About 50 bicyclists set foot to pedal under the gaze of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. on the morning of May 22. Their final destination was the tiny town of Damascus, Virginia – 550 miles away on a route that snaked through the mountains, forests, and rivers, hugging Virginia’s western border.
Just over 55 hours later, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) alum Abe Kaufman ’04 rode past the finish line – beating the previous record for the TransVirginia 550 Bike Route by 18 hours. He said it was the “longest and most challenging route” he’s ever done.
“The route was very challenging!” Kaufman said. “Not only the distance, but also the elevation gain and sections of technical gravel and dirt roads. There was even a little bit of rocky singletrack that was especially tricky, but fun, with a loaded gravel bike.”
The route, which prides itself on showing off the best of Virginia’s backroads, gravel trails, and mountain paths, was designed by David Landis ’04 in 2017. Since then, it’s hosted four “Grand Departs” starting in 2019 – events in which riders can either race for the fastest time, or “tour” non-competitively.
Landis has been mapping innovative trails since 2007, when he started working on a 40-mile hiking route through Galilee, Israel, dubbed the Jesus Trail.
Read more about how David and Anna Dintaman ’05 Landis created the Jesus Trail.
Landis said that, despite being located oceans apart, there were a lot of similarities in designing both routes, such as providing a great experience that “flows” between local communities, and making sure those traversing the trail can access food, water, and places to spend the night.
He also wanted travelers on both the Jesus Trail and TransVirginia Bike Route to be able to “step into a story or narrative, whether walking where Jesus walked or crossing the state of Virginia from the nation’s capital to the southern border.”
The TransVirginia 550 passes close to Landis’s home of Harrisonburg – through Rockingham County over Reddish Knob. That stretch is Landis’s favorite, with “some of the most challenging and beautiful sections of roads deep in the George Washington National Forest along the state line with West Virginia.”
For Kaufman, the most memorable section of the route was about 200 miles south of the knob, “riding under the moonlight on the second night, outside of Pulaski and listening to the whippoorwills calling out to each other. It was a truly special experience!”
Julian Bender ’09 toured the route, embarking with the Grand Depart riders and taking nine days to finish. He also switched between the TransVirginia 550 and the alternate 520 route, which stays on more maintained surfaces. This route intersects the 550 in several spots for riders to ‘level up’ or ‘down.’
“It was doable but still the toughest bike ride I’ve done, mile for mile – including a 5,000-mile ride across the U.S. some years ago,” Bender said.
Sweat and struggle aside, though, he listed off several highlights of the trip: hitching a ride across the Potomac with some fishermen when the normal ferry was closed; waiting out a thunderstorm in a tiny town’s combination post office, fire department, library, and food bank; and alerting a farmer that one of his cows had just given birth.
He also loved the communal aspect of the Grand Depart.
“Throughout the ride we kept crossing paths with other riders, trading stories, and getting word of the route ahead – very helpful when nobody has cell phone reception to check on trail conditions!” said Bender. “For someone who’s interested in doing the route but wary of riding alone, joining a Grand Depart would be a great way to find potential riding partners.”
The first 215 miles of the 520 are also designated as their own route, taking cyclists from Washington, D.C. to Harrisonburg over rail trails and across the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River.
Cross-country and track coach Joanna Friesen claimed the women’s record for the 215 on May 22, completing the course in 18 hours, 50 minutes.
Friesen is no stranger to intense bike trips – last year, she and three EMU alumni traversed the entire Blue Ridge Parkway. And shortly after the TransVirginia, she began leading a Climate Ride all the way from Seattle to Washington, D.C. Landis was a co-leader for half the mileage; the ride, which includes several EMU students and is sponsored by the EMU-based Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions, is now about halfway across the United States.
She said the decision to bike the Transvirginia 215 was a last-minute decision
“I didn’t have any doubts about completing it. The challenge lay in the distance and long day of riding that it took to do it,” Friesen said. “I loved the route.”