HBRC: a successful 2007 edition

by Kent Peters

Thanks to everyone for making this a successful Historic Back Roads Century Ride!

From my own observation and consistent with a lot of the feedback this was a smooth running century. This is a testament to the time and energy that the coordinators and volunteers put into staging the century. I do want to specifically thank my team of coordinators. So please hear me calling these out like the lead singer acknowledging his band, “We have Mike Hieb on SAG, Steve Wartik on registration, Mariette Vanderzon on first aid, Butch Count on the White Farm Spring House rest stop. And over at the White Post we have Cynthia Priddy with the duo of Ken Rowe and Ken Thompson at the Burwell-Morgan Mill. And handling the parking with precision organization and flagmanship we have Fletcher Carriger and Cyanne Hanson. And where would we be without Emil Regelman and Ken Comer on cues and maps?”

I send a special thanks to my wing man, Bill Michie. When Bill told me he would be my “gopher” all day for the century, I sort of dismissed the thought that I would need someone like that, but Bill knew what he was talking about. Without Bill there by my side to take care of things as they come up, I would have been really frazzled and things would not have run as smoothly as they did.

The food job is daunting, but Sigrid Haines and Barbara Good took it on again. I'm so happy these two know how to figure out how much peanut butter the biking crowd will eat any given day.

There are also key organizations and private citizens who let us use their space and facilities that without them staging the century would be far more difficult. First off is the Clarke County High School as our start/finish staging ground and the Clarke County Ruritan Fairgrounds where we park a lot of cars. Hey, and how about that Bar-B-Que put on by the high school band boosters? We need to thank Ed Keenan of the Burwell-Morgan Mill; Billy Thompson of White Post Restoration and Curtis Mason of White House Farm who happily let us use their properties for rest stops. I'm always amazed at how helpful and happy they are to have us there because I think we must be imposing.

Also, a big thanks to Spokes Etc. Bicycles, Blue Ridge Bicycles, and Haymarket Bicycles for providing repair support this year.

There was also Marc Currie who helped set up a rest stop at the high school and then sell t-shirts.

Pam Mauch made picture perfect contributions with design of the brochure and poster. Peter Klosky helped in a lot of ways – from leading training rides to taking the winning photograph for this years t-shirt.

It's great to have support from our sister biking clubs and organizations. So, thanks to WABA and Reston Bicycling Club for manning a couple rest stops.

And here is the cast of thousands, or at least several dozen volunteers who helped in various ways; my list of volunteers had more than 80 names. If you helped and you don't find your name below, please understand it is not for a lack of appreciation for your helping, but more a of a sign that my record keeping suffered toward the end. No particular order of names, just how I pasted them in from emails and memory.

Tracy Skalitzky, George Moore, Jarla Ulman, Karen Berlage, Paul Phipps, Mark Pankin, Linda Bankerd, Paul Bankerd, Elia Ben-Ari, Karen Berlage, Barbara Binder, Meryl Bloomrosen, Susan Brinkerhoff, Anne Brown, Jean Bullock, Loren Bullock, Catherine Burzio, Laura Clauser, Jay Cormier, Jim Davidson, Mike Davis, Donna Davis, Carolyn Dockins, Bob Doyle, Linda Freimark, Eric Gilliland, Glen Harrison, Beryl Gilmore, Mark and Valerie Gribble, Neil Grotenstein, Charlie Hartsock, Mark Hemhauser, Brian Ives, Linda Jaffee, Steve Jones, Bruce Kapner, Catherine Kitchell, Guy Kramel, Lynn Kristianson, Alan Kurtzweil, Gordon Meuse, Steve Mitchell, Neal Molloy, George Moore, Paul Murtha and wife, Gary Nooger, Mark Pankin, Paul Phipps, Jeff Piper, David Priddy, Mark Repak, Deborah Reynolds, Tom Roberts, Dean Self, Judy Sparrow, Rick Studley, Jack Suddreth, Sue Suddreth, Leslie Tierstien, Gary Timmons, Linda Tischer, Ballard Troy, Rebekah Flatter, Doortje LeGrand, Joyce Gearhart, Paul White, and Ed Robichaud.

Again thanks to you all!