Wine tasting, camping, meals & entertainment at the New Kent Winery.

Cyclists will have an opportunity to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the daring ride of Confederate General JEB Stuart, who circled Gen. George McClellan’s troops as the Union General attempted to capture Richmond.

The two day, 120 mile ride will closely follow Stuart’s historic route.

The ride begins Saturday morning at Bryan Park in Richmond.  Riders will camp Saturday evening on the grounds of New Kent Winery and return Sunday morning.

The non-ride activities are open to the general public, with plenty to offer for all.

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Blacksburg Cycle Chic, with keynote by Elly Blue

Attention bicycle fashionistas and active commuters!

To kick off Bike Month in the New River Valley, SGA Transportation will host Blacksburg Cycle Chic – Fashion Show and Commuter Celebration on May 1st. This is an event not to be missed!

The evening begins with Keynote Speaker Elly Blue, author of Grist’s famous Bikenomics series, then leading into an open networking/bike brainstorm session with local hors d’oeuvres, followed by short presentations (15-20 min Ted Talk style) that will reveal the progress Blacksurg and Virginia Tech has made towards becoming a bicycle-friendly community and university. The night concludes with a fashion show of student and community cyclists. Over 50 ‘models’ will strut their heels and wheels on the runway, or in this case cycle path!

The event will showcase local groups striving towards regional transportation sustainability and active lifestyles while revealing bicycle heroines and heroes in our Hokie community.

Want to be part of our Bike Fashion Show?! Apply before Thursday, April 26 now! 

For more information, visit Blacksburg Cycle Chic.

Or just show up May 1, 5-9 PM, at the VT Graduate Life Center.

Update from Lyndsay McKeever: “We want YOU in our Bicycle Fashion Show (more like a bike rider celebration!). We’d love to showcase bike couples on tandems, children on their trikes, VT professors in business suits, Rogues Racing athletes in their kits and families of Huckleberry Trail riders! This event is about CHARACTERS in our unique Blacksburg Bike Community. Make sure you join the fun, either as a ‘model’ or attendee for the incredible line-up of speakers and bike brainstorm!”

A ride report from the Grand Opening weekend.

The rest of the High Bridge Trail State Park 31 mile long trail has been open for 18 months now, while the bridge itself has been undergoing its conversion from a railroad bridge to a bridge for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. For months the word has been “Opening early April” and “Watch our website for the announcement”. Finally, on Monday, April 2nd the website announces that the bridge will open on Friday, April 6th. Hurriedly, the call goes out to the RABA list for a contingent to make the trip out to Farmville on Saturday to check out the eastern end of the trail, bridge and all. Four stalwarts, Rickey Davis, John Dawson, Joe Hazel, & Dale Peacock, answer the call and we meet at Main St. and the trail crossing in downtown Farmville at 9:30 a.m.

Immediately, we notice the nicely signed entrances to the trail both to the east and west, on either side of Main St. A building containing very nice rest room facilities is on the north side of Main, along with a picnic table, pipe sculpture in the form of a bicycle and a parking lot shared with the very popular Green Front Furniture store ( in a building that once housed a Craddock-Terry shoe factory) and Charley’s Waterfront restaurant where we plan to have lunch after the ride. After a passerby informs us that a Ranger Talk is scheduled for 10 out at the bridge, we mount our bikes and head out the eastern segment of the trail, where the sign indicates 4.4 miles to the bridge. Right away, I notice that the trail is hard packed, fine gravel, rather than the crushed limestone I had encountered on a previous trip on the western segment of the trail. Our small party is riding the whole range of bikes from my road bike with 1” tires to hybrids and mountain bikes with fatter tires, and all seem to be suitable for the surface. [continue reading…]

In March, Virginia Commonwealth University was awarded the Silver level Bike Friendly University award by the League of American Bicyclists and launched a VCU RamBikes Bike Loan program.

On April 11 VCU holds the biannual Great Bike Round-Up, with free bike tune-ups and information about biking safely, registering bikes with VCU police. April 21 – 27 VCU and RideRichmond team up for Bike Week. Intentionally before Bike Month in order to be ahead of finals week.

VCU Bike Share program: http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Check_it_Out

 On April 24, 4-6 pm, during Bike Week – VCU will host a “Confident Urban Cycling” class sponsored by Virginia Bicycling Federation’s Traffic Safety Grant from the Virginia DMV. The mini course is open to anyone. Register at http://vabike.camp8.org/events