3,000 expected in Troy to ride bikes, eat doughnuts

Be the Match selected as charity partner for August event.

Troy will be hosting Tour TROY — de Donut for the second time this August.

The first year for the inaugural event in Troy last year brought 2,300 riders, and went through 14,000 doughnuts.

“The best part is when the cyclists start lining up, there are some just out for fun, but a lot of them are serious cyclists,” said Diana Thompson from the Miami County Visitor’s Bureau. “It’s wall to wall bicycles, singles and tandems.”

Organizers expect about 3,000 participants this year.

Tour de Donut has been running for 12 years in Illinois. Riders visit several doughnut stops

along the course. For each doughnut the rider eats, and keeps down, five minutes will be deducted from their time.

That’s right — the more doughnuts a rider eats, the faster their time is.

The event, scheduled for Aug. 25, has partnered with Be the Match this year as their official charity partner.

“It was a perfect match,” said Tour de Donut organizer Roger Bowersock. “We try to add something new every year.”

Be the Match is putting on its Buckeye Donut Dash, a 5k beginning in downtown Troy. The Buckeye Donut Dash raises funds to help patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.

“This is a big partnership, everybody wins,” Thompson said. “Because the Tour de Donut has so many followers, many more have donated (to Be the Match).”

The run and the bike event will begin simultaneously, then go their separate ways. All runners and cyclists will then merge back together on Market Street Bridge.

Riders have a choice of riding a 16-mile, 32-mile and 64-mile course through Miami County.

“Our event is casual, it is a lot of fun,” Bowersock said. “It’s something you have to experience to really understand. Most of the people who do it come back.”

Bowersock said the organization will start inviting doughnut shops in March to compete to be “The Glazer,” a special stop on the trail.

The Glazer stop serves riders an “over-the-top, overstuffed with goo, etc.” doughnut worth a 10-minute time reduction. The winning doughnut shop will be picked at the Troy Strawberry Festival in June.

Before Tour de Donut was held in Troy, it was hosted in Arcanum.