BY MATT KITE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 7/24/2026
How much do you love donuts?
Put another way, how far would you be willing to ride a bicycle in exchange for eating your fill of donuts? And are you and your digestive system hardy enough to ride and dine at the same time?
You can answer all three questions for yourself this Sunday, July 26, at Tacoma’s 2026 Tour de Donut. The community ride, which kicks off at 10 a.m., starts and finishes at 2nd Cycle in Hilltop. For a suggested donation of $40, each participant and their taste buds will savor a leisurely twenty-mile ride through several Tacoma neighborhoods, plus a sampling from four different donut shops.
The first donuts, courtesy of Le Donut, just a few blocks away from 2nd Cycle, will be served during registration. Then riders will roll southeast to their first official stop: Connie’s Donuts & Espresso in Tacoma’s Eastside. Once sufficiently sugared up, they will venture northwest to Pao’s Donut & Coffee Shop in the West End neighborhood. The final donut stop will be at Top Pot Doughnuts in the Proctor District.
Twenty miles. Four donuts.
Before circling back to 2nd Cycle, each rider will have consumed roughly 1,000 calories and 75 percent of their recommended daily fat intake.
If this sounds extreme, you probably missed the first incarnation of the event, which was twice as long and pushed participants to devour thirteen donuts. Riding that far while somehow keeping down a baker’s dozen donuts required strong legs and a stomach of steel.
“It was the worst I’ve ever felt after a ride,” says 2nd Cycle’s executive director Leon Nettels of his first donut ride. “We had to go outside of Tacoma to cover all the territory. It was brutal.”
Nettels went on to complete the ride two more times. The second year, he notes, was the most painful, because he knew what to expect. He finished the distance and ate all the donuts in exchange for the top prize, which was a donut hat, but by the third year, he skimped on the fuel.
“I didn’t eat all the donuts,” he says, “because I knew it wasn’t worth it.”
That event, like a lot of small community rides, didn’t continue on, but before it could fade from memory, Nettels toyed with reviving it. When he presented the idea at a board meeting for 2nd Cycle, a nonprofit organization and the organizer behind the current donut ride, he met with resistance at first.
“The board thought it was an awful idea,” he recalls, “so we made it four shops and a twenty-mile ride.”
Thus Tacoma’s new-and-improved Tour de Donut was born last year, when a total of eighty-eight riders registered. Nettels and his team are hoping for as many as one hundred registrants this Sunday. The first seventy-five to register earn a free commemorative pin, and although $40 is the recommended registration fee, no one will be turned away due to insufficient funds. Nettels encourages riders to pay more if they can afford to do so in order to cover the costs of others who are unable to pay the fee.
Riding-and-dining tactics, meanwhile, vary among participants. At last year’s event, Nettels ate a glazed donut at each shop and decided afterward that Connie’s was the best. But other riders prefer to sample from a variety.
“We’ve got an assortment of donuts at each shop,” Nettels says. “The first person in line will get their pick of the donuts, and the last people will get what other people didn’t want.”
Sounds like a good reason to pick up the pace, especially if you’re partial to maple bars, apple fritters, or jellies.
After the ride, an informal vote determines the best donut shop. Pao’s won last year’s contest.
All proceeds from the ride directly support 2nd Cycle’s youth and community programming. If you’ve never been, 2nd Cycle is a bicycle shop, recycle/reuse center, and cyclist, youth, and community advocacy group all rolled into one. You can take your bike there to have it repaired, or you can do the repairs yourself during “open shop” hours every Friday. Community members are encouraged to donate their bikes, parts, and time to the cause. An e-bike lending library, youth education, and several annual events round out the programming.
Nettels, who moved with his wife to Tacoma in 2012, began as a volunteer at 2nd Cycle, served on the board, and eventually became executive director in 2022. He helps organize various community-wide events, and for the moment, his focus is on the upcoming Tour de Donut.
The ride, he emphasizes, is noncompetitive and family-friendly. E-bikes are welcome, and would-be participants are encouraged to make sure their bikes are fully functional and their tires are properly inflated before the event. The course includes two bathroom stops along the way, and a support van will be on hand to address mechanical failures, medical issues, and other potential problems.
“Twenty miles isn’t the easiest,” Nettels says, “but the route and support make it so it really should be accessible to anybody.”
The donuts help too.
2026 Tour de Donut
Sunday, July 26, 10:00 a,m, $40
2nd Cycle, 1205 M.L.K. Jr Way, Tacoma, WA 98405.
More information at 2ndcycle.org.
