Oregon Gran Fondo 2026

Cottage Grove sits 20 minutes south of Eugene in a part of Oregon that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough — rolling Willamette Valley farmland that bumps up against the Coast Range foothills, laced with quiet county roads and logging routes that go largely unridden. The Oregon Gran Fondo uses all of it. The Gran route covers 100 miles; the Medio Fondo offers a 70-mile option. What makes this one interesting is the choice architecture: riders can select two all-road routes or two mixed-surface routes, which means the same event works whether you’re on a carbon road bike or a gravel setup.

Mudslinger Events has been running Oregon cycling events for years and the logistics show it — full aid stations, well-marked courses, and a festival atmosphere in Cottage Grove at the start and finish. May in the Willamette Valley is usually the sweet spot: the spring rains are tapering off, the roads are drying out, and the hills are still green before summer turns them gold. The Coast Range provides enough elevation to make the Gran feel like a genuine achievement, with the valley roads in the early and late miles serving as a pleasant warmup and cooldown.

For anyone based in the Pacific Northwest who’s ridden Seattle and Portland events to death, this is a natural road trip — two to three hours from either city, a bike-friendly town, and terrain that genuinely surprises you. The fact that it’s also part of Mudslinger’s broader Oregon Triple Crown Series gives fast riders something to chase across multiple events throughout the year.