Dear Cap Trail User,
We have a ton of exciting updates about the Capital Trail. First is that the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation requested a safety study to be completed on the Charles City County portion of the Capital Trail and it is happening! Next month there will be an online survey released for users to complete to give their feedback. Stay tuned for the survey next month.
Secondly, we are excited to see the Mayor's budget with the City of Richmond asked for funding a couple of great initiatives that will have an effect on the Capital Trail. Here are those Capital Improvements:
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’d like to highlight those who ride the Trail “in tandem.” Tandem riders come in all shapes and sizes on the Trail. We’ve seen father-son duos, couples, friends, and more! We reached out to some tandem riders to share their stories about why they ride tandem bicycles together.
The Virginia Capital Trail Foundation is pleased to announce that we have received matching grant funds from the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s (VTC) Marketing Leverage Program (MLP). The grant is for $5,000 and utilized James City County, Henrico County, and Richmond Region Tourism as partners to create a weekend getaway campaign focused on the Virginia Capital Trail.
Training is different for everyone but there are some universal tips to help any rider. One of the best things about Cap2Cap is that it’s a non-competitive, fully supported ride so it’s great for beginners or experienced cyclists looking to test themselves. We’ve consulted Cap2Cap participants and the Trail community about best practices for training for your 23, 52, or even 100-mile rides on May 11th!
Are you a regular rider or is this your first time getting on a bike in years? Regardless of where you start, it’s important to go on a ride to find your benchmark. You may find you can only do 15 now but you’re looking to train for 20+ miles. Knowing your starting point will help you identify and set realistic goals so get out on the Trail and ride!
Since the Capital Trail opened, my dream has been to ride it from Richmond to Williamsburg and spend the night, then ride back. So I jumped at the chance to try the new Williamsburg Winery Cycling Experience in early September. The overnight package includes a room at Wedmore Place on the winery property, dinner at Café Provencal, a wine tasting, couple’s massage, complimentary bottle of wine, bike ride snacks and breakfast. We also opted for luggage delivery.
Our small group left from Shiplock Park in Richmond Sunday morning and set an easy pace. We passed Ronnie’s BBQ, then made a brief bathroom stop at Four Mile Creek Park. We passed Momma Lonnie’s Country Stow at about 15 miles out, and from there the trail was fairly flat and shady until we hit a sunny stretch along a cornfield near Upper Shirley Vineyards.
Thanks to Richmond hosting the UCI Road World Championships last year, the city has been swept up in quite the whirlwind in terms of considering itself an increasingly bike-friendly city. But now that the city is 9 months out from the race, if you really take a hard look at Richmond and the strides it has taken to be more bike friendly, just how far has the city come? As a marketing intern at the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation I not only get to see the inner workings of what it takes to maintain the trail on a daily basis, but also have gotten a better understanding of how the trail may be impacting Richmond’s evolution into a bike friendly city.
A lot of my contemporaries have yet to try the Virginia Capital Trail. “I don’t have a bike”, they say. Or, “I don’t know how to get there.” Or, “I don’t have the right clothes.” These are smart people who buy things at retail stores and use Google maps all the time. I know from experience how these small obstacles take something that is very doable and make it doable another day. Another day that keeps turning into another day. Why? Fear?
