Outdoor Adventure Program branches out to road, mountain biking

Nick Bonadies
Spectrum Editor

On a campus where more and more students travel on two wheels, bike lovers are finally getting their dues from VCU’s Recreational Sports programs.

Beginning with the first installment of a weekly bike-repair clinic last Thursday and continuing to a free weekly mountain-biking trip later in the spring, the VCU Outdoor Adventure Program is pushing to include recreational cycling in its list of activities alongside kayaking trips, whitewater rafting and others.

This year, the OAP added 60 bikes to the Outing Rental Center across from the Cary Street Gym. The 30 mountain bikes and 30 road bikes will be available for student rental like the center’s other equipment, as well as available for the free weekly trail rides, which will take place Thursday afternoons starting in March.

Aside from the weekly bike-repair clinics, which began last Thursday, the center’s new repair stands and tools constitute a new OAP Bike Shop, whose equipment is free for student use during regular hours.

The OAP’s assistant director, Joseph Parent, brings his expertise to the OAP and its new cycling program as a former bike-shop manager and self-described “pretty avid cyclist.” Parent earned his undergraduate degree from VCU and has been working with the OAP since August.

“While I was (a student at VCU), I did a lot of mountain biking,” said Parent, who graduated from the VCU department of photography and film in 2005. “And when I interviewed here, I was like, ‘(Cycling) is a really huge resource we’re not taking advantage of.’”

“There’s a push from a lot of people at the school that really wanted us to start a (cycling) program,” he said. “I was really psyched about it.”

Outside the OAP, VCU has enacted several bike-friendly measures in the past year. According to VCU Parking and Transportation Services’ Go Green initiative, bike parking on both campuses has expanded to 237 bicycle racks with a total capacity of 1,880 spaces. Two “mobility hubs,” with sheltered bike parking, include nearby air compressors.

The city of Richmond has taken a similar route, instating its very first bicycle, pedestrian and trails coordinator in August and a project to paint bike paths on to select city roads. The pilot project began last November at Harrison and Broad streets.

All the official interest in Richmond’s bikeability has arisen in no small part due to the city’s bidding, and subsequent selection last September, as the location for the 2015 World Cycling Championships. The competition, whose previous homes have included cities such as Madrid, Copenhagen and Florence, was last held in the United States in Denver, Colo. in 1986. An official press release from the office of Major Dwight Jones cited a study that found the event “would generate more than $135 million for the Commonwealth of Virginia and would attract nearly 500,000 onsite spectators.”

For the OAC’s part, Parent said that the changes are simply reflecting something that’s already a part of Richmond’s identity.

“(Bike culture has) been a major part of what makes Richmond Richmond, and it’s something the university is just starting to realize,” he said. “The university has kind of taken a really good stance recently to … promote that culture and try and make it part of VCU’s identity.”

The OAP Bicycle Maintenence Clinic is offered every Thursday afternoon from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. through Feb. 23 at the Outing Rental Center, 130 S. Linden St., across from the Street Gym. The OAP Bike Shop is open free of charge to all students Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.recsports.vcu.edu/outdoor_adventure.html.