it be in the Tour de France or, in my case, the Tour de Donut.

Because of a defective tire on my sister's tandem bike that we were unable to repair, my nephew, Julius Parod, and I had to abandon this year's 20th annual Tour de Donut in Staunton, Ill. We ate 12 donuts between us -- a half-dozen each at the Prairietown donut stop -- before the tire disaster struck.

Just before we were set to turn off Prairietown Road onto Possom Hill Road, we noticed the rear tire was starting to go flat. I tried to put a new tube into tire, but I found a way to break the stem as I was inflating the tire. Fortunately for us, the support vehicle from The Cyclery bicycle shop in Edwardsville pulled up.

While the mechanical installed the near rear tube, I tried to inflate the front tire, which also seemed a bit low. In a matter of seconds after I removed the pump, the front tube blew ... another job for the mechanic!

Julius and I were now at the back of the race, but as we took off, we noticed a sickening thump in the front tire. I was able to deflate the tube before we lost another tube, but we knew our day was done. The sidewall of the tire had given out. With great disappointment, we accepted a ride back to Staunton.

Our goal was to eat at least 24 donuts today, but as things turned out, that wouldn't have been enough to win. John Casper and Kyle Jones, both of Springfield, Ill., won the tandem division by eating 31 donuts between them. With the 5-minute time bonus given for each donut eaten, they had a adjusted time of negative-23 minutes!

Steven Meinke successfully defended his Tour de Donut title in the men's under-40 division by eating 33 donuts, six more than last year! I didn't catch who won the women's divisions or the other men's divisions.

Steven was the man who appeared in the documentary about the ride, "Tour de Donut: Gluttons for Punishment," and said the classic line "this is disgusting ... disgustingly beautiful" while jamming three donuts together and swallowing them.

Because of the huge number of registrants -- more than 950 people signed up for this year's Tour de Donut and more than 920 people actually started the race -- the Boeing Employee's Bicycle Club decided to create under-40, 40-49 and 50-and-older divisions for men and women. The number of registrants set an event record, more than 200 people above the previous record.

Other than the tire disaster, it was a glorious day for the Tour de Donut! As a founding father of the ride -- along with Mark Pace, Joe Booth and Ed Taylor -- I'm still amazed that the ride is still around and still growing!

By the way, the Boeing club hopes to have the full results posted on the ride's Web site sometime next week.

Labels: Tour de Donut

Roger 1 comments links to this post 3:07 PM

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Tour de Donut comes to Utah

There will not one, but two, Tour de Donut races this Saturday, July 12.

The first one, of course, is the 20th edition of the original Tour de Donut, which will be run in Staunton, Ill.

The second one is the Inaugural Utah Tour de Donut in American Fork, Utah, which is located between Salt Lake City and Provo.

Unlike the Staunton version of the Tour de Donut, which gives competitors a 5-minute bonus for each donut eaten at two stops on a 32-mile course, the Utah version of Tour de Donut gives a 3-minute bonus for each donut eaten on a 21-mile course.

The Utah folks are offering this bit of advice for their race: "With those kind of time bonuses available, how many donuts should you eat? Just seven donuts gives you a 21-minute bonus. That's like an extra 11 miles per hour in speed."

As for the people who want to hammer through the course without eating a donut: "These guys don't have a chance. Don't stop for donuts, don't eat a donut, just hammer down, and see how fast you can ride. (Maybe you are fast enough to prove us wrong. It's worth a try...)"

And for the Homer Simpsons out there who want to eat tons of donuts: "Not a chance either. 63 donuts later, you end up lying in the ditch. Sure, you got 189 minutes subtracted, but can you finish? (BTW, puking is not allowed)"

The Rotary Club of American Fork is putting on the Utah version of Tour de Donut, and proceeds will benefit the Utah Amber Alert Project.

As for the other copycat events throughout the country, the Donut Derby is slated for Sept. 1 in Trexlertown, Pa., and Arcanum, Ohio's version of the Tour de Donut will take place Sept. 6. No date has been published yet for this year's Tour de Donut in Katy, Texas.

Labels: Tour de Donut, Utah

Roger 0 comments links to this post 9:39 PM

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

On the Donut Trail ... Part II