Pacific Northwest - Portland Bridge Ride pics

Hopefully this link works; this is where I've posted some pics form the Bridge Ride this last weekend. Not the best photo weather, but got some cool ones nonetheless.

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If you can't see these you can check my Flickr page at user "mtypinski" If you're the guy and girl I took the pic of on top of the Marquam and gave my cel # to, hit me on e-mail and I'll send it to you.

wow! you got some gorgeous shots. wasn't it a beautiful sunrise that morning.

Wow, nice pics!

What a cool town!

Nice pictures, Thanks!

Thanks for the comments. It was a great ride, although the organizers took a lot of heat about the organization (I heard some 1500 riders were kicked off the course due to over crowding). I had to walk a mile or so near the Ross Island Bridge due to the crowd, but otherwise it was smooth for me. I noticed an awful lot of riders without bibs, I have to assume the seemingly high percentage of "crashers" makes it hard for the organizers to plan adequate road support and closures. Sadly, this year's results will probably end up in next year's ride being limited or not run alltogether (pure conjecture on my part, I have no insider knowledge).

In other news my Vanilla is nearing completion. A bright, shining future on the horizon for me, and a winter of wonderful, wet training rides.

The traffic on the Bridge Pedal was very bad this year. I started at 8am and still couldn't make the 11am cutoff for the St John leg of the ride. My mistake for waiting to walk over the Ross Island Bridge. Ross Island wasn't the only backup but it way by far the worst. This is the first time I didn't complete the 10 bridge ride since they started it. The bikeportland.org blog has photos of the mass of riders waiting to get over the Ross Island Bridge.

I did the 6 bridge ride and Barely made the cut off for the Fremont before they reopened because of the same delay. My first time doing the Bridge Pedal so I have nothing to compare it to.

What does not wearing bibs have to do with not finishing? Does one have to wear bibs to be considered a "true" bicyclist?

What does not wearing bibs have to do with not finishing? Does one have to wear bibs to be considered a "true" bicyclist?

When you register for the bridge pedal, you receive a "bib" - color determined by which ride you're doing (how many bridges). Most people not wearing a bib were crashing the ride - meaning riding without registering. I think some of the problems were due to the record number of crashers this year.