Tour de Wildwood - Oct 8th, 2023

The Tour de Wildwood is back for 2023!

2023 Tour de Wildwood - Sunday, October 8th

Routes from 14 to 50 miles in beautiful Wildwood, Missouri

Registration open! Click here to register. . .

NOTE: ONLINE REGISTRATION IS OPEN THROUGH LAST RIDE DEPARTURE TIME AT 9AM RIDE MORNING. REGISTER ONLINE THEN COME DOWN, OR COME ON DOWN TO WILDWOOD CITY HALL AND REGISTER IN PERSON - EITHER WAY WORKS!

Ebikes welcome! See note below.

Save time at check-in: Download/print/sign your insurance waiver (PDF file)

We are very pleased to be able to partner with the City of Wildwood to offer the EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL Tour de Wildwood on Sunday October 8th, 2023. Ride a section of historic Route 66, visit Babler State Park and Rockwoods Reservation Conservation Area, and enjoy the beautiful fall leaves as you ride the low-traffic roads through the hills of Wildwood.

Tour de Wildwood - visit the Rockwood Reservation, Babler State Park, and many other scenic areas in Wildwood

This year's event is a special commemorative ride for Paul Wojciechowski, who founded the Tour de Wildwood, was a  longtime civic booster in Wildwood, and a longtime MoBikeFed Board Member and President and for David Glaser, first mayor of Wildwood and avid cyclist.  Both Paul and David passed away last year - and both made significant contributions to the cycling community and the city of Wildwood that we want to recognize and remember!

Win a bike! Every ride registration is an entry in our bike giveaway.  Bike giveawary courtesy Big Shark Bicycle Company.

More about the 2023 Tour de Wildwood and our Host City

Wildwood is in western St Louis County, convenient to everywhere in the greater St Louis area, and just an 1.5-2 hours to Columbia, Hannibal, Farmington, and Cape Girardeau and many areas of downstate Illinois. We have people travel to Wildwood from all across Missouri and some adjoining states each year. Hope you can join us!

The routes are entirely within the City of Wildwood - a city located on Historic Route 66, and the MOPAC line, the Wabash line, the Frisco line, and the Rock Island line - a potential future cross-state trail connection. The city is located in far west, rural St Louis County and incorporates a number of historic communities and villages that grew up in that area: Pond, Orrville, Centaur, Fox Creek, Hollow, Westland Acres, Monarch, Melrose, and Grover. And don't forget Zombie Road - known as the most haunted road in America!

The area is brimming with history and natural beauty - the kind of thing you don't expect to find in a major metropolitan area.  But here we are!

The city limits include several extensive and beautiful natural areas - and we'll visit most of them on the ride.  They include Rockwoods Reservation, Greensfelder Park, Rockwoods Range, and Babler State Park.

The city has an extensive trail and bikeway system, and many hiking and mountain biking opportunities within the natural areas.

The Missouri Greenway/Monarch-Chesterfield Levee Trail is in northern Wildwood - connecting directly to the Katy Trail - the Western Greenway and Meramec River Greenway connect in the south, and Bicycle Route 66 goes directly through the city - and we will ride sections of that route, including some preserved segments of the original Route 66 alignment.

Big Chief Roadhouse in Wildwood - a historic Route 66 icon - is right on our route, along with buildings along the "Old Wire Road" stagecoach route dating to the 1860s.

And the most unusual feature in Wildwood: A 1923 monument erected by the St Louis Bicycle Club in honor of one of their members.  The club - the oldest continuously active bicycle club in America - often rode to the Wildwood area, using some of the same routes we will. Our route goes directly past the monument, which is on historic Route 66 near the old Pond Hotel.

You can see a number of the area's interesting historical and natural sites on the TDW route map.

Altogether, Wildwood is a great place to get together and have a challenging, beautiful end-of-season ride. Hope you'll be joining us this year! 

Location & Schedule

The ride starts and ends at Wildwood City Hall, 16860 Main Street, Wildwood, MO.

• Parking is in the parking structure directly north of City Hall or the surface parking lot directly north of the parking structure. 
• Registration/ride check-in is inside City Hall.

Sunday, October 8th, 2023:

• 7am - Registration opens (Inside Wildwood City Hall)
• 8am - Long route (50 mile) departs
• 9am - Short routes (14, 22, 28 miles) depart
• 11am-1pm - Lunch (at start/finish area)
  • Note:  The lunch trailer will CLOSE promptly at 1pm.  The lunch trailer will be closed up and moved off site. Please plan to arrive at the finish line before 1pm if you want to enjoy the lunch!
• 12:30pm - BIKE GIVEAWAY, courtesy BIG SHARK BICYCLE CO. - Every ride registration is a ticket for the bike giveaway drawing; we'll also sell raffle tickets on ride morning.

WIN A BIKE! Courtesy of Big Shark Bicycle Co.

We will be giving away this beautiful bike, courtesy of Big Shark Bicycle Co., in a raffle drawing at 12:30pm.  Every ride registration is an entry in the bike giveaway, and additional raffle tickets can be purchased when you register online OR at ride registration Sunday morning.

Huge thanks to Big Shark Bicycle Co. for providing the bicycle for the Bike Giveaway, and also for supporting this years Tour de Wildwood with SAG and technical support.

