Hub-and-spoke tours in Delmarva?

[jeneralist]

The good news is, I've gotten other friends and family members interest in cycling to the point that there's talk of a cycling vacation.

The bad news is, to make this work we would need to find rides that can accomodate a wide range of endurance levels. Ideally, if one person needs a rest day, other folks can still ride and re-converge back at the same B&B that night.

So I'm looking for suggestions for a hub-and-spoke style tour, someplace flat within 3 hours drive of DC. Suggestions and pointers to web resources welcomed....

Thanks!

[maxine]

Are you looking for a "tour company" tour, or to put something together yourself? I don't know of any formal tours in that area (not to say there aren't any), but I've done some riding and bike camping in Delmarva. A good "hub" might be Princess Anne, a pretty little town with some buildings of historical interest, and some B&Bs (I've never stayed in any of them, though.) Historic Furnace Town, near Snow Hill, is about a 30-mile ride away, Deale Island is probably a bit closer, should be able to put together some nice/interesting rides starting from there. Everything is flat in Delmarva, so no worries there.

http://www.townofprincessanne.com/

[jeneralist]

Are you looking for a "tour company" tour, or to put something together yourself?

Looking to put something together myself. Thanks for the info!

[cc_rider]

If you want to try an organized event, there's the Tour de Chesapeake in Mathews County, VA, in early May.
Beautiful, flat, all rural county surrounded by the bay on 3 sides. The highest elevation in the county is probably not over 20 feet. Routes are 5 loops of various lengths from the courthouse. By combining loops you can get rides anywhere from 5 miles to 65 miles. More if you are ambitious.
It's a very relaxed, friendly event. It's new enough that it hasn't been swamped by crowds, like the Seagull Century or BYN5B have been. The rest stops were stocked with a lot of home baked goods. The people in Mathews really turn out to support the event.

http://www.vabike.org/tour-de-chesap...bands-the-bay/

Checking their website for the upcoming ride, I see they've added a 100 mile option.
That will probably make it the flattest century in the US.

[ks1g]

Kent County MD (Chestertown) has a good map of bike routes on the county website. Roads are flat and decent shoulders, as of a few years ago. Off the beaten paths from DC to shore, so roads are relatively quiet.

There are large organized rides from the Salisbury MD area (Seagull Century and I think a MS150 ride) - if you could find cue sheets from prior years, you could use those to put together several day rides. I believe the Snow Hill and Princess Anne areas would be in there. The Annapolis and Baltimore bike clubs may have something useful in their cue sheet libraries.

[maxine]

The View Trail 100 maps might be helpful, too.

http://visitworcester.org/index.php/...viewtrail_100/

[kaos joe]

You and your friends should check out "Kent County Spring Fling" held every May in Chestertown MD by the Baltimore Bicycle Club. You will have a great time. If registration is full, let me know & I can send copies of cue sheets from previous years. They have dozens of routes mapped out.

Joe