With three stated goals of longer, higher and harder,

announced its 25th anniversary weeklong ride tonight, a hill-packed adventure of up to 490 miles that will take riders on a tour of Southern Oregon desert, high country and culture.

The routes for the Sept. 9-15 week ride and the July 14-15 weekend ride were announced at a kickoff party held at the Tiger Woods Center on the Nike World Headquarters campus. Nike is a founding sponsor of Cycle Oregon.

The weeklong ride will start Sept. 9 in Bly and travel to Silver Lake; on Sept. 10, the ride travels to Fort Klamath; Sept. 11, to Crater Lake and then Prospect; Sept. 12, to Ashland and Southern Oregon University; Sept. 13 will be a layover day; Sept. 14, to Klamath Falls; and Sept. 15, a return to Bly.

Cost for the week ride is $895. That helps support the Cycle Oregon Fund, which supplies grants to support bicycling in Oregon as well as the communities through which it rides. The fund, which totals more than $1 million, typically donates $100,000 or more per year to projects around the state.

Cycle Oregon President Jonathan Nicholas, who helped start the seven-day ride when he worked as a columnist for The Oregonian -- a founding sponsor of Cycle Oregon -- introduced each day to a cheering crowd. For the first time, the event was shown on live streaming video.

To illustrate how much climbing this year's ride would entail, Nicholas noted that Cycle Oregon typically climbs 26,000 to 28,000 vertical feet over a typical week. This year's total: more than 40,000.

"I will, of course," Nicholas told the crowd, "be out in front of you on every one of those."

Sunday (Sept. 9):

Cycle Oregon technically starts the Saturday before actual riding, when riders set up tents and become familiar with the host city. The first day of riding will be Sunday, when riders will leave the high Southern Oregon desert town of Bly, which is 44 miles east of Klamath Falls, and travel east and north to Silver Lake for a 70-mile day.

Monday:

Dubbed "Marsh Madness," the 81-mile route will pass through Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Collier State Park and end at Fort Klamath on the prairie of what Nicholas said was a third-generation cattleman. The cattleman will have set aside 2,000 steaks for dining that evening.

Tuesday:

"Day three is the day I recommend you all beginning training," Nicholas said, "tomorrow." This is a fabled day that Nicholas described on the final evening of last year's ride from a state in Riddle, saying this year's ride would feature a route where riders would pedal higher and ride longer than ever before in Cycle Oregon's history.

The key ingredient is Crater Lake. The route, with 61-mile and 88-mile options, will take riders up to the Crater Lake's south rim with the chance to ride the approximately 30 miles around the lake. In that circle, the road is not flat for more than 300 yards, Nicholas said, inspiring the day's nickname: Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down.

The route features a plunging 16-mile descent, ending in Prospect.

Wednesday:

The 76-mile route out of Prospect will roll past meadows to Butte Falls with a major climb to alpine lakes and then a descent to a city where Cycle Oregon has never stayed overnight: Ashland. The approximately 2,200 riders will camp on the lawns of Southern Oregon University.

Thursday:

Dubbed "Peak Experience," this will be a layover day with the opportunity to take 27- or 46-mile loops up and back to Mount Ashland. Also, Shakespeare Festival outdoor theater tickets will be set aside for Wednesday and Thursday night for Cycle Oregon riders. First night's production will be "The Merry Wives of Windsor," second night, "As You Like It."

Friday:

The ride ascends to the high desert, traveling with view of Mount McLoughlin for 65 miles to Klamath Falls.

Saturday (Sept. 15):

The 64-mile route will pass through Bonanza to where it all began the week before, Bly.

Weekend ride

The weekend ride, called "Heart of the Valley," will use Oregon State University in Corvallis as its base for ride options of up to 68 miles on Saturday, July 14, and options up to 66 miles on Sunday, July 15. $160 adult, $75 student, free for 6 and under.

For the first time, registration tonight was held exclusively online. In the past, people who attended the annual kickoff party were typically assured of a spot if they submitted a paid registration at the event. Event organizers sought a more fair process by moving registration entirely to the Web.

Organizers also anticipated this year's weeklong ride filling quickly. In 2011 the Week Ride, limited to roughly 2,200 riders based on route logistics, sold out in only 36 hours – its fastest sellout ever. The Weekend Ride, a three-day, family-friendly version of the longer tour, sold more than 1,750 spots.

And the organizers were right: About 2,000 spots available on this year's ride sold out in less than two hours.