The basic Ride Plan

Last summer while visiting Charlottesville Va, I had the opportunity to ride on the Skyline Drive out of Waynesboro, Va. As I’m signed up for IMLP in 2011, this ride struck me as a fabulous training ground for the LP bike. I’m looking to organize an EN Camp ther next spring. This would be a 2 or 4 day option. Here’s the general plan. We meet up in Waynesboro, Va. This is the Northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Southern end of Skyline Drive. These are non-commercial roads that run through the National Parks, a very popular cycling area. Think low traffic, gorgeous views, lots of good climbing practice, ride with your EN teammates. Google these and you’ll find tons of info on them. Several commercial tour groups and high end coaching groups run camps and tours on these roads. We have 2 main options.

On May 18th we will leave Waynesboro and head South on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Peaks of Otter Lodge. This is 86 miles and again around 8500’ of elevation gain. We overnight at the Lodge and return the next day to Waynesboro. I am working on getting a seminar set up with Training Peaks, creators of WKO power analysis software for Thursday evening.

On the 20th, we will again depart Waynesboro and ride North on Skyline Drive to Front Royal, Va. This is 105 miles one way with about 8500’ of elevation gain.   We overnight in a local hotel(Hampton Inn) Next day, return to Waynesboro.

If you do all 4 days, you will ride 382 miles and cover 34,000 ft of elevation gain. The grades are not all that bad though. You can see the details of the climbs on the links if you click the “Watch course fly by video” and click on climbs tab. Compared to the mapmyride course of Lake Placid, these are tougher routes than LP will be.

So, there would be a couple options, a 4 day camp that includes both routes, or a 2 day camp covering only 1 route. As for cost, you would be responsible for your own travel to and from the starting point, (Waynesboro), your motel reservations and cost, your meals, nutrition, etc. Basically I’m suggesting a do it yourself deal as far as money goes. I’m providing the logistics and organization. Once I get a feel for the attendance, I will call the hotels and negotiate the best rates. We would most likely leave cars parked at the hotel inn in Waynesboro for the duration of the camp. I will try to arrange for a couple SAG vehicles and drivers to move luggage along the route for us and cover any issues that arise during the day(Special needs for nutrition, breakdowns, etc). If someone has a volunteer for a SAG vehicle and driver, just let me know. We’ll pitch in to cover SAG expenses. As soon as I know the details of the motels/lodges, I'll post that.  I will probably cap this at 12 riders to keep logistics simple for this first time.  I have set up a google doc at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...l=en#gid=0  Shoot me your email address to gftman@hotmial.com and I'll add you to the access list.  This is where you officially sign up.