What is the Edible Pedal 100®?
The Edible Pedal 100® is a fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Reno Sunrise. In cycling terms it’s a century bike ride (not a race). A century ride is typically an organized 100-mile road bike ride that includes rest stops every 15-20 miles. Edible Pedal 100® includes three ride distances: 10, 50 and 100. Start times are staggered with the 100 milers leaving first. We have a fabulous post ride barbecue featuring locally sourced food.
Why did you start the Edible Pedal 100®?
The Reno Sunrise Rotary was looking for a new fundraiser. Our annual fundraiser supports all of the charitable activities and projects we do throughout the year. We had been doing the same event for the last 20 years. We wanted something that reached a broader demographic that focused on health and fitness. After researching existing century bike rides and talking to most of the local cycling advocates, we learned there is a century ride within 200 miles of Reno every weekend between April and October and that serious and recreational cyclists travel to these out of area rides. Amanda Burden, editor of the edible Reno-Tahoe magazine was looking at starting a fundraiser ride. We talked about what it would take to produce a quality event with outstanding support and good food (cyclists ride to eat!) and realized we could capitalize on our combined strengths. We understood we needed something to distinguish our ride from all the others. Great routes and beautiful scenery would not be enough. We knew that serving locally sourced food would be a great hook for our ride. Rotary knows how to build the infrastructure for a ride and with Amanda’s connections and knowledge of local agriculture, we could locally source much of the food we would need for the ride stops and post ride barbecue. Both Rotary and the magazine want to give back to our community and are especially committed to helping kids…it was a perfect pairing. Edible Pedal 100® was launched in 2011.
Our motto is “Ride Hard. Eat Well. Give Back.” What does that mean?
Ride Hard.
The Edible Pedal 100® is a recreational yet challenging century bike ride (not a race) that showcases Northern Nevada. Ours offers three ride distances. Families with young children and cyclists seeking a taste of an organized ride will enjoy the leisurely 10-mile route through picturesque Washoe Valley. Those interested in a respectable ride will like the 50-mile, course that includes scenic country roads through rustic towns. Serious roadies ready for a solid challenge will be thrilled with the 100-mile ride, which features a lung-searing, thigh-burning, climb up Kingsbury Grade from Carson Valley to Lake Tahoe. Ride stops include historic Carson City, Genoa and Gardnerville.
We invite all types of riders to join us. With three distances, there really is something for all ages and abilities. All of our routes involve some climbing or hills so you can ride as hard as you like. Some of our riders started on the 10-mile course and are now signed up to ride the 100 miles. Some riders set personal goals for certain sections of the ride: “I want to ride Combs Canyon without stopping.” Some riders want to beat their climb time on Kingsbury and some just want to ride with their kids and enjoy a day in the fresh air.
Edible Pedal 100® is well supported. Each rest stop is supplied with water, refreshments, rest room facilities and friendly Rotarians. A detailed route sheet with map and mileage is provided for each route, as well as road direction arrows and directional signs. We have moto marshals and radio dispatched SAG support. We’re honored to have members of the Washoe County Amateur Radio Emergency Services assist with complete course communications. We want you to be safe and have fun.
Eat well.
Participants will savor mouthwatering local food and drink. Local farmers, ranchers, vintners, brewers, bakers and other food artisans contribute to the event. Traditionally we’ve served Nevada beef, lamb, pork, chicken as well as Mary’s free range chicken. Reno High School and Pine Middle School students grow produce served at the post ride barbecue. Carson City’s Nature’s Bakery provided Fig Bars for the goodie bags. We ‘re grateful for support from Model Dairy, Great Basin Brewing, Common Cider, New Belgium Brewing, Sierra Kombucha, Silver Peak Brewery, Southern Wine and Spirits and many others.
Give Back.
