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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.

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4 Comments

  1. 500 participants sounds very low for an event like this. Similar bicycle tours seem to get 2000 to 5000 participants. Is the $50 entry fee too much for this economy?

  2. The organizers planned for a small event that they could handle with their manpower and resources and it turned out to be almost too large for them. They were overwhelmed with the turnout of 500 and ran out of T-shirts. For a larger turnout they would have needed larger rest stops with more food, water, porta-potties, tables, etc. They raised a lot of money for their scholarships with the 500 or so who participated. Since turnout was nearly double that of last year it doesn’t appear as if the entry fee was a barrier.

  3. Big is not always better.

    Not many have over 2000 riders unless they have been established a very long time (Tahoe), spend heavily promoting (Armstrong) or have big sponsporship (Tour de Tuscon) In this case the supported cause is a good one, and I do not see the entry fee as a problem in light of that.

    I rode in this one for the first time Saturday, and it was a good event.I wish the organizers much future success.

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