2023 Tour de Wildwood Jersey!

We have an amazing 2023 Tour de Wildwood jersey lined up, commemorating Paul Wojciechowski and David Glaser. Jerseys are $65 and are first come, first served on ride day.  

Routes and Route Downloads for 2023

See the 2023 TdW routes on our RideWithGPS event page.

All turns are marked with orange paint and "W" (for Wildwood) EXCEPT the section in Babler Park, which is marked with signs "Tour de Wildwood".

Where routes diverge, they are marked Long (L) and Short (S); also look for "Out" (outbound) and "In" (Inbound) where inbound & outbound routes meet, and "14", "20", and "22" where the routes of those mileages turn around.

Get the routes:

• Option 1: Get the routes on the (free) RideWithGPS app - the easy way to navigate the route with your smart phone

1. 

   Enjoy the beautiful, scenic roads of Wildwood, Missouri
   Install RideWithGPS app (Android, iPhone); create a (free) account if necessary
2. Visit the TdW Event Page (easiest with your mobile device)
3. On the Event Page click "RSVP"
4. In the app (on your device) find the event page & all event routes under "More/My Events"
5. "Download for Offline" any routes you want to ride (This step is very important as you might not have cell service on route)

If you would like a printed version of any of the route maps, want to share them, download cue sheets, export the data for a device or program,  etc.:

1. Visit the EVENT PAGE (on your mobile device OR on a computer)
2. Click on the route you would like to view
3. Click on "Go To Route"
4. Find the "MORE" drop-down menu
5. You can choose to: export file, print maps and cue sheets, open in route planner, and copy to routes

• Option 2: Download/print PDF route file or download route files for various GPS devices

  • Short route, 14, 22, or 28 miles (2023 Printable Map PDF - RideWithGPS - FIT - TCX - GPX - GPX small)    
  • Long route (2023 Printable Map PDF - RideWithGPS map - FIT - TCX - GPX - GPX small)
    • Note: "GPX small" files are GPX files reduced in size to 2000 points. They will work better with some older/less capable GPS devices.

Routes are mostly on the beautiful low-traffic roads of Wildwood. Most TdW routes are on rural roads with 25-30 MPH speed limits.

The route passes through or along several parks, conservation areas, and Babler State Park. Several sections of the route are on historic Route 66. 

This monument was erected in 1923 by the St Louis Cycling Club - the oldest bicycle club in the U.S. The club often rode out to the Pond Hotel, which started as a stagecoach stop in the 1840s and was still open along Route 66 through the 1950s.

Registration, Start/Finish, Parking

The Start/Finish for the Tour de Wildwood will be at:

Wildwood City Hall on Main Street in the Town Center
16860 Main St.
Wildwood, MO, 63040

Parking is in the parking structure directly north of City Hall or the surface parking lot directly north of the parking structure.

Registration is inside City Hall. 

Lunch (11am-1pm) will be served just outside City Hall.

Ride registration is $45 early ($22.50 for student/low budget); $55 regular ($27.50 student/low budget); $65 day-of. 

• Note: As with all MoBikeFed rides, cyclists with a disability and a companion ride free. To register as a cyclist with a disability or disability companion, just follow the regular ride registration link, and select the option for cyclist with a disability/companion.

Riders will enjoy a fully sagged ride, SAG stops with refreshments, lunch after the ride, and a LOT of goodies with ride registration--see below.

• MoBikeFed membership/renewal
• Lunch following the ride
• Sag Support
• Bike Mechanic on site--thanks to Big Shark Bicycle Co.
• Rest Stop Refreshments 3

Registration now open - click here to register!

Ebikes at the Tour de Wildwood

Ebikes are welcome and invited at the Tour de Wildwood. Please ride safely and blend in with other riders.

If you have not regularly ridden with other riders or in close formation with other cyclist/non-ebikes, please be extra cautious and keep a safe distance from other riders. Ebikes are capable of very rapid acceleration, which can cause problems when riding in close formation with other riders.  If you are used to dealing with this, you know what to do!  If you are not, please just use extra caution and keep an extra buffer distance between you and riders ahead, and use extra caution when passing other riders.

Wildwood was created from several historical communities in west St Louis County

Volunteers needed!

We can't run an amazing event like this without some really great volunteers to help!

We have a nice package of perks lined up for our volunteers.  For some volunteer jobs, you can volunteer AND ride.

• Click here to volunteer

Register for the ride

• Registration now open - click here to register!

Many thanks to the City of Wildwood for working with us to present the Tour of Wildwood this year! 

Sponsors

Huge thank you to the 2023 Tour de Wildwood ride supporters and sponsors! 

City of Wildwood

Big Shark Bicycle Company

St. Louis County Police Department

Many thanks to Ryan Clymer for creating the GPS Track of the route!

Photos from previous editions of the Tour de Wildwood are now online!

• 2022 ride photos on Facebook and on FlickR
• 2019 ride photos
• 2018 ride photos
• 2017 ride photos
• 2016 ride photos
• 2015 ride photos:
  • Photos by ride photographer Scott Schwartz (downloadable--look for 'download' arrow)
  • TdW riders in Rockwoods Reservation by Missouri photographer Dennis Coello
  • Ride snapshots (all downloadable--click on any photo, then look for the down-pointing arrow near the bottom RH corner)
• 2014 ride photos