One of the objectives of the Edible Pedal 100® is to raise funds to benefit both Northern Nevada and the world community. Past beneficiaries include Urban Roots Garden Classrooms, Reno High School Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Garden, Pine Middle School Garden Club and Carson City 4-H. We support Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards-a week long leadership camp for high school juniors and Rotary Middle School Leadership Program-a weekend leadership program. We’ve awarded scholarships to Washoe County AACT (Academy of Art, Careers and Technology), Hug High School, Carson City High School, Douglas High School and the UNR chapter of Sigma Nu. We support the Rotary high school speech and music contests and Virginia Palmer Elementary School. Additionally we’ve donated to Reno Bike Project, Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway, Lake Tahoe Backcountry Bike Patrol and Washoe Amateur Radio Emergency Service. We are also dedicated to eradicating polio by supporting Rotary International’s Polio Plus program.
Another objective is to promote healthy lifestyle choices for kids and adults by producing an annual event that focuses on fitness and eating right. We want to give everyone a reason to get on a bike and ride. Riding your bike is a great way to role model a lifetime fitness activity for both your family, friends, employees and colleagues. Riding a bike and teaching kids to grow food encourages responsible eating and is a real life lesson in “hard work pays off” or “delayed rewards”.
We want to showcase Northern Nevada as a destination cycling venue. We have incredible mountain biking trails and road bike routes. A thriving century bike ride shows tourists and prospective employers that our community embraces a healthy lifestyle. In the short and long run, we think this is critical to our community.
What kind of experience should a rider expect when participating?
Centuries are fun. There is so much positive energy from both the riders and volunteers. Our ride is challenging but doable. You may feel tired when you’re done but it’s that good tired that comes from accomplishment. After your ride, you’ll enjoy our wonderful barbecue with your friends and family.
Edible Pedal 100® is well supported. Each rest stop is supplied with water, refreshments, rest room facilities and friendly Rotarians. A detailed route sheet with map and mileage is provided for each route, as well as road direction arrows and directional signs. We have moto marshals and radio dispatched SAG support. We’re honored to have members of the Washoe County Amateur Radio Emergency Services assist with complete course communications. We want you to be safe and have fun.
What kind of community support do you have for the ride?
We are so grateful to live in such an amazing community. Ride stops are staffed by local high school culinary arts kids-AACT, Hug High, Carson City and Douglas High. We have UNR fraternity students helping with course marshaling. UNR ROTC students set up and clean up at Washoe County’s Bowers Mansion Regional Park, pack the Ride Stop trucks and help run our warehouse. Local HAM radio operators run our communications. Peloton Bikes, REI, Reno Bike Project, Velo Reno and Scheels provide mechanics at the ride stops. Lyon County Search & Rescue and Bicycle Ray are on course with SAG support. Reno High School kids grow produce used at the barbecue. Q&D provides the on course infrastructure safety. Kimmie Candy, Haws Corp, Nature’s Bakery and many others contribute to the ride too! Of course there are plenty of Reno Sunrise Rotarians on site!
What about the Edible Pedal 100® makes this a uniquely Northern Nevada event?
The entire route is in Nevada. We stage from Washoe County’s Bowers Mansion Regional Park in Washoe Valley, a beautiful local park. Our ride stops are located at parks. We source as much food as possible from local ranchers, farmers, brewers, bakers, coffee roasters and bakers. Ride stops are staffed by local kids.
If someone wants to prepare to ride, where should they start?
Get on your bike, start riding. The beauty of cycling is you can do it alone or with others. We have some great local resources-bike clubs, gym spin classes and bike and sport shops. Shop and club rides are lead by an experienced rider who will help you with pacing, pedal stroke, road etiquette, nutrition, hydration and maintenance. I love these because you just show up and the ride leader picks the route so you know you’re going on bike friendly streets and if you get a flat, you have a mechanic with you! Many bike shops and gyms offer indoor training, perfect for the winter months. They also lead outdoor rides so you can get comfortable on the road. Reno Cycling and Fitness has a wide variety of shop rides from hard-core, fast rides to a beginners women’s ride. There are several bike clubs in the area that lead weekly rides like the Procrastinating Pedalers and Casey Sullivan out of the Tamarack Junction. Another great way to get ready is to ride other rides. There are a few local rides including RAVE and JDRF that take place in the summer. These are not full centuries but are perfect training for the Edible Pedal 100®…and they’re both fundraisers for children’s hospice and juvenile diabetes.
We strongly recommend taking a basic maintenance class. Again, check with your local bike or sports shop as most offer maintenance classes.
