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About 500 cyclists from all over the Bay Area took part in the fifth annual Tour de Menlo Saturday, enjoying a beautiful day on the Peninsula as they tackled a few hills along the way.
The tour began at Menlo-Atherton High School and offered routes of 65, 45 and 35 miles with varying levels of climbing. All riders stopped at the Picchetti Open Space Preserve and Winery in Cupertino for lunch, before heading back to the start at M-A.
Tour organizers said the turnout was the highest ever for the ride, which began in 2004 with about 60 riders. More than 500 riders signed up but only 481 actually checked in at the start.
The total included a team of 20 riders from the Menlo Park VA offices, as well as a small group from Sun Microsystems whose members said they were training for a longer Waves to Wine ride that is coming up in a few weeks.
Proceeds from the ride, which is sponsored by The Almanac and Rotary Club of Menlo Park, support a Rotary tutoring project at Garfield School and need-based scholarships for local high school students.
500 people sounds like a really low turnout for an event like this. I wonder if the $50 entry fee turned people off?
The Tour was very well supported and the weather could not have been better. One of my group ended up with an injured knee and the SAG van was able to transport her back to the starting line. This is my second year and will I do it again? Absolutely!
The event keeps getting more and more popular. 500 registrants with nearly 500 riders is terrific; the event has grown even from last year.
Now it’s time to add entertainment at the winery to create an even more festive atmosphere.
It was a great event and I was happy with the size. Sometimes the large ones just have too many people at the rest stops. I don’t know how many people they can handle at the high school parking lot. The winery was a nice place for lunch, but it wouldn’t work for a much larger group. Assuming they raised enough money for their scholarships, they might consider capping the entries at 500 next year.
500 is great! I rode in 2004 and the event seemed… a bit quaint. This year there were enough people to ride with such that you could find easily someone your own pace to join up with.
This ride is a great substitute for the old peninsula tour de jour which was cancelled after 2002 or 2003. Very low emphasis on hill climbing.
Beware of the attendance numbers next year, rides turn into a zoo once you get over 1000.