Maymont’s paved paths and rolling hills will be the site of this weekend’s X-Country Festival.

If you like to run, bike or paddle, this is your kind of weekend here in the RVA.

It starts on Friday for the runners with the Sports Backers’ Maymont X-Country Festival. The Open 5K goes off at 6 p.m. and is a really cool opportunity to race in a place where you’d normally stroll and sightsee. As the Sports Backers’ website describes it: Maymont is a cross country runner’s dream. From the lavish 1893 Maymont House to the scenic wildlife areas that house bison, bald eagles, deer, bears and other animals, the estate is the perfect backdrop for a fall race.

The same is true for Saturday morning’s James River Loop 8-miler. This race is also open to the public, and while it starts and ends at Maymont, the course is really a showcase of Richmond’s downtown trails (click here for the map). Trail lovers will navigate Buttermilk and North Bank trails, as well as the singletrack on Belle Isle before they arrive back at the finish line.

Paddlers have two great options on Saturday, but they’ll have to pick one. At 9 a.m. the Friends of the Lower Appomattox River will host their annual 10-mile “Battle or Paddle” event — your opportunity for a fun paddle or a competitive race in your canoe, kayak, or SUP. The event begins at Petersburg’s Pocahontas Island and the full 10-mile length ends at the Hopewell City Marina near the convergence with the James River. There are also several take-out points along the river for those who do not want to paddle the entire route. At the finish a shuttle will return you and your boat to Petersburg. The entire course is flat water in the tidal section of the river. 

River lovers also have the option of paddling the falls of the James on Saturday as part of the Tour de Fall Line. This first-time event is half paddle, half bike (take your pick) and all celebration of the amazing natural resource we have in the middle of our city. For canoeists, kayakers, and SUPers, events begin at 10 a.m. (or earlier, if you prefer) at Mayo Island, where a shuttle provided by the VCU Outdoor Adventure Program will take everyone up to Huguenot Flatwater. At 10:30 a.m. paddlers can choose to run to Reedy Creek or keep going through the downtown rapids back to Mayo Island where beer, food and music await.

Buttermilk Trail will be part of the course for the 50-miler of Saturday’s Tour de Fall Line. Credit: Phil Riggan

James River Outdoor Coalition president Patrick Griffin said he wants paddlers of all abilities to come out and have a good time together, and, he added, “the river is very, very low so we will have sweep people to make sure everyone gets down safely.”

Mountain bikers have three options as part of the Tour de Fall Line: a 50-, 28- and 14-mile ride. All feature the world famous downtown Richmond singletrack, as well as some of the less well known Pirate Trails and, for the 50-milers, Powhite and Larus parks.  The $40 entry fee gets you a supported ride, a pint glass, one Sierra Nevada beer, Lee’s Fried Chicken and a concert on Mayo Island when you get back (the same is true for boaters and their $30 entry fee).

“It’s a hellacious deal,” said city trails manager Mike Burton. And he’s especially right when you consider that any profit goes to JROC and local mountain bike/trail building club Richmond MORE.

So, there you have it folks. Lace ’em up; break out the paddle; pump up the tires. You have options this weekend no matter your outdoors pleasure.

Back in late May, I reported on the installation of counters — vehicle and infrared — at seven different units of the James River Park. The counters were made possible by a $2,000 gift from the Friends of the James River Park and the James River Outdoor Coalition. The idea with the counters was, for the first time, to acquire actual usage numbers for the 20-parcel, 550-acre park that runs through the heart of Richmond. Up until then, usage surveys were conducted and visitation estimates were extrapolated from there.

Infrared counters are used to count people at a couple of park locations.

With the heavy summer park-use season now over, I spoke with Nathan Burrell, JRPS superintendent, to see how much mounting those counters did. The results were pretty astounding.

“Up through July we were at 500,000+ visitors,” he said. “That’s May through July. And we only have counters at seven locations right now.”

Burrell said he’ll be getting the August numbers by the end of the week, and he expects them to be somewhere north of 100,000 visitors but probably less than July’s 160,000 tally. June had 141,000.

Burrell explained that they use a conservative coefficient to account for the fact that many of the cars that arrive at the park have multiple people in them and some people use the park more than one time a day.

