Preview of Bike Virginia Tour

The staff and volunteers just completed the annual Bike Va preview ride, a test run of the June event. We use this time to evaluate routes, finalize set up for the venues, meet with community leaders, and organize all the final pieces of the giant June event.

The crew of 15 arrive in Buena Vista on Friday afternoon and toured the facilities where camp and headquarters will be located. Our newest staff member, Cynthia, reviewed the site plans and traffic flow organization for check in at the event. Volunteer coordinators for the Safety Briefing and Registration viewed the work areas where riders will be received for checking in.

The parking team reviewed the management plan for parking guests cars and RVs. Locations were verified and viewed by the team for all services associated with the event such as shower trucks, luggage trucks, yoga, massage, meals, vendors, hospitality, shuttle bus drops, and bike parking.

Then the riders struck out on the 30 mile loop in the midst of a downpour! Visibility was the pits, but they were real troopers. The team checked all the route details for the loop to make sure you’ll have an enjoyable ride in June.

That evening we headed to Lexington for our lodging. We had a dinner debriefing and planning meeting at Niko’s Grill in downtown Lexington. The restaurant serves the team some amazing Greek dishes and easily accommodated our big table.

Early Saturday the team met for a briefing on the tasks that needed to be done. Then we split into two groups, riders and site evaluators. The riders headed out from Buena Vista’s Glen Maury Park on the Saturday June 22 courses. The site evaluators struck out across the region to visit rest stop locations, tourist and site-seeing venues, and local businesses. Plans were finalized for several rest stops that will host the riders along the route. After a full day on the road the team broke into smaller groups and explored the town. Our staff enjoyed Sushi at Matsumoto before retiring to get some sleep for the next busy day.

Sunday followed a similar rhythm. Sunday’s routes include the Century so we put a lot of miles in that day. Five riders evaluated the century route while others explored the other route options. The site visit team drove all over the region hitting far flung rests stops and other points that needed evaluation. We met with Alpine Cycle Connection who joined us from Colorado for the day. Together we wrapped up the shuttle bus plan for moving riders to and from camp and to activities. After a long day on the saddle and in van seats we settled on a late dinner meeting at Ruby Tuesday.

Monday was move day, we packed our gear and made for Botetourt. Riders enjoyed a route that passed Natural Bridge and danced along Bike Route 76 for much of the Journey. The site visit team raced on to the next camp/headquarters location where they finalized all the important details for the site including: meals tent placement, bathroom placement, camping parameters, entertainment sites, parking, and vendor areas. They also wrapped up a couple of great rest stops and recreation opportunities.

That evening the team headed to Roanoke to see the city (the first time for many of the team). We toured the city thanks to local guidance by a long time Bike Virginia volunteer, Jeanne. The team selected a location for our site-seeting/actvitity shuttle drop near downtown so you’ll be able to enjoy all the community has to offer on Monday June 24.  We dined at Metro and enjoyed the widely varied menu and cool decor.

 

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were able to finalize several more aspects of the tour and check off the route evaluations for the last 2 days of riding. The routes checked out great, all the riders had big smiles on their faces by the time we finished. Lots of great input was collected from the group. They worked very hard to make sure the June participants have the best experience possible.

Special thanks to the volunteers that took time from their schedules to take part in this planning exercise. The time spent on the routes and looking at facilities is invaluable and in large part is what makes Bike Virginia successful logistically. If you get a chance to thank them at the event, please do so.