The last time the Bike Virginia Tour visited the Abingdon and Kingsport area in 2008 we had a sell out event. With 2,000 cyclists riding for 5 days, riders had tons of fun and lots of great memories. That was our 21st annual event.
Our bike event, in it’s 28th year, is returning to the Virginia Highlands region again for 2015 with our June 26-July 1 bike ride event. The many great bike routes for riding in the region, combined with the rich history, and warm southern hospitality make the area very alluring.
If you’re interested in a first person review of the event, then you might enjoy what 2008 rider, Terry Pierce had to say on his club blog. See an excerpt below.
A Rider Review: Bike Virginia Abingdon and Kingsport
Saturday’s ride started to cool gray skies but the roads and route were spectacular. As soon as we left Bristol we were rolling in high country and seemed like the majority of the ride was alongside either beautiful trout waters or rolling onto ridge lines with nice overlooks (pictured left: Al and Margaret testing their touring load with full paniers, Crooked road out of Bristol on right). I was grateful for 33 cassette when we rolled back to camp and had a hill climb closer to 15%. I felt good all day and passed all but two pace lines even though I was able to ride with them for long enough to know that it was too much work for day one of the five day ride.
I had hoped to be camping and cycling with James Wells from the Cape Fear Cyclist’s (CFC) but his wife Brenda needed help dealing with a recent medical malady, so he scratched just days before the ride. Even still, there were plenty of off friendly faces to share the ride experience of with. People like the guys I ate Mexican with that night. Howard, David and Jeff, were three jovial guys formerly from near my old home in Wisconsin. The one pitfall for this year’s BVA was a lack of shower and sink space and an odd changing tent in front of the On Deck shower truck. But this was still better than some of the few gym showers. BVA apparently needs to learn to hire Rubber Ducky for their shower service.
Sunday was an early rise to find the heavy rains from the night bfore had nearly dried off the tents. I was glad my North Face tent kept me dry during the deluge. Having learned how to cope with the long breakfast lines (get there early), I found the sausage, biscuits, grits, bacon, eggs, orange juice and coffee to be a good morning fuel. We headed out after topping off the air and water bottles. Pleasant rollers and cool temperatures ruled the morning and soon pace lines were setting up.
I jumped in with a line of three others and eventually started pulling hard only to pull away from them on one particularly fast downhill. Seeing a recumbent rider stopped in the road and an orange cone marking it a turn I went to brake hard only to skid on my back tire, angling out to near 8:00 o’clock before releasing brakes to recover the skid. I kept it upright and hit the brake again with the same effect. With the steep grade I was not able to get my bike slowed up enough to make a full 90° turn! To keep from hitting the pavement I took to the ditch just past the incoming road stop sign and prior to a farmer’s mailbox. When I got up to the ditch I realized it was about 3 foot wide and about a 1-foot of swamp bog that was too big to hop. My front tire buried to bring the bike to an immediate halt and flail me heels-over-head in a somersault, into the farmer’s yard! My glasses flew off and my neck got tweaked in the rollout but it I immediately rolled to my feet and began to assess my condition. My helmet, front fork, tire and glasses all looked like they had been slimmed by the Swamp Thing. But only my GPS case looked cracked. Counting my lucky stars, I collected myself, cleaned up best I could, and continued on a much more regulated pace.
After making my way to the next rest stop, I was greeted by a friend I had met Friday night. A good mountain bike rider and climber from the Atlanta area. I was just glad to ride with someone in case I spazed out from my recent crash. The next rest stop was a restored farm that is on a national historic register, called Water Station (pictures at right and below), complete with re-enactors and a good collection of livestock. I particularly liked the Nanny Chair since it was a convertible long bench rocker with 3/4 its length that could double as a cradle. But when company comes over, the cradle wall slides off and it’s a long bench rocker for guests.
It seemed like no time at all before we rolled into Kingsport Tennessee and the Dobbins Bennett High School. Camp was really spread out, but I found shade next to the school. I also managed to dip into the neighboring swim pool to cool off after the ride. After a quick shower I rolled in to town with Al and Margaret Bishop, where we caught a good dinner at Chili’s, all the while running the waitress ragged with our drink refills. That night we all enjoyed a packed civic theatre for the 21st annual BVA talent show. The tap dancers, ventriloquists and soloists all were loudly received to much laughter and applause.
