Adventure Cycling's Early Season Tours

01-04-2008

Get a head start on '08 resolutions with expanded list of early trips and events

Missoula, Mont. — Check your list of New Year's resolutions: Lose a bit of holiday bulge? Travel more but drive less? Fend off the mid-winter blues? Adventure Cycling Association — North America's largest bicycling membership organization — comes to the rescue with an expanded line-up of early season tours crafted specifically to get you inspired and tuned up for the 2008 cycling season.

Adventure Cycling's early season trips feature four shorter supported tours, two longer self-contained tours, and a chance for cyclists of all experience levels to participate in a highly regarded Leadership Training Course (LTC).

The ever-popular LTC happens February 8–10 in San Diego, CA. This three-day course teaches the fundamentals of leading a bicycle expedition, including working with groups, meal preparation, bicycle repair, and much more.

"The San Diego LTC will be a fantastic way for cyclists to learn how to lead their own trips," says Rod Kramer, Adventure Cycling's Tours Director. "This course will challenge riders to take the lead on the road and in daily life."

Adventure Cycling's roster of shorter, early season supported tours (with luggage carried, meals and campsites provided) includes a new trip dubbed the California Winter Warmer. Heading out of San Diego on February 16, riders will spin through gorgeous, challenging terrain, including the Laguna Mountains, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, before descending through rolling countryside from Julian to Ramona and cruising down into San Elijo State Beach for a last night of camping and catered meals.

On March 8, Adventure Cycling will launch the Southern Arizona Road Adventure from Tucson. A week of high desert riding with luggage support and hearty meals will help riders ease back into shape as they traverse the beautiful country famous as a training ground for world-class athletes.

Exploring one of the best areas for spring riding in the U.S., the Texas Hill Country tour leaves Austin, TX on April 5 for a seven-day ride through oak-covered hills and wildflowers. "Texas Hill County is a spring jewel and was one of our best received trips in 2007," says Kramer.

Another early season ride draws on our nation's heritage: the Vintage Virginia tour, leaving Richmond, VA on April 12. During seven days of surprisingly rural travel through the heart of early American history, riders will visit such sites as the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Combined with superb pastoral terrain, these attractions make up a ride no two-wheeled history buff should miss.

Ready for an extended adventure? Adventure Cycling's early season self-contained tours run six to eight weeks in length. Think of them as road trips without the car – nothing between you and a rich mix of landscapes, cuisine, and culture along the way.

First up: the Southern Tier expedition, which runs from San Diego, CA to St Augustine, FL (March 22–May 25) spinning through the vast beauty of Arizona, New Mexico, then rural Texas, and finally gliding through Louisiana, along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Alabama into St. Augustine, the oldest city in America. This trip is long on scenery, great shoulder-season weather, and terrific cycling.

Adventure Cycling's other long-distance, early season ride features a new and thrilling route: the Underground Railroad (UGRR) — a 2,000+ mile ride that symbolically traces the journey escaped slaves followed as they raced toward freedom more than 140 years ago. Departing Mobile, AL on April 27, riders head north to Owen Sound, Ontario, arriving on June 13.

According to a rider on the UGRR's inaugural trip in 2007, this is an experience not to be missed: "Being an African-American male, to walk in the same footsteps of the men and women who made this trek, it's unbelievable. It's very important to me. The things Harriet Tubman and the other people on the Underground Railroad were able to do with so little support—it's inspiring."

Whether you want to immerse yourself in our nation's history, trim down, or simply get a respite from the winter doldrums, Adventure Cycling's early season tours will give you that extra inspiration to get up out and get riding. Go to www.adventurecycling.org/tours or call (800) 755-2453 x3 for all the background on these and other bike travel options.

Adventure Cycling Association is the premier bicycle travel organization in North America with more than 42,000 members. A nonprofit organization, our mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle. We produce routes and maps for cycling in North America, organize more than 40 tours annually, and publish the best bicycle travel information anywhere, including Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists' Yellow Pages. With 37,210 meticulously mapped miles in our route network, Adventure Cycling gives cyclists the tools and confidence to create their own bike travel adventures. Contact us at (800) 755-BIKE (2453), info@adventurecycling.org, or visit www.adventurecycling.org.

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