“We’re missing some people there, but we thought it was a safe number. We wanted to be conservative. The last thing I wanted is to be wildly high and then people just disregard them.”

To put these numbers in perspective, in February the Times-Dispatch reported that Maymont was the “most-visited place in the Richmond area,” with 527,153 visitors in 2013. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was second in the region with 479,907 visitors. Rounding out the top five were the Children’s Museum of Richmond with 393,529 visitors; Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with 339,139 visitors; and Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium with 304,621 visitors.

The James River Park has always been a popular place. We now know how popular. Credit: Richmond.com

The Washington Redskins training camp brought in 164,789 visitors this year.

Burrell said that in 2012, the park system conducted a survey of usage from which they extrapolated a year-long visitation number: that number was between 500,000 and 1.5 million. “We’re going to be close to that million mark (when 2014 is over),” Burrell said.

Here’s some more perspective that city council and the mayor should take note of for future budgets. The JRPS with it’s 1 million or more visitors a year is maintained by four full-time employees (including Burrell), two seasonal employees and one part-timer. That’s something to keep in mind when proposals for $250,000 Carytown signs and redundant, million-dollar bridges over the Haxall Canal come up for debate.

Editor’s Note: Richard Chittick is freelance writer and photographer living in Henrico County. He’ll be reporting and writing for RichmondOutside.com. This, his first piece, follows our report on the washout of a bridge over Reedy Creek two weeks ago.

Volunteers work the east bank of Reedy Creek in Forest Hill Park near where the bridge once stood. Credit: Richard Chittick

For the second time in as many weeks last Saturday, a flood hit the trails of Forest Hill Park. But this time, the flood wasn’t water, it was people.

Several dozen volunteers showed up for a trail-maintenance session sponsored by the James River Park System and Richmond MORE. City trails manager Mike Burton estimates between 30 and 35 people came to help remove a bridge that had been swept from it’s base and washed about 75 yards downstream during a storm the previous week. After getting all the parts of the bridge out of the creek bed and up to a field near Forest Hill Avenue, work continued as volunteers helped clear out the banks on both sides of Reedy Creek so that park officials could take a closer look at a new option for a trail.

To that effect, Burton says he and other park officials are considering several options for replacing the trail. And while a new, stronger bridge is the ultimate goal, he says that may be ways off. “The right bridge in the right place is a big challenge,” he said. “It’s a big process and has to be built in a place that has no machine access,” meaning that cranes and other large equipment cannot be used to help lift a new bridge in place.

“In the short term and probably for the mid-term, there will be no bridge; there will be a creek crossing,” Burton said.

He is confident that a viable crossing is possible at creek level. Burton said he and his crew are looking downstream from where the old bridge was by about 25-30 yards. “We’ve got a really nice, super-scenic spot” for a new trail, he said.

Mike Burton (red shirt) takes a chainsaw to a beefy vine. Credit: Richard Chittick

The only catch with the short term goal of putting in a creek-level crossing is the steepness of the east bank. “It’s probably going to be a hike-a-bike,” he said, noting that the only possible options may be a series of rock steps that most mountain bikers will not be able to ride. This is the best plan given that any trail created along this stretch of Reedy Creek must withstand the torrential currents that form during thunderstorms, which are more common than people realize.

Burton added that the park’s staff hope to reuse the wood from the old bridge in projects in other parts of the James River Park. All of the old lumber has been taken to park headquarters where it will be inspected and reused if possible.

Burton was not able to give a solid timeline for work to be done, but pointed out that volunteer work is “critical” to getting things done. “We got a lot of work done, but we still have quite a bit of work in front of us,” he said.

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There’s been buzz for months about the possibility that California-based Stone Brewing might open an East Coast brewery in Richmond. Earlier this week the Times-Dispatch’s Graham Moomaw reported that Richmond appears to be one of three finalists and that city council was doing what they could to entice the large craft brewer with economic incentives and by readying a parcel of land.

It was that last bit that caught my attention because of the location of the land. As the T-D article put it:

A screen shot of the possible Stone brewery location.

