We are on the eve of release of the 2018 Ohio Bicycle Events Calendar with the Web and PDF versions going live tomorrow (March 7), and the print version expected to begin shipping the same day! We’re a little later than usual due to unexpected delays at the printers’ but we hope you find the product well worth the wait. This year we’re listing nearly 160 bicycle touring and racing events of interest to Ohio’s bicyclists, some rides are new and many are returning with their annual offerings. As you peruse the Calendar’s pages, make note of the events’ anniversaries: for example, this is TOSRV‘s 57th running! Organized bicycle touring in the USA could be said to have gotten its start in Ohio. I don’t know if that’s literal fact, but TOS’ is the nation’s oldest touring event and inspired the founding of many events across the nation! We hope the Calendar, published by the Ohio Bicycle Federation, is helpful to ride organizers trying to recruit participants, and to people looking for wonderful experiences on two wheels. Use Calendar in good health!

The Calendar has been an annual print publication since its first edition, produced in 1984. In recent years we, along with other publications, have seen increased reliance upon electronic distribution. While we have a definite old-school bias in favor of print, web access to our information has its advantages, among them the ability to add, update, and correct published content. While we love paper, once something is printed it’s “difficult” to “unprint.” Regardless of your delivery preference, as the season progresses be sure to regularly check our online events listings for changes and updates.

To support the organizations and businesses that advertise with us, making the print Calendar possible, we have integrated display advertising amongst our online event listings for the first time ever. This is our first effort at publishing ads with our listings and it is frankly a bit creaky; layout and relative ad sizes change between platforms — desktops/tablets/phones — and their very differently sized screens and while our site’s software can handle the various sizes, not everything translates equally well. So, don’t be surprised to see ad delivery evolve and become more sophisticated during the 2018 season as we balance ad exposure with viewer experience.  We need to publish the ads, and we want to do it right for all involved! One nice thing about online advertising: if you see an event, organization, or business you want to know more about just tap/click on the ad and you’ll be whisked to that advertiser’s own website.

So, do click!

— James Guilford, Editor