Tour de Donut: From The Perspective Of A Rider

By Christian Hasselberg

Registration started at 7 a.m. and all was well. We had a large group from Staunton and the Boeing Bike Club! We set about things as normal until we realized that some of our numbers were missing a barcode. Fleet feet jumped in a solved that problem for us. At the last second, we had the Star Spangled Banner right on time!

The race was off! The start was largely ceremonial and uneventful. We hit Reservoir Road and the racing commenced. Things got gnarly very quickly when a turtle crossed the road! With terrible timing, it caused a massive crash in the peloton! Most of the riders were ok to continue a bit bruised up, but we lost a couple due to mechanical failures.

The first donut stop was Mt. Olive at mile 7 and seemed to be very active! The leaders stopped to eat a dozen or so donuts and raced to the next stop.

Between the first and second stops is a trip down old Route 66! The riders were getting their “kicks” as goes the slogan, but a few were overcome by the heat. The SAG wagons from The Cyclery and the Bike Surgeon were fabulous. There were more crashes in this section that I heard about with Team Regulators, but I don’t know the extent of the damage.

We hit mile 26 and the leader’s polished off another dozen or so donuts in Eagarville and raced for home! The riders were literally showered there to cool off!

The group that survived the crashes, the heat and skipped the donut stops came in around 23.5 miles per hour average! While that is normally a great time, this is the Tour de Donut! The donut eaters were a bit slower but their time bonuses for eating really pulled them through for the win!

Others enjoyed a leisurely ride with friends and family and others rode e-bikes which have become quite popular. We will have an e-bike category next year.

While we had a few hiccups, overall, the 2024 Tour de Donut lived up to its expectations. Team Waldo, the Boeing groups, and so many friends I got to see! Thanks so much to our many sponsors and friends, especially Bill Vogt and Mayor Fireball.