Today, several ordinances will be introduced to grant special-use permits for about 12½ acres bounded by Williamsburg Avenue and Nicholson Street, across from Gillies Creek Park. Most of the land is vacant and owned by the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, according to city property records. A small parcel on Nicholson is owned by Titan Virginia Ready Mix, a concrete company.

Now let me first say, we here at RichmondOutside.com are pro brewery, any brewery. And we would love to see Stone in RVA. Have you ever had their RuinTen IPA? It’s absurdly good. But maybe some of you mountain bikers will immediately see the problem with the possible location of the gigantic brewery: It’s right on top of some primo Richmond pirate trail.

What’s a pirate trail? Simply put, it’s singletrack built where it’s not supposed to be. Is it illegal? Often, yes. But, it’s usually cut through abandoned and overgrown parcels sometimes inhabited by hobos and layabouts. Authorities, if they even know it’s there, prefer to look the other way. It’s not hurting anyone, is the logic. And more trail is rarely a bad thing.

Well, I’m not saying I know how this patch of pirate trail got there or who built it, and on the off chance I would be admitting to trespassing, I’m not saying I’ve ever ridden it. I’m just saying it’s there, on both sides of Gillies Creek, and I’ve heard it’s sweet. (And by the way, it’s not the only pirate trail system in Richmond.)

What’s the point of bringing all this up? Stone is a brewery, so I’d venture to guess that the powers that be there are pretty cool. They probably respect mountain bikers and mountain bikers’ near-universal love of beer. Heck, they could very well be mountain bikers themselves. And since it appears that this brewing facility won’t just be a brewery, but a huge restaurant and shop as well, here’s my plea: Save the pirate trails. Maybe they could be incorporated into the wooded outer edges of the facility. Think about it, Stone: Those trails would deliver your target audience to your door day after day.

I don’t know anything about building breweries, and I don’t know if this humble proposal is possible (heck, we still don’t know if Stone will choose Richmond) but I know RVA mountain bikers love singletrack and beer (possibly in reverse order). And I do believe a brewery with mountain bike trails on it would be close to Nirvana.

So, come on out here Stone. Richmond’s mountain bike community can’t wait to ride right up to your front door and be the first at the bar when the taps start flowing.

Research makes clear the benefits of cross training, and many runners have learned to incorporate it into their training. Some people argue that to run fast you simply need to run more. However, there is a point where one more run could drastically increase your chance for over training or a specific overuse injury. Cross training allows athletes to increase fitness and strength while reducing the risk of injury. Below are several cross training methods that have proven to increase running performance, as well as the best places in Richmond to do these activities.

CYCLING

Cycling is one of the more popular cross training activities. It can increase your ability to have a more powerful run by strengthening key muscles groups and improving your cardiovascular system. Simply put, by getting stronger on the bike you can become a stronger runner.

Cycling is a popular cross training choice for runners.

Key Workout: To gauge progress on the bike, do this test: Warm up for 20 minutes and then do 5 minutes at 95% effort. Take 10 minutes rest and then do 20 minutes at the hardest effort you can sustain for that time. After this, start your cool down. Do this test at the same location each time and record your distance and heart rate if possible to compare progress.

Best Place in Richmond to Cycle: West Creek Parkway is a safe location that many cyclists in the area take advantage of. Just be sure to follow the rules of the road, and watch out for the geese!

SWIMMING

Swimming can be used as a great post-run exercise. It can help loosen up tight areas from your run as well as provide muscular balance. Swimming also increases your lung capacity allowing your fitness reach a higher level.

Key Workout: Do a 500-meter warm up, and then do the following test set: Perform 10 x 100 meters (or yards depending on the pool you are in) with 30 seconds of rest between each interval. These should be done at maximum intensity. Your average pace will allow you to get your threshold swim pace and see if you’re lacking speed over endurance or not.

Pool running is good for injury rehab.

Best Place in Richmond to Swim: The Collegiate School Aquatic Center is located off the Ironbridge exit in Chesterfield. This state of the art swimming facility includes a 50-meter competition pool and a 25 meter instruction pool.

WATER RUNNING

Runners undergoing injury rehab commonly use water running. The exercise allows you to train the running pattern and strengthen key muscles groups without pounding on your body. The key is to do this in deep water and mimic your running form as best you can. Use a flotation belt to get accustom to the technique. Once you get the form down you can remove the belt for a better overall workout.

