Paul Thomasberg has dreamed of this ride for years.

On Friday, the fattest ride in the 10-year history of Bend’s Big Fat Tour will finally happen.

Fifty hard-core mountain bikers will drive to Paulina Peak at 7 a.m. to embark on a 94-mile, point-to-point ride all the way to Sisters. The route is all on dirt roads, and is 75 percent singletrack. At Mile 60, riders will face a 20-mile climb up the Storm King, Skyliner and North Fork trails.

”I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” said Thomasberg, who founded the Big Fat Tour and is organizing the routes and logistics. ”Finally, it’s like: OK, let’s do it.’ Logistically, it’s a difficult event to put on.”

The ride will include three aid stations as well as guides to help the riders along. Friday’s ride is called the ”epic” ride of Cog Wild Bicycle Tours’ three-day long tour, which includes four rides. While the epic ride of the Big Fat Tour has been longer in the past, it’s never been a point-to-point covering this many miles.

”It’s the 10th anniversary, so we’ve got to pull out something special,” said Cog Wild owner Woody Starr. ”We’re pulling it off, but it remains to be seen if anybody can finish it.”

While Friday’s ride is full, the Big Fat Tour is still taking registration for rides on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday includes a 45-mile ride from Dutchman Flat Sno-Park to Shevlin Park and and an easier 18-mile ride. Sunday will feature a 22-mile loop ride from Corbett Sno-Park.

Thomasberg stressed that these rides are non-competitive events. Nobody will be racing, but rather enjoying a long ride during the fall in Central Oregon. But on Friday’s course, it may be hard to enjoy oneself after 50 or so miles.

”It’s long and hard,” Thomasberg said of the epic. ”You have to be smart and careful and take care of yourself. It’ll probably take about nine to 10 hours. I really don’t know if anybody will finish.”

Thomasberg added that riders will constantly be eating sandwiches and energy bars, and said a biker will likely drink 280 ounces of water or more.

If riders along the way believe they can’t make it to the end, they will have options of various locations to pull off the course and ride into Bend.

”We get people every year that have no idea what they’re in for,” Thomasberg said. ”The most important thing is to ride steady, don’t stop and eat every half hour.”

The 42-year old Thomasberg certainly knows what he is talking about. He was just inducted into the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame – whose headquarters are in Crested Butte, Colo. – last week at a trade show in Las Vegas.

Thomasberg – a founding member of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance who’s lived in Bend since 1989 – began riding backcountry trails in 1969 near Lake Tahoe. In 1976, he cobbled together his first mountain bike.

At the World Mountain Bike Championships in 1990, Thomasberg took third place in the downhill and fourth in the cross country event. He was a professional racer for 10 years.

But Thomasberg received an ”industry” nomination to the hall of fame for his work and innovation with Shimano components.

”The hall of fame came at a really good time,” Thomasberg said. ”All these other people were getting inducted and I was doing all this stuff way back when.”

Thomasberg has been invaluable in all 10 years of the Big Fat Tour, especially this year, when logistics have been tougher than ever with the point-to-point epic ride. He has spent countless hours on trail work for the tour.

”I’m good with courses and logistics,” Thomasberg said. ”We were trying to figure out if we could do something unique still. It (Bend’s Big Fat Tour) has always been a community event.”

For more information on Bend’s Big Fat Tour, contact Cog Wild Bicycle Tours at 385-7002 or log onto www.bigfattour.com.

Mark Morical can be reached at 383-0318 or mmorical@bendbulletin.com.