Bikers get a sugar rush on this ride
May 19, 2019
Tour de Crème participants start out on the 19-mile race. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
Hilary and Oliver Vineyard kill some time before the race by playing on the swings at Mattapoisett Town Beach. Oliver planned to eat lots of chocolate ice cream (his favorite) on the 11-mile ride. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
A Tour de Crème participant starts out with a smile, despite the pouring rain. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
A Tour participant waves to onlookers as she bikes on Acushnet Road. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
Volunteers for the race sign a race participant in. Photo by: Grace Ballenger
MATTAPOISETT — Some 360 riders travelled 9,914 miles in Mattapoisett and surrounding towns, visiting ice cream shops in a fundraising tour to benefit Mattapoisett’s bike and hiking trails.
The fourth annual Tour de Crème launched riders on 50-, 25-, 19- and 11-mile courses on May 19.
In addressing riders before their tours, Marc Anderson celebrated the recent start to a bike path between Neck Road and Depot Street in Mattapoisett.
He also infused some humor into standard race instructions. In telling participants how to read signs, Anderson explained that “the tip of the arrows point you in the direction of your next ice cream cone.”
He also advised participants in the 19-mile race: “don’t take the turns marked 50. You’ll be in for a much longer ride.”
Anderson said that the event was going well, and that it had a lot of riders, with 360 registered in advance. The riders, from nine states with about a hundred tri-town participants, also ate 1,198 scoops of ice cream. As of the morning of the race, the event had also raised over $11,000 in funds.
For some participants, including Kira and Rachel Charrier, this year marked their first time doing the bike event.
“Sounded like a really fun tour. The ice cream makes it fun. And it’s good that it’s for a cause,” Kira said.
“It’s a unique fundraiser,” Rachel added.
The two said that they hadn’t done any training for the race, but that they perhaps should have. “We were thinking of signing up for one of the longer races, but then we were like ‘let’s be realistic,’” Rachel said.
Others have more of a history with the race. Mattapoisett native and current Fairhaven resident Pauline Parker rode with a number of family members as part of the Ray’s Angels team, in honor of her father, Ray Lemieux, who she described as “an avid biker in Mattapoisett.”
“We want bike paths to continue to grow. We love them,” Parker said. She chose to ride in the 11-mile race because of a knee replacement, as did her brother, sister, niece and her niece’s boyfriend. One of Parker’s sisters rode the 25-mile race.
Tri-town ice cream businesses that sponsored the race or served as stops for riders included Fieldstone Farm Market, the Oxford Creamery, The Robin’s Nest, and Captain Bonney’s Ice Cream.
