After the tents have pulled up and the cycles are back on the rack, the 2010 Subaru Elephant Rock Cycling Festival’s final numbers are in.

The annual event, in its 23rd year, had an increase to the amount of funds it raised for 30 nonprofit organizations in Colorado, which totaled $160,000. More than 7,000 riders participated in the event this year.

“There were a lot of happy faces out there on more than 200 miles of courses spanning Douglas, Elbert, and El Paso counties,” event director Scot Harris said. “Our pedal power took us far this year.”

Among the nonprofit beneficiaries was Team Rise, representing the Rise School of Denver with 33 riders who raised $35,000 in pledges. Team CNI, representing the Colorado Neurological Institute Center from Brain and Spinal Tumors, had 93 riders led by 9News KUSA anchor and community chair Susie Wargin and raised $25,050 in pledges.

Raising more than $63,000 in pledges was Team Transplant, representing the American Transplant Foundation’s local chapter, and Team Zimbabwe, representing the Zimbabwe Mission Partnership to support 1,00 orphans in Zimbabwe, Africa, had 50 cyclists raise $15,000 in pledges.

As much as $26,000 was raised by 26 local volunteer groups, such as the Boy Scouts and other civic organizations from Arapahoe, Douglas and El Paso Counties, and assisted in staffing the festival’s aid stations.

In an effort to reduce the waste footprint of the festival, Elephant Rock organizers enlisted the help of ZeroHero Events, based out of Fort Collins, which helped more than 7,00 cyclists generate nearly 8,000 pounds of trash. The program’s involvement reduced E-Rock’s normal landfill waste by 90 percent.

“When we received the results, we were proud of our E-Rockers,” Harris said. “As a first-time ZeroHero participant, we planned a 70 percent waste diversion and instead had just over 90 percent waste diversion from landfilling.

“We also noticed that many school-age children pointed out our recycling efforts to their parents and grandparents during the day.”

The Colorado Ol’Pokes staffed a dozen ZeroHero waste stations to help the festival’s expo area recycle, sort and compost E-Rock’s waste footprint. In addition, volunteers assisted in educating participants about recycling and waste sorting efforts.

The 2010 Subaru Elephant Rock Cycling Festival was June 6 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock. According to event office distance calculations, the collective mileage of the riders had them pedaling to the moon, and almost enough for a return trip with 449,400 miles complete by registered cyclists on all pledge teams, long and short courses and riders of all ages throughout the June 6 festival day.