Northeast - Return of Bike DC

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View Full Version : Return of Bike DC


cc_rider
05-16-08, 11:05 AM
With bike to work week they local radio stations have been running spots on biking and bike commuting.
On one of those shows, someone said that WABA was going to bring back the Bike DC ride.
I did a few of the Bike DC rides, enjoyed them a lot and was not happy when it was discontinued a few years ago. One of the reasons given at the time was complaints about closing the city streets for bikes (even though they close downtown DC at least twice a month for running events, and on the last Bike DC the only roads closed were the Clara Barton and the route to/from it.)

The WABA website doesn't have anything listed yet.
Has anyone else heard about this?


dpara
05-16-08, 11:34 AM
The only thing I saw was the "National Capital Century" that they are running this weekend. I had not heard about it at all until I saw it in the weekend section. Here's the link (http://www.nationalcapitalcentury.com/) but it follows the bike trails so should be a bit of a zoo.

cc_rider
05-16-08, 02:14 PM
Never heard of the National Capital Century either. But thanks for the warning. I know what areas to avoid this weekend.
Paying $50 for an all trail ride (on the trails I ride a lot anyway) doesn't sound like much fun. And I've never heard of the sponsor.

Bike DC at it's best was all road, roads closed to cars and around 8000 riders. The last one in '03 (I think) was on a miserable rainy day with only half the route closed to cars, and we still had 2000 riders.
I suspect they'll go for the traditional mid-September date, but I'm hoping for early October. Maybe Columbus Day weekend. I don't want to see it overlap the NY Century or the PPTC Century.


JimF22003
05-16-08, 03:30 PM
I never heard of this ride either. It wasn't on any of the ride search sites I tried. Oh well, I'd rather stay off the trails. Doing the Tour de Chesapeake tomorrow anyway.

I'll be watching for more info on the Bike DC rides.

cc_rider
05-19-08, 07:06 AM
WABA has a date for Bike DC - September 27
That'll be a good weekend for me - doesn't conflict with my other bike events.
No other information yet.
http://www.waba.org/events/

How did Tour de Chesapeake go? I would love to do that ride someday. My wife is from Mathews and the route goes by her parents old house (as well as several other relatives' houses.)

JimF22003
05-19-08, 03:45 PM
hi cc. The Tour de Chesapeake was fun. Very low-key and family oriented. Because there are only so many roads and so many places to go, there were lots of out-and-back sections, most of them ending at a beach or a pier of some kind. I combined the three main loops for a bit over 85 miles. (I ended up on an unnecessary detour back to the starting point, which accounts for the extra.) The ride used a map and color-coded road signs instead of cue sheets, supposedly for environmental reasons. That was different for me, but it worked out OK. As advertised it was super flat. The main issue I had was not having an excuse to get up out of the saddle enough, so I had to be careful not to let my rear end go to sleep :)

J.Lockdown
05-19-08, 03:48 PM
It would be nice to have the roads closed to go biking even know it causes some traffic. Its fun to have the whole road to you and fellow bikers not having to worry about cars racing by you.

If only everyone biked, then one motorist would complain about shutting down the roads, cause they all would be biking at the event ha.