Despite Sunday’s rain a record 3,305 riders participated in the annual Covered Bridge Metric Century ride.
The number of riders on the 15-,30- and 62-mile rides exceeded the 3,285 rider record of last year.
“If it would have been sunny, we would have had 3,500. We were prepared for 3,500,” organizer Ed Gower of the Lancaster Bicycle Club told a Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reporter on Sunday afternoon.
Proceeds from the 29th annual ride benefit Lancaster Bicycle Club’s grant program. The club distributes money to local and municipal groups for bicycling-related programs and facilities such as police bike patrols and public bike racks.
Gower said event organizers were still calculating Sunday afternoon how much money this year’s ride brought in. On average, the Covered Bridge Metric Century grosses about $50,000 before expenses,Gower said.
There was also an increase in riders for Dream Ride Project’s annual Nightmare Tour on Saturday. Eighty-two riders started the 178-mile circumnavigation of Lancaster County at dawn. Seventy-four crossed the finish line.
The first rider to finish was, again, Ed Hein, at 10 hours, 34 minutes, 50 seconds. Hein came in about 12 minutes behind his winning time from last year. The last rider across the finish in Marietta completed the course after nearly 17 hours, 43 minutes.
Eight riders dropped out of the ride. Another 11 completed the course and then rode another 22 miles to complete a 200-mile double century.
