Leaders within the Richmond region bicycling community have announced the launch of the Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition, a new partnership of organizations and individuals formed to coordinate and encourage progress in bicycle infrastructure projects within Richmond and the surrounding region. Members of the Coalition have met over the past few months to discuss the continued need for bicycle infrastructure and programs that appeal to people of all ages and abilities, and that encourage bicycle use for everyday transportation, recreation, and sport.

“We have a great dirt trail system and a thriving racing culture in the Richmond region. But we also want our kids, parents, and grandparents to safely and comfortably bike to school, the grocery store, and the park,” said Max Hepp-Buchanan, director of Bike Walk RVA for the Sports Backers. “Richmond should be bikeable for everyone, from an eight-year-old child to her eighty-year-old grandfather.”

With combined membership numbering in the thousands, Coalition partners will be active in promoting bike-friendly plans, policies, and funding within the Richmond region by encouraging local elected officials to prioritize development of a connected network of shared-use paths, protected bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, and other bicycle infrastructure needs.

“Richmond officials have been talking about bike infrastructure for years, and now is the time to act. With just two-and-a-half years until the entire cycling world will be focused on the Richmond region as the host of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, we have more reason than ever to become a bike-friendly city,” said Tim Miller of Richmond 2015.

The Coalition partners share a vision of a Richmond region that is vibrant and where people want to live, work and play; where people are healthy and active; and where quality of life is made better because bicycling is safe, convenient, and comfortable for people of all ages and abilities. The mission statement of the Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition is, “Building a Richmond region that is bikeable for everyone.”

The growing list of Coalition partners includes:

Richmond-area residents, businesses, and organizations can join the Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition by visiting www.rvabike.org. The Coalition also has a social media presence, including Facebook (www.facebook.com/GreaterRichmondBicycleCoalition) and Twitter (@RVABicycle) to provide residents with further information on how to join the coalition and get involved. Questions about the Coalition can be directed to info@rvabike.org.

The Coalition will host a Bike Month Wrap Party at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery on Friday, May 31 from 5 PM until 8 PM. The celebration is open to the general public, including children, and will feature live music by local band Solpocket. Ten percent of beer sales go to benefit the Greater Richmond Bicycle Coalition.

Dominion Riverrock, Richmond’s riverlife celebration starts this Friday and runs through Sunday. Last year over 65,000 people attended the event over the three days. And the weather looks to be just as good this year, with highs in the 80s and chances for scattered thunderstorms. Registrations for the sporting events on May 17-19 will be accepted online until tonight (Tuesday, May 14) at 11:59 p.m. Admission is free, but anyone wishing to compete in a Dominion Riverrock event must pay to enter. Walk-up registration for all events will be accepted on site unless the event has reached its capacity.

Dominion Riverrock also features live concerts throughout the weekend, an interactive village, and sporting events including the Miller Lite Filthy 5k, James River Scramble 10k Trail Run, Urban Assault mountain bike race, Boulder Bash, Slacklining, and more.  For event registration and further information about Dominion Riverrock 2013, go to www.dominionriverrock.com.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, May 16

 Friday, May 17

 Saturday, May 18

 Sunday, May 19

Interesting piece by Mike Martz on the front of the T-D today about bike/pedestrian infrastructure in Central Virginia. Among the eye-opening statistics in the article: the city of Richmond, Chesterfield and Hanover counties have a grand total of 18.5 miles of dedicated bike lanes. That is rather pitiful.

“The streets that have bike lanes are few and far between,” states the report by Richmond Sports Backers, which documented 18.25 miles of bike lanes in the city and counties of Chesterfield and Hanover. “This random use of bike lanes has had little impact on bike usage due to the lack of a network connecting bike lanes and trails to allow for continuous safe riding conditions.”

Sports Backers says what is missing is a master plan for the city and surrounding counties to build the infrastructure of bike lanes, paved and unpaved off-road trails, neighborhood byways, and marked “sharrow” lanes to make cycling a reliable and safe transportation alternative.

“It has to be a coordinated effort,” said Max Hepp-Buchanan, who was hired last month as director of Sports Backers’ Bike Walk RVA advocacy program. “You don’t want a bike lane that just drops off when it hits the county limits.”

I’ve featured a couple of cycling related events and news items in my recent Times-Dispatch columns that I want to highlight here also. First the news, and this is a big one: Pocahontas State Park is in line for an extreme makeover –mountain bike addition. If a public/private partnership comes together as hoped, the state park in Chesterfield County will be the site of 35-40 new miles of singletrack. What’s that, you ask, doesn’t Pocahontas already have some serious singletrack? It does, but the new stuff will be IMBA-built “mountain bike optimized” trail. And if it goes through, it, along with Richmond’s downtown trails, would give the area a good chance to become an official IMBA “Ride Center.”

The governor (pressed by aide Jasen Eige, a trail runner and biker) got the process rolling, by adding a $50,000 budget amendment that recently made it through the General Assembly. To those funds will be added $50,000 more from Dominion Resources. The $100,000 will get the ball rolling on what could be a project costing north of $1 million. Click here to read more.

