unterhausen

I would really like to ride the transVirginia. Hopefully at close to randonneuring pace, not tourist pace. https://www.transvirginia.org/

Anyone else thinking about riding this route? I am thinking that april might be the best time for me instead of the grand depart. The people that did it in March last year had winter conditions.

chadtrent

That comes right through my hometown. April would be a better time to make sure you avoid winter. We generally get most of our winter weather in February-March.

unterhausen

I know March weather in Virginia can be highly variable. I grew up in Blacksburg and was a part-time resident of Lynchburg a few years ago. Where are you from?

It gets pretty close to some of the riding I did, been to Mountain lake many time, but never road the dirt road to the north of the lake, like this route does.

In my wildest dreams, I was thinking about riding back. Maybe on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

chadtrent

I'm in Roanoke.

unterhausen

Okay, the route doesn't look like it goes that close to Roanoke, so that threw me off. They say it goes 2 miles away in one place, but I don't see that either.

dualresponse

Cool ride. Thanks for posting. I'd never heard of it.

LOL- I was just doing a part of that ride near Harrisonburg yesterday. The gravel road at the top of the ridgeline was snow/ice/ mud. April will still have cold temps in the elevations, and although nicer, can still be unpredictable. I have been caught in snowstorms in April, and very cold temps at elevation, even in May.

Please keep posted about if you do it/ upcoming, etc....

chadtrent

Yeah. It's just outside town but roads that we ride all the time.

dualresponse

Now I can't stop thinking about this ride. Perhaps the October run. My 10 year wedding anniversary is on 10/9. What a perfect excuse to take my wife to DC, enjoy the anniversary, then she can leave me at the Mall. I threw this idea out as a joke tonight to gauge response. She was not as mad at it as I expected! I can ride home from there- Waynseboro area... I'll throw the idea out again in several days to get a better feel

unterhausen

Mid October should be really nice. There is a fall grand depart if you want company

dualresponse

I think the oct. ride would be nice too. I'm signed up for the West Va. Grusk venti 212 miler in summer ( a good "warm up "ride?) . I was just reading the stories about the "march" trip on the website- LOL.. That would be cold. Here was a pic from Flagpole/reddish knob yesterday, and another fire road the day before...These roads have a tendency to maintain ice/snow/slop in the shaded areas long after they have any business being frozen. The ice/cold gets old when you are trying to make time (especially off camber ice/snow over slick rocks)! Usually by April, the ice and sticking snow is gone, but it's not too much fun when it's 35 degrees and raining either

Another option in the (very real anniversary thingee) sense- Is that it might be more feasible for me to ride north, and meet her in DC for the anniversary weekend.... Who knows... I need to let the idea sit a little longer. In the meantime, it's fun reading all the stories on the website.

I've ridden the fireroad from flagpole/reddish in h-burg down south (down something on the shenendoah 100 mtb race called "death climb") to braley pond, then out 250 over confederate breastworks down into highland county, and south from there to douthat a bunch. Really awesome country. I'm intrigued by what is south of there, as well as what is north of what I'm familiar with.

unterhausen

I have been a bit reluctant to look at our forest roads. This time of year they are usually just sheets of ice, but we have had some warmer weather. I might go look with studded tires

I think the transvirginia route is a good resource, even if you don't want to go all the way to Damascus. There is a north-south mostly gravel route in Pennsylvania that gets really close to the TransVirginia route, so it would be nice to do a combined ride. Not sure where if I would want to go to Damascus if I did that

blazin

Another route to look at might be the Rockstar race, from Hburg to Roanoke, that has both MTB and gravel versions. I haven’t looked to see how much overlap it has with the Transvirginia. The race is run late March I think. Brrr.

chadtrent

Yeah. Several of my friends did that race. I can't get away that long but I'd love to do it someday.