Friends,

Due to what is usually called an Act of God, or circumstances beyond our control, the HoVA committee has decided, in the interest of safety, to cancel this year’s Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival.

While Hurricane Florence’s path is still changing, it will impact us for several days. Richmond, on the NorthEast side of the storm, will get bands and bands of rain that will be very slow moving. While the HoVA has a “we go, rain or shine” policy, we are looking at rainfall in the inches per hour range. The words “Historic Flooding” have been used. 40 mph sustained winds are expected Friday into Saturday. Virginia has already declared a state of emergency, as has the City of Richmond. We expect the County of Hanover, where the Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival starts and ends, to do the same.

While the safety of our riders and volunteers is utmost in our mind, this is not just about riding on Saturday. For example, vendors such as those who erect our lunch tent or who provide the porta-johns have to place those items before Saturday. If the wind is as high as projected or if it is raining, this cannot happen safely. Marking all of the turns for four separate routes takes hours of work, which cannot happen in the rain and wind. Signs placed for safety and directions will be blown down in the projected wind. We want everyone associated with the event to concentrate on preparing for the weather impacts, not whether the bicycle event will happen.

We are choosing to bow to the obvious.

A few of you may be thinking that Heart of Virginia can be moved to a new date later this year.  We cannot simply move the event to another weekend.  The rescheduling the 100 volunteers, 650 riders, dozens of vendors, getting new permissions to use spaces and routes, etc. is logistically impossible   So we will lose, for this year at least, a great bike ride. BUT…

The reason that the Richmond Area Bicycling Association produces the HoVA year after year is only partially because of the great bike ride. Those of us on the committee volunteer for months to make this ride happen because all proceeds of the ride go to support two great charities, RABA’s own Bikes for Kids program, and our partner charity, the Brain Injury Association of Virginia. The cancellation of the HoVA has the potential to adversely affect the more than 500 bikes and helmets that Bikes for Kids provides. The Brain Injury Association of Virginia supports brain injury survivors and their caregivers through information and advocacy. Less money donated will impact their programs. So how can you help?

Though the Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival has a no-refund policy, because of the Act-of-God situation that has occurred this week, we are amending our policy.

You have two options:

• Option 1 – You can request a full refund of your registration fee. You will have until September 30th to send a request for refund to RABATreasurer@gmail.com. Requests will be processed as quickly as possible by our volunteer committee.
• Option 2 – You don’t request a refund.  Your registration fee now becomes part of the proceeds that will be split between our charity partners – Brain Injury Association of Virginia and RABA Foundation Bikes for Kids – just as if you had ridden the HoVA on Saturday. In exchange, we will offer you a $20 discount on the 2019 Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival. No matter when you register, you’ll get $20 off. You will be contacted in the coming weeks and months with a unique web link to register for next year’s Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival, tentatively planned for Saturday, September 14, 2019.

Even though the event has been cancelled for 2018, the Heart of Virginia Event Committee is working as much as it can to maximize the contribution to our charity partners, Brain Injury Association of Virginia and RABA Foundation Bikes for Kids.  Your choice of the options above will have a direct impact on the amount that we donate this year, so thank you for your support!

Finally, we must say a big thank you to the sponsors whose support allows us to produce this event and donate so much of the proceeds to our charity partners:

• Gold Sponsor: Conte’s Bicycle Shops
• Silver Sponsors: HoVA Training Team, Poole and Poole Architecture, VCU Alumni, VCU Health
• Bronze Sponsors: AgriBerry, GroundForce IT, Hazen and Sawyer, Impact Makers, Silverman Law Firm, Williams Mullen
• Copper Sponsors: Document Procurement Solutions, Fahrenheit Group, Hilton-Richmond Downtown, Morgan Stanley, State Farm, Paul Martin, The Supply Room, Virginia Credit Union
• In-Kind Sponsors: Hanover County, The Fifes and Drums of Yorktown, EnTrust Records Management, Sports Backers, S.B. Cox

Cancelling, for the first time in the 30+ year HoVA history, makes this one of the hardest emails I have ever had to write, but I am heartened by the possibilities. Yes. we lose a great ride, but we don’t have to lose the point of the Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival- support of our great charity partners. I hope you all have a safe September 15th, wherever you are.

best

g.
_____________________
gregg hillmar
League of American Bicyclist Certified Instructor
RABA Heart of Virginia Bicycle Festival Event Director
RABA HoVA Training Team Coordinator

Contacts:

Gregg Hillmar, bike@hillmardesign.com, 804-683-2503
Cindy Evans, RABATreasurer@gmail.com