Portland, Oregon June 3, 2002 – The Rose City Wheelmen, a Portland, Oregon-based bicycle club, held one of the major bicycle races of the 2002 season on Saturday, June 30 at Mt. Tabor Park in Southeast Portland. 
   The Phil Hohnstein Memorial Classic was for many years an official Rose Festival event. After the death of its original promoter, Phil Hohnstein, the race continued each year, but not always during the Rose Festival month. Now, Rose City Wheelmen, the bicycle club co-founded by Hohnstein, has brought the event back as an officially sanctioned Rose Festival event. 

   The race took place around the upper reservoir of Mt. Tabor on a hilly, 1.3-mile loop. Sanctioned by the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association, the race  actually included ten separate events for all ages and competitive levels. 
    “The Mt. Tabor Classic has a long and interesting history,” said race director Bruce Harmon of Rose City Wheelmen. “Top cycling athletes from all over the Northwest participate. This is an interesting and entertaining race to watch. There are many vantage points around the course to watch flashy, colorful bicycles and riders representing dozens of different racing teams all day from
8:45 am to 5:00 pm.”

    “As one of the most challenging races of the 2002 season for the nearly 150 competitors, each circuit through the beautiful forested park includes 136 feet of climbing and descents at speeds
exceeding 40 miles per hour,” Harmon added.

   Recumbents also raced

   New last season, and brought back due to its strong interest is a recumbent bicycle event. The low-slung recumbents compete in a four-lap exhibition race, which is the only such race of this
type in Oregon.    
    Race sponsors include River City Bicycles, Kissler’s Bicycles, Coventry Cycle Works, Higgins Restaurant, the new, web-only Oregon Magazine, Alpenrose Dairy, 24-Hour Fitness, Express signs and Graphics, and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.
    The Rose City Wheelmen has promoted the Mt. Tabor race annually since 1952. The event is named after the late Phil Hohnstein, the race originator and sponsor until the 1990s. 

   Hohnstein owned Phil’s Bicycle Shop on N.E. Broadway for nearly four decades, and was a charter member of Rose City Wheelmen.
    Founded in 1951, Rose City Wheelmen celebrate their 50th anniversary this year as Oregon’s oldest bicycle club. Members of Team Rose City have been dominant in competitive cycling at local, state, national and international levels, winning senior and masters state and national championships. Club members also won gold, silver and bronze medals at the World Masters Games held in Portland in 1998.
Schedule of races:

© 2002 Oregon Magazine