Cycle Oregon Rally Rolls Through Southern Oregon
Hundreds of riders are exploring the Rogue Valley through Wednesday.
AT A GLANCE
Event: Cycle Oregon Rally 2026 runs through Wednesday across Southern Oregon.
Basecamps: Riders are using Grants Pass and Jacksonville as home bases during the five-day event.
Routes: Daily options include paved and gravel rides ranging from roughly 30 to nearly 77 miles.
Purpose: Rally is a non-competitive tour built around riding, community connections, and exploring the Rogue Valley.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — For the next few days, hundreds of people will experience Southern Oregon at a pace that makes it difficult to simply pass through.
They will climb the hills above the Rogue Valley, follow quiet roads along rivers and vineyards, roll through small communities, and eventually return to camp tired, hungry, and carrying stories from a day spent almost entirely on two wheels.
Cycle Oregon’s 2026 Rally is underway across the Rogue Valley, bringing riders to Grants Pass, Jacksonville, Ashland, and the surrounding countryside through Wednesday.
Rolling Through Jacksonville: Cyclists ride through historic Jacksonville, one of the two basecamp communities for Cycle Oregon Rally 2026. Cycle Oregon.
But Rally is not really built around getting somewhere first.
There is no winner waiting at the end of the road.
Instead, riders choose a route each morning, ranging from relatively approachable rides to long days with thousands of feet of climbing, and head out to see what Southern Oregon looks like from a bicycle.
That distinction is at the heart of Cycle Oregon.
“Every ride we design is rooted in a bigger purpose: connecting cyclists directly to the culture, history, and people of Oregon’s unique towns.”
For some riders, that may mean choosing the longest route they can manage. For others, it may mean stopping along the way, riding with friends, finding a local business they have never visited, or simply spending an afternoon on roads they otherwise would have driven through in minutes.
Rally gives them plenty of options.
The event began with Grants Pass as its first basecamp, where riders can choose among paved and gravel routes that stretch from roughly 40 miles to more than 60 miles.
By Monday, the event begins its move toward Jacksonville. Tuesday’s routes spread from Jacksonville toward Ashland and include the biggest climbing challenge of the week, with the longest option approaching 77 miles and more than 5,600 feet of elevation gain.
On Wednesday, riders begin making their way back toward Grants Pass.
Together, the routes form a broad tour of the Rogue Valley, touching the Rogue River corridor, Applegate Valley, Siskiyou foothills, vineyards, forests, and communities between Grants Pass and Ashland.
Camp Community: Riders gather at the Cycle Oregon Rally basecamp in Grants Pass, where tents, bikes, and shared downtime turn the event into a temporary cycling community. Cycle Oregon.
A temporary town built around bikes
The ride itself is only part of Rally.
When cyclists return to camp, the experience shifts from miles and elevation to dinner, music, conversation, and the peculiar camaraderie that develops when hundreds of people have spent the day doing the same difficult thing in different ways.
Cycle Oregon provides catered meals, aid stations, mechanical and medical support, camping facilities, evening entertainment, and other services intended to make the event feel less like a collection of individual bike rides and more like a temporary community.
Live music fills the evenings, with a lineup ranging from rock and blues to singer-songwriters and local performers. Other nightly programming introduces riders to organizations, places, and stories from the region they are traveling through.
That is deliberate.
Cycle Oregon describes its mission simply: bringing the joy of riding a bicycle to Oregon.
The organization began with its first ride in 1988, when more than 1,000 cyclists crossed the state together. Nearly four decades later, the rides have evolved, but the idea behind them remains recognizable: put people on bicycles, bring them into Oregon communities, and give them reasons to slow down and connect with the places around them.
Rally is one version of that idea.
“Bringing Rally 2026 to both Grants Pass and Jacksonville gives our riders an incredible dual-basecamp experience — from the banks of the Rogue River to the historic charm of the Applegate Valley,” Lance said.
When the riding stops
The experience does not end when riders return to camp.
Rally evenings include live music, food, presentations, and other programming designed to turn each basecamp into a temporary gathering place. This year’s lineup spans rock, blues, roots music, singer-songwriters, DJs, and even a Tuesday night edition of Karaoke From Hell.
Performers throughout the event include Jellybread, Jermaine, Brian James & The Revival, Keegan Smith with DJ Harlow, The Brothers Reed, Brooklyn Del & The Revelators, Baz Moto, and others.
The nightly schedule also connects riders with Southern Oregon beyond the bike. Programming includes presentations from Wildlife Images Rehabilitation Center, the new Dollar Mountain riding area near Grants Pass, and Jacksonville historian Larry Smith.
A Break Along the Way: Riders stop for a break along a rural Southern Oregon route, part of the slower pace and community-focused experience at the heart of Cycle Oregon Rally. Cycle Oregon.
What the ride leaves behind
Cycle Oregon also wants the relationship with host communities to last longer than the event itself.
“Our work goes far beyond the bike ride this week,” Executive Director Steve Schulz said. “Through youth bike education, statewide advocacy, and direct community grants, Cycle Oregon exists to reinvest in the places that welcome us.”
The Cycle Oregon Foundation has awarded 397 community grants totaling more than $3.6 million over the organization’s history. Its work now includes youth bicycle education, community projects, and investments aimed at making cycling more accessible around Oregon.
For the communities hosting Rally this week, though, the impact is also much more immediate.
Hundreds of riders need meals. They wander into shops. They stop for coffee. They see towns and roads they may never have encountered otherwise. Some will come back.
And for a few days, people driving through Grants Pass, Jacksonville, or the backroads of the Rogue Valley may notice something unusual: groups of cyclists climbing roads, crossing valleys, and disappearing around bends toward the next stop.
For the riders, those roads are the point.
The distance matters. The climbing matters. But Cycle Oregon has built Rally around the idea that what happens between the start and finish matters more.
By Wednesday, the tents will come down, the riders will head home, and the temporary cycling community will disappear.
What organizers hope remains is a stronger connection between the people who came to ride and the Southern Oregon communities that gave them somewhere worth riding through.
Cover Image / Southern Oregon Roads: Cyclists ride through the Rogue Valley with Mount McLoughlin rising in the distance, one of the landscapes highlighted by Cycle Oregon Rally routes. Cycle Oregon.
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