The bike routes you find at Bike Virginia come from a made from scratch proccess. Planning for our event bike routes for each event begins up to 14 months in advance. Our expert staff create every Bike Virginia Tour ride and routes from the ground up. That means that when you come on our ride, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before, you’ll get the best riding that community has to offer in the year we visit.
A single event, like the 2015 tour ride, consists of up to 400 miles of riding over 6 days on as many as 16 different route options. Our team creates them from the ground up, just for you.
For 2015 we’ve got 6 days of riding planned. All the routes are loops beginning and ending at headquarters.
Friday- 16 miles
Saturday- 19, 40, 70, 73, and 103 miles (our first century)
Sunday- 16, 43, 85 miles
Monday- 10, 41, 63 miles
Tuesday- 27, 52, 106 miles (our second century option)
Wednesday- 28 or 44 miles
To read more descriptions of the routes and things you’ll get to see visit our routes page.
Full Time Staff On The Task
Bike Virginia has full-time staff unlike many bike events. The team of experts on our staff work year round on cycling.
Our formula for creating a fun and safe riding experience is led by Shane Cusick, our Outreach and Event Director. He’s a veteran route planner that’s worked with Bike Virginia since 2009. 
Shane is a Landscape Architect who’s got a great eye for detail on what roads make the best riding experience. Shane is an accomplished cyclists on and off-road. In 2015 he’s got his sights on the Leadville 100 Mountain Biking Event as his big goal for the year.
Shane’s love of maps sets the tone for his planning process. He begins with an intensive study of the region looking at our options.
The planning process also teams Shane with Cynthia, our Health and Safety Coordinator.
Cynthia Bashton is a long time rider (horses, road bikes, and mountain bikes). Cynthia has been part of the team for 4 years. She loves exploring by bike and her entire family including adult kids, their spouses, and her husband, take camping kayak and bike vacations to fun destinations each summer. 
Her primary role with our non-profit is to work on safety. She is our “permit expert” and works closely with the health department and local safety officials to make our events as safe as possible. Cynthia works with other staff to select the headquarters location each year. This gives Shane a starting and ending point for each of the loop rides he needs to plan.
Regional Expertise
We use important input others across the state in the bike route planning process. Once Shane is familiar with the area’s geographic and roadway features surrounds himself with information from regional experts.
He reaches out to riding communities in the Bike Virginia host region. He evaluates routes that have been used by regional riders in resources like Ride with GPS and Map my Ride.
Shane begins to overlay those options on our planning maps. Combined with calls and emails he uses research to create a database of information on what the best riding options for the region are.
First Ride and Drive
Then it’s time for Shane to hit the road. He strikes out to the host region for a first hand experience. He spends time getting to know the area by bike, car, and visiting local businesses. While there he not only rides and drives on the roads, he meets with people who are riding regularly in the region.
From those experiences he creates a general sketch of 6 days of routes.
Second Sweep
After the first evaluation, Shane heads back to the desk and computer to create detailed route maps with several options for each day. Using those maps Shane and Cynthia begin driving every single mile that has been identified as an option for us to bike. Cynthia is looking specifically for safety aspects and identifying potential rest stop locations. Together they begin to pic favorites and axe others. One by one Cynthia and Shane select or eliminate roads based on historical interest, beauty, rest stop locations, and our safety criteria. This process is done over several months, with multiple visits to the roads.
Police, EMS, VDOT Input
As planning takes place, our team works with regional law enforcement and EMS to consider any traffic matters that would impact rider experience. We then work with regional VDOT to get approval for our use of the proposed routes. Shane and Cynthia also make arrangements with local law enforcement for police support in places that our routes need additional safety measures.
Refine and Revisit
As the routes take shape, Shane and Cynthia revisit the area several times. They consider the riding experience from every angle. Look for traffic patterns, road conditions, entry and exit, dogs, truck traffic, scenery, and all the little things to make or ruin a bike ride for you.
Preview Team
As we enter the final 3 months of planning before the event we conduct a large scale route evaluation. That process involves several staff and up to 12 volunteers that ride the proposed routes, all 6 days of them.
The Preview Team are riding the roads at the exact time of day and day of the week that you will during the event. This timing lets us know exactly what your ride will be like in June. They rate the route on scenery, beauty, and safety. This is the test that every single route of the event must pass.
What happens if a route does not pass the test? This happened a couple of years back. After riding one of our route options, a 50 mile Saturday route, the team recommended that it be dropped. The experience did not stand up to the beauty and pleasant quality we strive for every ride. The route made sense in many ways, it had taken our riders to one of the region’s most historic places, but it was not beautiful. So we took the valued input from our team of volunteers went back to the drawing board. In the end we got a great new route out of it.
Wrap Up and Map Printing
After preview we put the finishing touches on the routes and send the maps off for printing. We prepare the cue sheets that our drivers will use and get the GPS files ready for you to download. This all takes place in May, just before the June event.
Day Of Route Considerations
Our expert sign teams go out on the route early each morning beginning at 3:30am to put up the bike route markers. They are our expert eyes on the road. If emergency conditions caused by weather, construction, etc… cause problems, they quickly shift to alternative plans so you can count on a fun riding day. 
This same love and consideration that goes into the June Bike Virginia Annual Tour is also going into our new event, Velo Virginia 2015 which takes place in September to celebrate the UCI World Cycling Championships visiting Virginia.