Key Workout: Do a 15-minute warm up and then 3 x 8 minutes at 80% effort while going as hard as possible for the last minute of each interval. Take 2 minutes easy between intervals and then do a 15-minute cool down.

Best Place in Richmond to Water Run: Any deep-water pool is great for water running.

ANTI-GRAVITY TREADMILL RUNNING

Anti-gravity treadmills are pretty crazy looking, but useful.

Running on an anti-gravity treadmill is a great way to get additional mileage while reducing your chance for injury. This is a specially designed treadmill that allows you to adjust the amount of body weight you run with. You can reduce your body weight by any percentage you would like in order to run at a faster pace or simply run longer with less pounding. This is a great tool to use when rehabbing an injury or simply wanting to increase running fitness by using a running-specific technique.

Key Workout: This is perfect for allowing your body to feel the speed of goal race pace. For example, if training for a 5k you could do a 3.1 mile run at goal race pace and adjust the body weight percentage closer to your actual body weight each time you preform the workout until you run the distance at the pace you desire to run with 100% of your body weight.  Make sure to get a good warm up and cool down during this workout.

Best Place in Richmond to Use an Anti-Gravity Treadmill: Advance Orthopedic has an anti-gravity treadmill that is available for public use. You must call and set up an appointment for someone to show you how the treadmill is operated and then you can schedule the times you would like to use it.

YOGA

It is no secret that runners tend to have very tight muscles, and most running injuries are due to lack of flexibility. Yoga is a great way to improve flexibility while also increasing core control.

Yoga can lead to better results on the trail and road.

Key Workout: Attend a yoga class at a yoga studio for the best instruction.

Best Place in Richmond to Do Yoga: There are many yoga studios in Richmond that are popular for runners. Hot House Yoga is one of the most popular in the area and has classes all day long to accommodate your schedule.

STRENGTH TRAINING

This is an essential component to reaching your running potential. Doing proper strength training exercises allows you to develop muscular balance while strengthening key muscle groups for running. By increasing muscular strength you can become a much stronger runner to a degree. This can also be an essential component to injury prevention.

Key Workout: Do 10 minutes of dynamic warm up exercises like running, jump rope, cycling, etc. You can do body weight exercise anywhere. For example, push-ups, body-weight squats, walking lunges, single leg box squats, split squat, lateral lunges, are all great options. It is best to receive professional instruction before performing these exercises to insure that you have the correct form.

Don’t forget the strength training.

Best Place in Richmond to Strength Train: Endorphin Fitness specializes in strength training for the endurance athlete. Taking one of their eFIT strength training classes is a great way to receive expert instruction and learn key strength exercise to increase running performance.

Pedestrians enjoy the Roanoke River Greenway, which is over 5 miles long. Credit: Max Hepp-Buchanan

It’s amazing what a 10-foot-wide ribbon of asphalt can do to transform a region. Paved multi-use trails have completely altered the transportation and recreation landscape in cities like Boulder, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. For me, those are the first places that come to mind when thinking about great cities for bicycling on paved trails, but what about Virginia Beach? Or Roanoke?

Or Chesterfield County?

Maybe Chesterfield County is not quite there yet, but they are thinking ahead. A team of county staff are now in the process of developing the county’s new Bikeways & Trails Plan, which will map the future of paved trails and on-street bikeways in the Chesterfield. And they are looking to local leaders like Virginia Beach and the Roanoke region for guidance by touring those locations and meeting with their planners.

I have been fortunate enough to join the Chesterfield County team on their study trips this spring and summer, and I’ve learned a lot about how a well-placed trail, built at the right kind of roadway or property development can make all the difference in how people get around by walking or biking.

Our most recent trip was to the Roanoke area just last week. Roanoke Valley Greenways started planning for multi-use trails back in the mid-1990s, so they are already 20 years ahead of Chesterfield County. Regionally, they boast about 25 miles of greenways and over 80 miles of bike lanes and signed routes. And like many jurisdictions, they started with the low-hanging fruit: the first seven years of trail construction in the Roanoke Valley was focused within parks, along sewer lines, and other existing public rights of way. Then they had to start acquiring new land, which makes things more difficult and expensive.

