On Thursday, June 23, 1994, a contingent of five Gainesville Cycling Club members/riders plus one member/nonrider/shopper/tourist sightseer left Gainesville for the rolling hills and mountains of southern Virginia. Our destination was the small town of Bedford, located about ten miles east of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Peaks of Otter. During the next five days, we were going to ride up and over the Blue Ridge twice, spend a day and a half in the Shenandoah Valley, visit the home of three Presidents, and end on the fifth day in Goochland, Virginia, a short distance west of Richmond. The five riding members of the Gainesville Cycling Club were Bill Cochran, Perry McGriff, David Wagner, Mike Cochran, and Jim Merkner. Joanne Cochran enjoyed shopping and sightseeing while the rest of us rode.
Bedford, Virginia greeted us with food and entertainment on Friday afternoon and the United States Grand Prix Criterium race program ran from 6:00 to 9:30 that evening. Early the next morning, we all arose early and headed out of town to meet the challenges of the day's ride. Unfortunately, they were not that far off. Seven miles into the day's ride the terrain changed from gently rolling to straight up. For the next four miles, we climbed from about 1000 feet to approximately 2500 feet of elevation, and arrived at the top and the Peaks of Otter. We then crossed over the Blue Ridge Parkway before starting down into the Shenandoah Valley, eight downhill miles away. After climbing Up, Up and over several other "nice little" rolling hills and passing several quaint towns, we ended up in Lexington, Virginia. It seemed that in the little villages along the way, the entire town turned out to see, feed, or water the 1500 bike riders that passed through. Every town and every citizen in that town seemed to want to help the cyclists have the most enjoyable tour that they could possibly have. We found this to be the case for all five days of Bike Virginia. Fifty-two miles after we started, the five of us met up with the equally weary shopper and sag driver.
The town of Lexington, Virginia is the home of Washington and Lee University, Virginia Military Institute, the George C. Marshall museum, the homes of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, and the cemetery where Stonewall Jackson is buried. One of the nice things about this area of Virginia is that most of the towns, except for Charlottesville, were small enough to be able to walk around. On Sunday, our group headed out over the rolling hills for Waynesboro, about 64 miles away. Our lunch stop this day was in Staunton at the Museum of American Frontier Culture. After lunch it was a short ride into Waynesboro. The High School there greeted us with some of the coldest showers this side of the Rocky Mountains. Someone forgot to turn on the boiler. The rains also came that evening.
Monday opened with rain and low hanging clouds and another climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Mike Cochran rode ahead while the rest of us stopped off in the clouds at a Holiday Inn for breakfast. The fog was so heavy that you could not see the restaurant, even though it was less than 100 feet away. Fortunately, David Wagner had been this way before and was able to locate it. Fog and rain left us groping our way down the mountain. About the time we got down the mountain, the rain let up and an hour later the sun came out. The day turned out to be fairly decent after all. Once the skies cleared, the ride took us to Walton's Mountain and Ike Godsey's General Store on our way to Charlottesville. The area around Charlottesville was the home for three Presidents: Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello, James Madison's home of Montpelier, and James Monroe's home of Ashlawn.
On Tuesday, with the exception of David Wagner who decided to ride his bike, the rest of us hopped on a bus and turned tourist for the day. The bus ride took us up to the Barboursville Vineyards for a wine tasting, to Jefferson's home of Montpelier, and on to a lunch stop in the town of Orange. Back at tent city in Charlottesville, the group of us climbed on another bus and rode out to Ashlawn for some more sightseeing.
The last day of the tour was also the flattest of all. Lunch this day was in Cartersville, near the James River. Afterward, we headed for Gouchland, all fat and happy after our big lunch. What a mistake we made! Down the hill and across the James River we came to a nasty, nasty little hill with all that food rolling around in our stomachs. Fourteen miles later, we were at the end of our five-day Bike Virginia Presidential Odyssey. After finding our bags, we packed the trailer and headed back to Gainesville and work the next day.