I was camping next to a couple who rode tandem and had two little boys in a pull cart behind them, squirt guns in hand. For most of the afternoon and evening these boys were wearing out tires of their little16 tall inch bicycles and painting the pavement black with skid marks as they beamed smiling glances backward to make sure we were watching. They must have made quite an impression on me, because I woke up to a dream that I was rescuing them from a haggardly witch.
Monday was off to Abingdon Virginia and the first big century ride. I intended to keep in pace lines as much as possible to deal with the long day and more than 5200 feet of climbing. Just around the corner from the Holston Baptist lunch stop, was a country store and creek-side jamboree (creekside waterfall below). The VW Boys (http://www.vwboys.com/ ) were performing their hits like the Five Pounds of Possum, I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore and When I Wake Up To Sleep No More. Their comedic antics and quality of bluegrass definitely led me to buy their Snappy Lunch CD. Apparently they have connections with both a regular PBS show and the actors of the Andy Griffith show. In fact much of that Snappy Lunch CD (complete with comedic video) talks about the diner that Andy mentions in his show, which still sells delicious pork chop sandwiches today.
One of the more dramatic hills was a 22 percent grade most people walked, but one guy I knew from Fredricksburg, climbed it in a single speed track bike. Another climb left me noticing my tire out of alignment, so I pulled aside only to find the steer tube expansion bolt had loosened up. Good thing I noticed it, and good thing my bike is assembled with just two Allen wrenches. So I had the tools needed to fix it before another downhill. Shortly thereafter we arrived at the Carter family home and music theater/museum http://www.carterfamilyfold.org/ (Bristol day 2 dance and Carter mural pictured on left). By mid afternoon I used the rest stop at Paul Norman Park in Saltsville as a good place to cool my feet in a chilly mountain stream that ran by the water mill now converted to a music theater. It was late in the day before we arrived in Abingdon and were able to inquire about renting mountain bikes for the next day’s Virginia Creeper trail (picture right is at Whites Mill and I am posing at Holston Lake below).
All of the bikes in Abingdon were rented, but they said Damascus would have some about 30 miles down the road. There were many challenging climbs along with the associated down hills and a full lunch at Damascus. A wheelchair bound guitar player was wanting to get up on stage to perform, so I went to help him roll up the steep painted wooden ramp, only to find that my own cleated riding shoes were unable to grip the surface. I managed to get him up on stage but not without a bit of awkward fal-de-rah.
At the bike rental shop swapping the bike pedals was a bit if a struggle. The attendant suggested that we just ride road bikes on the trail since many others have done so. Heading up the trail through the national forest was well worth the side route. The Virginia Creeper Trail (http://www.vacreepertrail.us/) is an old rail bed of crushed rock that rolls up hill in the National Forest at a grade of about 2 to 3% to a place called White Top Station. Along the way there were numerous wooden trestles that crossed creeks and gorges. Once to the top, we finished a lunch snack and scouted the GPS for way down the mountain, only to find we were just a few ridges away from Bakersville North Carolina, mentioned earlier. The chosen route down was Highway 58, which had a few climbs before it started the penultimate downhill experience. Somehow the grade down was more like 4 to 6% but with new road, cool weather, great scenery, banked corners, fast speeds, little traffic, and a solid bike, I was in downhiller’s heaven for what seemed like more than 10 miles of unpedaled riding. Upon arriving back in the now vacant the Damascus Park, the neighboring ice cream store was a perfect place to get ready for a hard ride to camp. Of course their two dozen choices of ice cream flavors made for tough choices, but a cone and a drink put us back on 58 pedaling the busy part of highway heading to Abingdon (day one lunch stop pictured below).
The final day’s ride was a route with plenty of pace lines and a rest stop at Emory and Henry College, where I was once again able to ride with Cape Fear Cyclists Bob Richmond. Although I had tried numerous times, I was unable to rendezvous with Al and Margaret to finalize our homeward plans, but Bob was nice enough to offer a backup solution. Aside from the first days ride, I never saw Al and Margaret on the road. However, with folks like Charlie from Raleigh and Richard and Carolyn with their $12,000 ultra fast Califfe tandem, and plenty of other faces I knew from previous week long rides, I never felt alone. The end of the route celebration back at Bristol was a nice sit down Pasta meal with plenty of ice-cold lemonade and cakes drizzled with chocolate syrup.
To read more of Terry’s article and see photographs visit http://pedalers.southport.org/BVA_2008.html[/vc_column_text][single_image image=”10011″ size=”large” align=”center” caption=”A photo of the Holston River Dam view on Terry Pierce’s Blog about the 2008 Bike Virginia Tour”][/vc_column][/vc_row]