Road Painter

Happy New Year!! You may have heard about some cool changes for the Saint Francis Tulsa Tough Rides this year. I’m excited about where we’re headed. Tulsa Tough is going Gran Fondo! That roughly means “Big Ride” in Italian. In France it’s called “Cyclosportive”. In Tulsa it’s called “The Rides”. Seriously, that’s what we’ve called [...]

Thoughts on where we fell down in 2010 and what 2011 will bring to make it better – both up front and behind the scenes. NOTES: * Arvest Gate at OneOK Field for Saturday start backdrop * 7:30 start time both days * Registration packet pickup beginning Wed or Thurs the week before up till [...]

The Tulsa Tough 2010 from Stuart Campbell on Vimeo. 4 Friends. 100 Km bike race 100 degree’s Just for fun. this is the Tulsa Tough 2010

We all have our versions of what Oklahoma law says about bicycling on public roads. We learn from friends, email groups and out on the road riding with others. Many of us just operate on our own “good judgment”, evaluating situations and acting according to our perception of what’s safe, laws be damned. I do [...]

We use a chip timing system to keep track of rider locations and elapsed ride times on the  touring rides at Tulsa Tough. You’ve used or seen similar systems in running and triathlon events. The rider wears an ankle strap with a small electronic device and whenever they cross a remote sensor on the roadway, [...]

The laws in Oklahoma governing bicycling on public roads aren’t perfectly clear. But we have laws and you should be informed. Malcolm McCollam is a Tulsa attorney, Event Director of Tulsa Tough, and an avid cyclist for over 25 years. He has represented a large number of bicyclists in legal cases involving their use of [...]

About one and a quarter miles of N. 41st W. Ave. is under construction, along with the new road being built out to the Botanical Garden. That will be a great thing for the community in that area but it plays havoc with Tulsa Tough’s Saturday Ride finish. 41st W. Ave. was always kind of [...]

One of the big differences between non-competitive and competitive cycling events is in how you get the word out and attract participants. An event like Tulsa Tough has to bring in all kinds of riders from professional and club racers to fast, long-distance tour riders to average pedestrian riders of all sizes and abilities. The [...]

Our goal at Tulsa Tough is to grow the rides to a sustainable level. Sustainable means participant numbers we can sustain over the long haul by creating touring rides people want to come back to and recommend. It also means growing ride participation to numbers that give us a strong income base to sustain the [...]

I’ve always been better at doing it myself than delegating and managing. I guess that’s how I was taught. Not because that was the intentional lesson but that’s how my parents did it and theirs before them. But the Tulsa Tough Rides are way too big for that. It has to be a team effort. [...]