The Blog Page

News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

Tour de Donut: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

This morning during a Yahoo! search for Tour de Donut, I found there are at least three versions of the race throughout the country.

There's the Tour de Doughnut in Katy, Texas. This version of the ride is 28 miles with a 55-mile version that served as a tune-up for a MS 150 ride in Texas. For every doughnuts eaten, five minutes is deducted from your official finish time. The winner of the 2004 28-mile event, James Bonaby III, ate 30 doughnuts and had a negative time for the event. The female winner, Jana Diminnie, ate 28! Way to go!

The Lehigh Wheelmen Association puts on a Donut Derby each year at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pa. The association describes the Donut Derby is a fun race with rest stops every 12 miles where racers can get water, use the bathroom, and get doughnuts. For every doughnuts eaten, five minutes is deducted from your official finish time. In the 2004 race, Mike Whitmon ate 27 doughnuts, compared to John Cranston's 18. However, Cranston finished the course 47 minutes faster than Whitmon, giving him the men's title. In the women's division, Jody Twer and Doreen Crowle each ate 10 doughnuts, but Twer edged Crowle by four seconds at the line for the victory.

Are you sensing a pattern here?

Then, of course, is the original Tour de Donut in Staunton, Ill., run by the Boeing Employees Bicycle Club. Yours truly, along with Joe Booth, Mark Pace and Ed Taylor, created the ride in 1989 while we were part of the Mid-America Bicycle Club. When that club folded, the Boeing club took it over and boosted ridership to more than 500 people a year. We're the ones who came up with the idea of a 30-mile course with 5-minute bonuses for each doughnut eaten.

The original Tour de Donut was born during a brainstorming session for club rides for the year. In the wake of Greg LeMond's Tour de France run, we considered a stage-race event. We also considered breakfast rides. Somehow, the two ideas came together and became the Tour de Donut!

In last year's Tour de Donut, Kevin French ate 20 doughnuts to win the men's division, while Anna Witt ate 15 to win the women's division. As of today, registration has not opened for the 2005 event.

Yum!

I must say that I'm flattered that our original idea has spawned similar rides with similar rules in the United States! It's good to know the Spirit of the Donut is well and alive!

Roger 0 comments 11:41 AM