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