Volunteering at the Shenandoah Time Trial

Cyclist on the return during the time trial.

(Editor’s Note:  I’m way behind on posting – we’ve already had more bike races in the county since this event.  But since Chris Gould and his team do such a super job on the Shenandoah Time Trial, I thought I would put up a short post about my experience as a volunteer road guard.)

Page Valley Cycling puts on several race events a year at various locations around the county  - I even have a couple of posts up here on the blog.  Two weeks ago, they held the Shenandoah Time Trial – I’ve been trying to get my schedule straightened out so I could volunteer for one of the events, and it worked out that I could help with this one on Saturday July 28 down in the town of Shenandoah.

One of the cycling teams pass our intersection.

Time trials are done as a race against the clock, with riders heading out as individuals or teams at intervals of thirty seconds or one minute.  The Shenandoah race had several categories of riders, and distances of 14, 24, and 40 kilometers.  There’s a link to Page Valley Cycling below for more information about this event and the others that take place in the area.

I volunteered to serve as a road guard on the route.  I was stationed with two other folks at a T intersection about 7 kilometers from the starting point – the turnaround for the 14 KM race was just before our position, and there was some construction on a bridge going on, so it was a pretty complex situation.

We all received safety equipment, and Chris had obtained VDOT permits for the race that really helped to manage the traffic we encountered – a lot of Saturday morning errands, for the most part.  Most of the residents were very respectful of the event, I think because a lot of outreach goes on, and there were no accidents that I know of.

My old DC neighbor Ricky Lee Albores at the finish.
(Photo Credit:  TBD)

I’ve made no secret of my opinion that active tourism like the bike races and other activities are a very important component of the Page Valley economy.  I was glad to finally be able to participate – and I’m looking forward to helping out again on this and some of the other races.

For more information about Page Valley Cycling, check out the web page here:  http://www.pagevalleycycling.com/Tour_of_Page_County.html