What really horrifies cyclists

[Cataboo]

Yeah, we were rolling by 7:00 or so. The cool temps and cloudy skies were wonderful, as were those donuts!

I hope that Bike VA comes through for that guy and his toasted bike!

What was the story with the ambulance on Tuesday? We were trying out a tandem on Park Drive and saw it arrive, but had no idea what was going on...

Which one? The one at lunch or at dinner? Lunch was heart attack guy. Dinner (around 7 at tent city?) seemed to be just someone feeling ill. I think the heat & dehydration from Sunday got to a lot of people. There was an ambulance on Sunday's ride just after the lunch stop - at a left turn, dunno if the guy just wiped out or a car was involved. I didn't really look as passing, but it looked not gory, and his bike looked okay. There was an ambulance about 3 miles out on Monday morning, dunno what that was about.

[Becky]

Which one? The one at lunch or at dinner? Lunch was heart attack guy. Dinner (around 7 at tent city?) seemed to be just someone feeling ill. I think the heat & dehydration from Sunday got to a lot of people. There was an ambulance on Sunday's ride just after the lunch stop - at a left turn, dunno if the guy just wiped out or a car was involved. I didn't really look as passing, but it looked not gory, and his bike looked okay. There was an ambulance about 3 miles out on Monday morning, dunno what that was about.

The dinner guy. I missed the lunch stop on Tuesday, but heard about it afterwards, and T took the day off.

Saturday's and Sunday's heat were brutal. We opted out of the century just because it was so warm.

We didn't see any accidents or medicals- from the stories that I'm hearing now, maybe we were just lucky!

[Cataboo]

Yeah, I had been tempted to do the century until I felt the heat. 58 miles was enough. The accounts that I was getting from people that did the century weren't pleasant - no water up at the top after doing vesuvius climb and no water stops up on the blue ridge parkway section.

[skibum]

I did the century and it was brutal. I handled the heat okay, several weeks of riding in 95+ weather in GA had me somewhat acclimated. Although, honestly, when it's that hot, it's rough even if you're used to it.

The placement of the water stops almost did me in -- no water from just before the vesuvius climb until the lunch stop. I probably rode 10 miles with empty water bottles. I was trying to get up the nerve to knock on someone's door to ask for water when the rest stop came into view.

I know I was fairly dehydrated at that point and am amazed I was able to recover and finish. The final rest stop (I think that was the one at the winery) was a big help -- they had a sprinkler going and ice for our water bottles.

I was only doing two days of the ride. I would have opted out of the century because of the heat if I new I had several more days to ride.

[Cataboo]

It was a strange spring for acclimatizing to the heat - at least in Maryland, we would swing from 90 + degree days to 50-60 degree days. And it just basically made me kayak on the hot days and bike on the cool days...

So I'd completely not adjusted to biking in the heat.

One guy I talked to said he stopped at a church and used their hose to get water while on the century.

But even on the 58 mile ride that day, I filled up the 2-3 liter bladder in my hydration pack at least 3 times, and was drinking 2 cups of water at every rest stop. I think I had like 4 glasses of water with dinner, and I was still dehydrated.

[IFjane]

I did not ride Bike VA this year but know the Vesuvius route well. I heard the same complaints from a friend who only rode that day (the century). He was out of water at the top. Not good planning for the BVA folks. There is nothing between Tye River & Love Gaps for refilling bottles.

Last year the route was literally in my backyard & I never heard complaints like I have this year. Not sure what happened ~ I hope next year is better!

[Becky]

I did not ride Bike VA this year but know the Vesuvius route well. I heard the same complaints from a friend who only rode that day (the century). He was out of water at the top. Not good planning for the BVA folks. There is nothing between Tye River & Love Gaps for refilling bottles.

Last year the route was literally in my backyard & I never heard complaints like I have this year. Not sure what happened ~ I hope next year is better!

I'm glad to hear that this was not normal. We didn't have any issues with water, but had a few with rest stops not being "open" for food when we arrived. Hoping for better planning next year, because we really did have a good time. Food in general seemed to be the biggest challenge.

Do the Bike VA folks send out a questionaire/review form? after the event?

[Cataboo]

I heard a ton of people saying that they'd been going to bike virginia yearly for X # of years and that they'd been getting progressively worse, and this years was going to be their last.

While I had fun - it was my first bike VA and I don't think I'm doing it again.

[Bike Chick]

If it had been my new Luna that was backed over, I would've been the one with the heart attack!

[tulip]

This was my fourth BVA. I don't think they've been getting worse at all; it's always been very well-organized. I'm just tired of the group ride thing after I made up my own 10-day tour in Texas earlier this spring. I'm entering a different phase, is all. BVA does a fine job. Except for the no water on the century. That was bad.

Riders who leave very early may arrive too early for the lunch stop. That's easy to fix--leave a bit later or ride a bit slower or stop and take more photos. I arrived at the lunch stop one day at 9:30, which was not too early. People who arrived at 8:30 were disappointed. But it's lunch, after all, not breakfast.

