We heard from parents whose kids were getting all tuckered out doing the regular ride, so we added a shorter option this year and it was very cool to see more young-timers in the mix.

Third year of smiles

Cranksgiving started in NYC and now is held in over 70 cities – it’s a food-drive scavenger hunt on bikes. This is the third one in Portland benefiting Outside In, who have been helping Portlanders for over 40 years. This year’s teams brought in $1053 (!) worth of food and supplies.

Giving Seattle a breather

Our friendly competition with Seattle continues…last year we barely brought out more people than they did…victory was sweet! This year we got out 88 people, which was super good (we lost some racers to the action out at the OBRA State Cyclocross Championships). Seattle got out 160 people this time – but No sir! I’m not sad as I pack up the Top Banana trophy in a special temperature controlled, golden envelope to ship it north (to Tom from the excellent Seattle Bike Blog). We did good and I’m proud as heck of Portland today.

The crew came through

Ash Thirtyseven and I had lots of help this year from emcee Izzy McTighe and our high-priced accountants and consultants: Aaron, Betsy, Brock, Emily, Jessica, Jim, Rich, Marisha, and Zane.

Photos by Betsy Reese!

More photos!

The prizes

First Ones Back, Best Costume, Biggest Spenders, Best Team Spirit team members got prizes. This year participants could donate prizes, and we had lots of cool ones: a Nutcase helmet (Armando), guitar lessons (Beth), bag o’ wine (Tonya), six-pack (Maria), Pedalpalooza ride planning assistance (Chris), bike portrait photography session (Mick), and the opportunity to guest-host an episode of the Sprocket Podcast (Brock and Aaron). Tom Howe of CED Magic donated a nice Garmin ride planner and won the prize for the best donated prize.

We also had wonderful prizes donated by: A Better Cycle, Bombay Chaat House, Clever Cycles, Double Darn, Filmed by Bike, Grand Central Bakery, Hollywood Theatre, Kryptonite,  People’s Food Co-op, Stumptown Printers, and Trader Joe’s Hollywood.