Candy Cranks

If you followed the NCAA basketball tournament this past month, you may have heard of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Before VCU was known for their skills on the basketball court, they were known for their diverse student population and urban campus plastered with bicycles in the heart of Richmond, VA. 

Next week, in honor of the city’s growing cycling community, RideRichmond is teaming up with VCU and Carytown Bicycle Company  to kick-off Richmond’s First Annual Bike Week. The week will be filled with a ton of awesome activities for all types of cyclists. More info about the events, which include track racing, a bike-swap, and goldsprints, can be found here.

To add even more fun to Bike Week, the Saddle Sores Bicycle Club will be hosting a dance party on Friday and a race on Sunday to benefit RVA Bike Polo, who will also be hosting a pick-up tournament over the weekend. This means there will be at least one or more events every single day for an entire week!!!

Who could resist getting sweaty with a bunch of  bike kids on a Friday night? I know I’ll be there!

There is no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon then riding around the city dressed in a costume! You don’t have to be fast to win a prize!

I hope to see some out-of-towners in RVA next week! It’s a pretty rad place to visit.

Richmond, VA has one of the best bike polo teams in the world. The thing is, they’ve never really had a legit polo court to call “home”. Rarely used tennis and basketball courts have been the place of play for the past several years, so it’s about time that hardcourt bike polo is acknowledged by the city as a real sport with a real facility.

Thursday, February 17th, RVA Bike Polo, the Cutthroats Bicycle Club, and RideRichmond are teaming together to throw one of the best fundraisers this city has ever seen…. and RVA knows how to party! We’re having Gold sprints AND a dance party all in the same night!  All for a $3 donation!

Let’s help RVA Bike Polo get a legit court that they can call their own. More details here!

Dagga (left) and I got first and second for the female category. She beat me by less than a second!

This past Saturday RideRichmond threw a Goldsprints event at a local bar with help from our friends at Cultur and Carytown Bicycle Co.  A last minute change of location and a cold and rainy evening did not keep people from coming out! The event drew 27 racers and even more spectators came to join in the excitement. Racers were split up into 3 categories–Pro, Amateur, and Ladies.

Several of the guys hit tops speeds of 55mph in both the Pro and Amateur categories. They were raging so hard on the rollers that one guy snapped a chain and another guy broke a fork, sending him to the ground mid-race! Luckily no one got hurt and the crash was caught on video.

The 4 ladies that raced (myself included) were hitting speeds of 48-49mph. Even a couple random guys who probably had not ridden a bike since they were kids  jumped in on the fun and raced! Overall, the event was a huge success despite some minor mishaps! All of the money raised was put into a fund to put kids on bikes this holiday season!! We hope for Goldsprints to be a regular event in Richmond, VA this coming year!