JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
Rock the Blue Ridge Ride August 29
Registration Now Available for 75- and 35-Mile Rides
Lora Elder recently stopped in on bike shops in the Raleigh-Durham area to promote the upcoming Rock the Blue Ridge Ride and learned why this event is important.
“We’ve been down here a couple of days and did a ride and it made me realize how much a ride like this is needed,” Elder said in between stops. “It’s 106 degrees down here.”
The 75- and 35-miles rides, which will celebrate the Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th anniversary, are scheduled for Sunday, August 29, and will hopefully certainly provide cooler weather for riders coming into town.
Registration is $85 for a single rider, or $75 per rider for four or more riders registering together, if registered by August 15. Registering can be completed online by clicking to www.rocktheblueridge.com.
“There are very few places you want to be on a bike on the pavement all day, except in the High Country,” she added.
Elder said she’s getting a “phenomenal response” to the event and hopes to have riders from both Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida.
More than 40 percent of each ride will take part on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Riders will stage at Appalachian Ski Mountain and leave there between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
Courses will take riders on the Parkway for long stretches and then back on different routes.
A press release proclaims that riders will see “protected scene-scapes that hug the ridgelines of the gorgeous and rugged Blue Ridge Mountains of the Southern Appalachian range. And with this pristine mountainous terrain comes vigorous, worthwhile climbs and well-earned, sweet descents.”
Riders will cruise over the Linn Cove Viaduct and toward the base of Grandfather Mountain. The 35-mile loop will exit there and return on Highway 221, while the longer ride will continue to Linville Falls and along the Toe River before making the return trip via Highway 221.
The ride is based off events that Elder helped organize in Lake Tahoe, Calif., in the past and is more than just a ride.
There is a concert on Friday, August 27, for participants and their families, a kids’ bike rodeo at Lees-McRae College on Saturday, August 28, and a BBQ dinner after the ride. At the BBQ dinner there will be an event expo, live bluegrass music and more entertainment.
For more information about the Rock the Blue Ridge Ride, click to www.rocktheblueridge.com or call 828-260-0534.
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