I'm looking for racers' group rides and route suggestions for Portland. I'm going to spend Thanksgiving weekend in downtown Portland and I'm planning on renting a bike and trying to ride Friday afternoon and Saturday and Sunday mornings. I saw on an OBRA calendar that there's a ride leaving from Lakeside Bicycles each weekend morning, but no indication of what kind of group it is. Are there any "classic" training routes that I should check out? Thanks in advance.

Downtown? You've got to do some of the nw skyline blvd routes. Serious climbs, nice scenery, traffic shouldn't be too bad over the weekend. Couldn't tell you about groups, I'll see if I can't googlemaps up some route specifics for ya, but Nw McNamee rd and Logie Trail to Skyline are super fun climbs.

I'd say head out and do the longest climb in the area, Larch Mountain, which is a 14-mile ascent, (though not very steep), but you'll get to snow before the top by now I think.

there is a host of rides leaving from River City Bicycles on Saturday I believe...might be worth a call.
also, if you can get out to Hillsboro, Team Oregon leaves from Hillsboro High School (just south of Cornelius Pass Rd.) parking lot at 9:30am sharp on Saturday morning...