The Roanoke region has been building greenways for over 20 years. Credit: Max Hepp-Buchanan

But they’ve come a long way in a relatively short amount of time and take a lot of pride in their centerpieces, such as the Lick Run Greenway, which runs from Valley View Mall past an elementary school, through a park, and right into downtown Roanoke. It’s only 3.5 miles long right now, but it does a great job connecting major destinations in an urban environment.

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission has produced a very useful Bike, Hike, & Bus Map that incorporates bus timetables, the dirt trail network and trailheads, and paved and on- and off-street bikeways. This all-in-one alternative transportation map does wonders to maximize the walking and biking enthusiast’s outdoor experience in the Roanoke Valley region (order yours for free here).

While Greater Richmond doesn’t yet have a map-worthy regional network – with all the work that the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County are doing to become more walking- and biking-friendly – one but can’t help think the future of new greenways in our region is bright.

There’s caution tape now where the entrance to the bridge used to be.

Yesterday’s torrential rains led to a dramatic re-route of the Forest Hill Park singletrack loop trail popular with runners, mountain bikers and dog walkers throughout Richmond. Just north of the bridge that takes Forest Hill Avenue over Reedy Creek (near Crossroads coffee shop), the trail crosses the creek on a wooden footbridge. At least it used to.

The downpour yesterday brought a wall of water that city trails manager Mike Burton thinks was probably up over the bridge’s handrails. That puts it maybe 8 feet above the rocks that the water usually trickles over this time of year. That is a ton of water.

It’s not uncommon for Reedy to rage like it did yesterday when a storm comes through. That’s why it’s popular with experienced creek boaters, kayakers who paddle narrow streams (usually in the mountains) in high-water conditions. But apparently it was not a boater that was swept downstream by the water, the Times-Dispatch reported, and pinned “against the rocks in the fast-flowing rapids.” The Richmond Fire Department had to be called to rescue the man. They were eventually able to get a rope bag and flotation device to him and pulled him to safety. The rescue tools were still attached to a tree at the scene this morning.

A mountain biker surveys Reedy Creek from one of the sections of bridge washed downstream.

As for the bridge, it was split in half by the floodwaters and left washed up on the banks. Burton said they’d been looking into replacing the bridge even before this happened. Cost estimates for one bridge type ran from $45,000 to $60,000. It they rebuilt it with wood and volunteer labor, it might be cheaper, he said, but they’d run into the same issues of durability that the old bridge had.

For now, the trail (if you’re coming from the hillside below Patrick Henry Elementary School) will be detoured to the old trail that parallels the creek on its east side. Riders and pedestrians will follow that trail down to the Harvey Family Memorial Bridge, then take a left and ride on the asphalt up to the top of the hill. There they’ll take a right and reconnect with the existing trail. Signage showing the detour route should be in place by this weekend.

The ropes and bags from yesterday’s rescue.

Burton said another possibility, instead of building a bridge, would be to cut some new singletrack into the bank on the western side of Reedy Creek between the Harvey bridge and where the trail entered the old bridge. This would be a much cheaper option, but with the bank extremely steep in many areas, he stressed, that this possibility would require more study by his trail crew and may not be feasible.

To see what the trail and the bridge used to look like, click here for our Forest Hill Park page, then scroll all the way down for our Terrain360.com panoramic-image tour of the park.

The Richmond race has been part of the XTERRA U.S. tour longer than any other event. Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

A month ago the XTERRA East Championships off-road triathlon series came through Richmond. It was the 16th straight year XTERRA has put on a championship-level race here. But there’s a chance it could be the last.

“It’s our oldest concurrently-run location on the U.S. tour,” said Janet Clark, XTERRA president, in an interview last week. “We have a long history and a lot of good times and fond memories (in Richmond), and frankly, a lot of development of that trail system there.”

Why is Richmond in danger of losing XTERRA? After three years as the presenting sponsor of the XTERRA races — sport- and championship-distance triathlons and two trail races — Luck Stone is bowing out.

“We love those guys. They were fantastic,” Clark said, of the Luck Stone team. “They were extremely helpful in keeping that race in Richmond. They brought in some wonderful technology…We leave on very good terms with them. It just doesn’t really fit their overall marketing strategy at this point in time.”