I would still recommend BVA to anyone who is interested in doing an organized ride that goes through beautiful countryside. This year's riding was fantastic, with very little traffic and beautiful terrain and landscape.

[Cataboo]

the problem was the heat- everyone was trying to leave as early as possible to avoid biking in the heat later in the day - and when you have the lunch stop at mile 20 and people are leaving at 7 am - the lunch stop is just in the wrong place. It was at mile 76 for the century rider.

Most days the lunch stops were way too early - but if things had been 30 degrees cooler, maybe not.

Lack of ice was annoying - no ice in the mornings at tent city. The first day of riding there wasn't ice at the rest stops. The 2nd day, thankfully they did have ice - someone at a rest stop (singer's glen?) who I asked for some ice told me that they'd all been told not to give us ice 'cause it would bring our temperatures down too quickly.

The shuttle buses were poorly organized in Harrisonburg - I waited about 40 mins for a shuttle to get over to Kmerzhad's hotel - then there was about an hour's wait for a shuttle at the hotel to get them to downtown. Lots of people were having issues with that.

Various people on the meal plans were upset with the breakfasts and dinners - having hardboiled eggs as the only option for eggs upset a lot of people. I think it worked out to something like $10 per breakfast and $20 each dinner - in both cases,places downtown provided better meals for equal or less money. The last dinner was at the university cafeteria, where if you paid for your dinner it was $8.

The lack of vendors and such around tent city also upset a lot of people - supposedly there has been a lot more variety and options in past years. It also pretty much seemed like both Staunton and Harrisonburg had no idea 2,000 cyclists were about to descend on them - most of the restaurants ran out of food the first night and were having all sorts of issues. So I don't know if that's a case of bike virginia not warning the restaurants or the restaurants not bothering to adjust the food orders after being warned...

The guy who had his bike ran over was pretty upset that after his friend was hospitalized, that bike virginia people were not doing more to help - help with the hospital logisitics, or helping him pack up his friend's stuff to make sure it went back to Staunton and such like that.

The routes were well marked, but cue sheets or something like that would have been helpful - I spoke to some guy who went 80 miles instead of the 50 mile ride, 'cause he'd gotten lost and had no idea how to get back, etc. He'd flagged a car down and asked for directions to staunton, where he then got directions to tent city. They had people stationed to wave us into rest stops and lunch stops and at a couple intersections they considered dangerous - but there werea couple hills with stop signs half way up which would have been a great place to have someone stationed instead of at the rest stops

I had purchased someone else's registration at a significant discount - so I'm more than happy with what I got for what I paid, if I'd payed full price I'd've expected more.

Maybe it was just that the countryside was fairly familliar to me, but I really would have preferred a supported tour that went somewhere instead of doing loops around a couple cities...Biking from the mountains to the coast or something like that. Biking loops around cities seemed to be something that I could have done myself credit card touring.

[Cataboo]

Posted on facebook:
Bike Virginia 2010 Shenandoah Expedition Rider Update: Joe crashed on Tuesday near lunch. Latest from his family: recovering, will have surgery later this week to repair a broken vertebra, looking at long recovery but his health should be fine.

[tulip]

The loops were new this year. I think alot of people prefer point-to-point because it feels like you are actually covering ground on the bike. I'm all for that. In years past, the rides have mostly been point-to-point. The problem is that it is very difficult to find towns with enough hotels to house all the hotel people. Most riders are hotelers. Only about 700 are campers.

The guy who got lost...we were given maps. I dunno, I just have never gotten lost on a BVA before, and I don't think people getting lost is a common occurrence.

I'm not a camper so I cannot comment on the mealplans and shuttles busses for campers. Doesn't sound great. I'm not a fan of shuttle busses in any form; you always end up waiting. I hated waiting for shuttles at Cycle Zydeco last year in Louisiana. I figured out how to ride my bike to the towns from the hotels, both this year and in past years of BVA. But then again, I'm not a night person so I wasn't interested in the evening festivities after dark.

Last year and the year before there were serious accidents due to people riding recklessly. BVA really tried to address that this year with an emphasis on safety. I was passed by one paceline but the riders in it weren't overly obnoxious.

Organizing a BVA is not on the top of my list of things to do. There are always glitches and hiccups, and sometimes more serious issues to be resolved.

There's the North Carolina mountains to coast ride that I'm thinking of doing in the fall. It's all camping. Not sure of the logistics. I guess they bus everyone back to the mountains at the end. That doesn't appeal to me at all, but the actual ride could be very good.

[Cataboo]

I guess there was forewarning before the event, so I'm not sure about all the restaurants that were having food supply issues:
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20...rs+to+Staunton

I like the idea of a point to point, because that's where you really get the advantage of a supported tour.

For the most part, it didn't seem like there was any problem getting from tent city to downtown with the shuttle buses - those were failry frequent. Taking the shuttle buses from tent city over to the hotels or getting from the hotels to downtown was the problem. IT didn't really matter in Staunton, because people still had their cars, it was annoying in Harrisonburg. But since I was in tent city, not a biggie for me - just meeting up with people who were staying in hotels was a hassle.