C-Ville Builds Bike Culture

Two mountain bikers ride a grassy trail uphill, each towing a loaded cargo trailer behind their bike.

IN MOUNTAIN BIKING CULTURE, Charlottesville can hang with the best of Blue Ridge towns. With numerous bike shops, plenty of mountains in Albemarle, Nelson County and beyond, proximity to the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson National Forests and a thriving, highly-active chapter of the International Mountain Biking Association—the Charlottesville Area Mountain Biking Club—the city is an all-terrain cyclist’s ideal basecamp.

“We’ve worked really hard over the past decade to get organized and provide local mountain biking enthusiasts with multi-use public trail systems within Charlottesville and surrounding counties,” says Sam Lindbolm, the organization’s president. “We’ve done a lot of work fostering relationships with trail users, clubs, and municipal and federal land managers.”

CAMBA presently has over 150 members, maintains or offers maintenance assistance to over 15 area trails, hosts weekly rides and events (including children’s rides), and offers updates of all things mountain biking through its website: cambc.org

Author

You Might Also Like:

A woman in waders casts a fly rod in a forested mountain stream lined with boulders and green trees.

Breaking the Trout Drought

You receive the kind, loving gift of a guided trout-fishing excursion from your wife, there’s some pressure to perform.
Collage of runners on a wooded road, a group holding cups outdoors, and two runners posing on a path.

The Ambassador of Roanoke Running

If you've run a road race of most any distance in the region, you likely know Marion Childress
Collage: a man kneels with a brown dog by a rock overhang, a swimmer's arm, and a whitewater kayaker.

Pics and Strava

Is it true that if it's not photoed and Stravaed, it never happened?
Collage of a BMX rider mid-air, pool jumpers, a dog leaping a fence, and a child paddleboarding.

Go Fest ’16

And it's bigger and better than ever!
Two hikers on a rocky ridge, one pulling the other up by the hand, with blue sky and valley views behind them.

Get Away (Not too Far) From it All

These four towns provide the perfect base for outdoor fun.
Three photos of climbers bouldering on rock outcrops in wooded terrain, with crash pads on the ground.

Boulders!

Top 10 spots, plus a look at harder climbs.
A smiling woman in a blue helmet and sunglasses waves while riding a zip line through green trees.

Longest Virginia Zip Line

Hungry Mother Adventures facility borders the state park.
A man in a gray shirt with a red sash fights off costumed zombies on a street, with a police SUV behind them.

Run with Terror

Does the threat of a brain-eating zombie make you run faster?
A smiling bearded man in a tan cap and blue shirt, wearing a backpack, stands on a wooded trail.

Ridgerunner

Matt Allenbaugh has been on duty out on the Roanoke area’s most-used sections of the Appalachian Trail only since April. The 2005 thru-hiker has been out on trails far longer.
A climber in a pink shirt and gray patterned shorts scales a large boulder in a wooded area.

Wait, Problems?

For the unenlightened, “problems” are not that at all—they’re places where the likes of Aaron Parlier have mapped out how to climb a boulder.

Current Issue

CALENDAR OF EVENTS