So, Luck Stone is out, and, at least for now, there’s a void to fill. This has happened in the past, notably in 2011, when the city refused to offer XTERRA financial aid after local insurer Heritage Union did not renew as presenting sponsor. That’s when Luck Stone came onboard.

Clark said they’d very much prefer to keep the race in Richmond, “but reality is reality. Obviously, we have a vested interest in Richmond as a race location…and we’re going to be working to keep the race there. But, yes, we do need someone to help us do that.”

XTERRA pros navigate the bike course in this year’s race. Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

She added that she hopes to begin negotiating with possible sponsors sometime in the late fall or early winter. When I asked her if XTERRA absolutely needs a presenting sponsor to bring the race back to Richmond, she said that wasn’t completely accurate.

“But I would say we would need some assistance of some kind. Obviously, the more the merrier. We do rely on that local support to keep us in the region. It’s an awfully huge region that that race serves (the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic) and we’ve had some interest from some other locations as well.

“It’s never over until it’s over,” she said. “We have a vested in that race and there are some emotional ties and a lot of history that would certainly sway us in a push-come-to-shove situation.”

In yesterday’s piece on the XTERRA East Championship off-road triathlon, I mentioned a fan who had set up to take pictures at a particularly tricky section of Buttermilk Trail. The fan’s name is Mark Lindsey. He’s an avid local mountain biker, and, knowing how tough that section could be, he had his camera set to take bursts of pictures in case one of the racers took a tumble. Well, Lindsey was not disappointed in that regard.

When XTERRA pro Kara LaPoint came through the rocky creek crossing, she went over the handlebars and onto the rocks — face first. Lindsey sent me over a dozen pictures this morning, which RichmondOutside.com tech guru Ryan Abrahamsen turned into an animated GIF below.

Ouch!

To her credit, LaPoint was not deterred. She somehow found the strength to finish the race, as she reported on her Facebook page:

Was SO relieved to get out of the water after the hardest and craziest swim I’ve ever done, and psyched up to bike hard! But unfortunately I crashed HARD in a rock garden (got a nice shiner on my face to show for it!) and ended up breaking my derailleur hanger. Lost a MASSIVE chunk of time (if you were tracking and wondering why my GPS didn’t move for 20+ minutes, this is it!), but thanks to the help of neutral assist I was able to (eventually) get repaired and get going again.

As all who know me well know, I am definitely not one to give up in the face of a challenge, and will always do everything I possibly can to avoid a DNF, regardless of the circumstances. It was a tough call to carry on today after losing so much time and being so very far out of the race, but it was really important to me finish what I started, with my head held high. I traveled all the way to Richmond to race, so I decided that was what I needed to do. I rode and ran as hard as I could from there to the finish line, and even managed to nab one pro place back near the end of the run, and just a couple minutes out of two more places. 

Joe Mahoney of the Times-Dispatch captured this image of XTERRA pro Craig Evans taking a header into Reedy Creek last year.

The faceplant might not quite have been Craig Evans quality from last year’s race (at left, as captured by the T-D’s Joe Mahoney), but it was pretty darn impressive (especially considering she was not seriously injured). And it surely gives you a sense for how gnarly Richmond’s MTB trails can be and how tough XTERRAs off-road triathletes have to be on race day.

Eventual men’s champ Dan Hugo navigates a particularly colorful section of Buttermilk Trail during the XTERRA East Championship. Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

The XTERRA off-road triathlon series has been coming to Richmond since 1999, and for the past six years, as the Times-Dispatch outdoors columnist, I covered the professional and amateur racers as they swam the James River, then mountain biked and ran the riverside trails in the East Championship. It’s always been a blast watching these elite athletes hammer the same ground we Richmond outdoors lovers do all year long.

Over the past couple of years, there have been two developments that aided the XTERRA race experience for both fans and racers. The first was Luck Stone coming on as the presenting sponsor. You wouldn’t think of Luck Stone as a technology company, but they’ve added features like GPS tracking, live streaming video from the course and, this year, drone footage of the race (Click here take a look at this year’s coverage). Very cool stuff.