As for events, I recently featured the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation’s Cap2Cap ride. This year will be the eighth annual Cap2Cap, the ride day that has grown from 150 participants to over 2,200 last year. What once was an event for hardcore cyclists, is now a party (in both Richmond Williamsburg, depending on where you start your ride) with some riding mixed in. It’s also the group’s largest fundraiser, bring in over $110,000 in 2012. This year’s event goes off on May 11. Click here to learn more.

Bike Virginia recently came out with an exciting press release. If you’re a cyclist who’s traveled Virginia’s byways, you know this is long overdue. The statewide bicycling advocacy group, announced that it is “in the development stages for a comprehensive cycling resource website that will provide cycling-related information and activities from across the state of Virginia. The website will serve to support both new and experienced cyclists of all ages and skill levels, helping connect people with places to ride and encourage cycling and bicycle tourism across the state.”

The joint announcement was made today by Tom Bowden, Chairman of the Bike Virginia Board of Directors, and the organization’s Executive Director Dr. Kim Perry. The non-profit works to improve the state of active living in Virginia through bicycling initiatives. Funding for the project is provided by proceeds from the annual Bike Virginia Tour and a generous donation from Primal Custom Cycling Apparel. The Bike Virginia organization’s mission is to help Virginia benefit from and grow bicycling, to positively influence health and the environment, and enjoy the associated economic benefits. The site will include a ‘places to ride’ section, a calendar of activities, cycling news, information on commuting by bike and riding for fun and fitness, cycling club information, tourism centers, bike shops, links to cycling-related businesses, trail maps and more. Communities from across the state will be invited to participate by providing information regarding their cycling-related activities and places to ride via an online submittal form. The site is expected to go-live this fall.

For more information, contact Dr. Kim Perry at at kim@bikeva.org.

In March of last year, a group called Adventure Fit brought the urban bike race/scavenger hunt series — the “Urban Assault Ride” — to Richmond. It was a lot of fun, an event over 300 people participated in on a foggy, rainy day. The RichmondOutside.com-sponsored team placed an impressive third, but it looks like they won’t have a chance to improve on that finish, at least not until 2014.

From a recent Adventure Fit email:

Big plans for the UAR…

2012 was the 10th anniversary of the Urban Assault Ride. During these years, we grew from a tiny Austin race into one of the biggest cycling event series in the country. We shared countless beers and big wheel power slides with Urban Athletes while accomplishing the goal of getting more people to ride bikes for transportation.

Now that we look to the future, we see that the Urban Assault Ride is poised for a rebirth. Our goal is for the UAR to be known as ‘THE obstacle race on BIKES’ and grow much bigger in scale. This will take some time and we will use 2013 as a planning and development year. Accordingly, we will be hitting the pause button and taking the year off.

Thank you for 10 years of support and we hope you will toast us when we return for 10 more!

Our good friends over at Energy Cycle are gearing up for their annual Pedal Power event on Feb. 16. Here’s how it works and, if you’re in to cycling, why you should think about getting involved. The effort illustrates how hard it is to generate the electricity that powers the event, including music and cook-tops. The event includes a competition to see who can crank the most watts, tons of cool swag, plus some great food. Two person teams will compete to generate the most power over the course of 30 minutes. Each team member will start at the same time and have the professional coaches from Richmond Cycling Corps to help provide encouragement so they reach their full potential. The three teams that produce the most electricity will win prizes. We will have a total of 20 teams competing in the event.

This is a family friendly event, please feel free to compete with your significant other, child, brother, sister, father, mother or just bring them along as your own personal cheering section!

Richmond Cycling Corps’ Bicycle Studio is located at 1717 Summit Avenue in Richmond. The event will run from from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Register at http://pedalpower2013.eventbrite.com/ and plan to bring your bike.

Here’s the most recent e-newsletter from Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Executive Director Beth Weisbrod. I’ll be writing about the Richmond trailhead she mentions in the coming weeks.

Credit: VDOT

December is coming to an end, so I’m doing my usual backward glance at the year that was.  I’m very proud to say 2012 was our most successful year ever at the VCTF, and you had a lot to do with this.  Besides achieving fundraising goals through your generous contributions, we won approval to build an eye-popping trailhead facility in downtown Richmond, we were able to rally grassroots support and overcome challenges to a separate alignment of the trail, and our record-setting Cap2Cap bike event was listed in Richmond.com Outdoors:  Best of 2012. So, to those who emailed V-DOT or your local officials in support of the trail, or who have made a donation, or volunteered your time or professional services, ridden in the Cap2Cap, or shared something on our Facebook page–you all are a part of our great year.

As we all know, construction of this 52-mile, 10 ft. wide ribbon of asphalt is taking longer than anyone anticipated when this project began back in 2005.  We’ve learned a lot about patience, persistence and staying positive when frustrations mount.  As community support continues to grow, it sends a clear message that this project is an important one.

So, now we’re in the home stretch.  V-DOT says we have two more years before we’ll have our Trail.  We’re going to get there.  In the meantime, thank you to everyone who contributed to the Foundation’s success this year:  sponsors, donors, vendors, supporters, volunteers, board members, staff, and partners.  Hundreds of you made it happen, and it’s why I love my job.  Trail supporters are an energetic and dedicated group, and you prove it year after year.