Warm Springs Mountain Challenge is June 7 – 8

WARM SPRINGS, VA (WVMR) – The Warm Springs Mountain Challenge is coming to Bath County. It’s a brand new bicycle event scheduled for early June. Maggie Anderson is the Director of Tourism for Bath County.

“We wanted to continue the tradition of bike rides that we started with the Harvest Moon Festival,” says Anderson. “We know that people love to come to Bath County for the terrain and the bike rides on the mountain. Because we have just beautiful scenery and the ride is challenging, but not so challenging as to be prohibitive in being able to do it. A lot of folks like to train up here. We have always had the challenge of having a professional company help us manage the tour, because there’s a lot involved in managing the tour. And a fellow named David Walsh, out of Lexington, who has a company called the Best of Virginia Bike Tours, approached us wanting to continue the tradition that we started a couple of years ago. Thought it was a great opportunity to introduce Virginia bike riders to our area. And so we have partnered with him and it’s been a delightful partnership. We’re very excited and we believe that while this may be the first year, it will be the first of many. We believe it will really grow.”

The Warm Springs Mountain Challenge will feature different types of rides. One is the Mad Anne Bailey Double Century. It’s named after Mad Anne Bailey known for her escapades as a messenger and scout in in the late 1700’s, when settlers and Indians in this area were fighting. She once rode a hundred miles over rough terrain through enemy lines to pick up gunpowder in Lewisburg, West Virginia and rode a hundred miles back to deliver it to a fort in advance of an Indian attack.

“This event is going to take place on June 7th and June 8th and will involve three different kinds of rides,” says Anderson. “It will have a family ride which is 20 to 30 miles, a metric ride which is 66 miles and a century ride which is 100 miles. In addition, we’ve created a brand new challenge called the Mad Anne Bailey Challenge. And that’s two days during which you can complete a 100 mile ride each day. So you have to be a little crazy to do it, but we think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Anderson is looking for volunteers to help man the rest stops during the Warm Springs Mountain Challenge. The rest stops provide refreshments for the riders along the routes.

If you’d like to volunteer or just get more information about the Warm Springs Mountain Challenge call the Bath Tourism office at 540-839-7202 or visit www.discoverbath.com