The other development is the rise of the insane, European-soccer-fan-quality spectators who now line portions of the Buttermilk Trail — the narrow, slickrock area with a rock face above it. They dress like Mexican wrestlers, babies, Minnie Mouse, ex-presidents. Many crossdress, with hairy dudes copiously stuffing their bras and donning Daisy Dukes. Brats and dogs are roasted on a grill. Music blasts from a giant stereo, and everyone cheers as the riders come through. It’s become quite a spectacle. According to the veteran racers, there’s nothing else like it on the XTERRA tour.

This year I, along with a few other writers and photographers, got a ride in the media van to the “Party Rocks” from XTERRA VP and PR maven Trey Garman, who wanted to catch the leaders coming through the area. I realized as I scrambled down the bank from Riverside Drive, that this year for the first time I wasn’t bound by the usual journalistic decorum. No longer a T-D employee, I could indulge my inner George Plimpton, my inner Hunter S. Thompson. It was time for a little gonzo journalism.

Revelers in full swing as a racer comes through the “Party Rocks.” Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

There are actually two sections of the “Party Rocks” area. The slickrock section, and then further east, toward downtown, another group of yahoos at a creek crossing. Knowing I had a a few minutes, I hightailed it to the creek, getting high fives from a guy in a Lucha libre mask and bike spandex. The sound of vuvuzelas greeted me at the creek, as did the offer for a Miller Lite from a guy dressed like Ric Flair. This is participatory journalism, I thought. I’m “Andy S. Thompson” now. What the heck, a quick beer won’t hurt!

As we waited for the top pros to come through on their second bike lap, a guy showed me the pics he snapped of a female pro who wrecked in front of the crowd on her first lap. He had set the camera to take multiple bursts with each press of the button and captured every horrific milisecond of her face plant directly into the mud and rocks. I’m sure the blood she surely spilled will make her a legend among that crowd for years to come.

With no sign yet of the pros, I decided to hoof it back to the slickrock section. It was about a hundred-yard run on Buttermilk, but XTERRA great Conrad Stoltz chased me down before I got there. I had to jump off the path into a patch of poison ivy to get out of his way. I was really starting to get the hang of this gonzo journalism, I thought. And I hadn’t even dropped any acid.

Good motivation to ride faster lurks in the woods along Buttermilk Trail. Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

Last year’s Richmond champ Dan Hugo arrived shortly after Stoltz, and then there was a small gap that allowed me to make it back to the party. Some sort of country/rock travesty blasted from the speakers, and the revelers were in full throat. You’d be shocked to hear the respectable jobs these people will go back to tomorrow. I talked to school teachers, arborists, city employees, and other moderately sturdy pillars of our community. But on this day, they were crazier than 10 drunken Frenchmen chasing the Tour de France peloton up Alpe d’Huez.

It was truly impressive to watch these athletes — human lungs, really — navigate this tricky section at warp speed with guys in blonde wigs and banana hammocks on either side of them on the trail. I had a front seat for the show as Stoltz, then Hugo, then Craig Evans, then XTERRA series points leader Josiah Middaugh zoomed by, but I had to share it with a guy in a full-body lycra jumpsuit and a red wig. He looked like a Dr. Seuss character.

XTERRA great Conrad Stoltz seems to be enjoying himself, and the throngs. Credit: Trey Garman/XTERRA

The media van eventually left the Party Rocks and caught up with the leaders on the run. Hugo narrowed the gap, then caught Stoltz, a 7-time winner in Richmond, in the forest atop Belle Isle. Bermuda native Flora Duffy absolutely blistered the women’s field from start to finish. On the men’s side it was probably the closest Richmond race in memory, with a number of lead changes and Hugo’s final pass not occurring until there was half a mile left. With Duffy, we might have witnessed the rise of the sport’s next great female champion. (Click here for full results and here for a sweet photo gallery.)

After the race, both winners answered many questions from the media about strategy, how they felt at which section, when they passed whom, etc. And they answered those questions, of course, but both also went out of their way to mention the “scene” along the way. What they saw was likely a crazy blur, considering how hard they were riding. Knee deep in poison ivy and Miller Lite, what I saw, to paraphrase the aforementioned gonzo journalist, was both decadent and depraved.