Press release from Haywood County Tourism Development Authority:
After months of planning, the time is almost here! The Cycle NC “Mountains to Coast” ride will officially roll into Waynesville starting Friday, September 25 – Sunday, September 27. The Cycle North Carolina “Mountains to Coast” bicycle tour is a weeklong cross state ride to be held September 27 to October 3, 2015. The ride offers exactly what it has claimed for the past seventeen years: a leisurely, yet challenging cycle tour originating in the rolling Appalachian Mountains and concluding along the salty shores of coastal North Carolina.
The Waynesville Recreation Center will serve as base camp for the initial kick-off and starting point for the cross state ride. Over a thousand cyclists and their supporters will begin arriving on Friday with the majority arriving on Saturday. The main registration and welcome events will take place at the recreation center, but participants are expected to travel throughout the county over the course of the weekend to enjoy the area before they depart. While some will camp at the recreation center, many will stay at local accommodations, dine at Haywood County restaurants, and enjoy the many other offerings that made Cycle NC select Waynesville as the starting host town. Cyclists will then begin their journey early Sunday morning to travel 55 miles to neighboring Hendersonville, where they will spend the night before continuing on to Shelby.
More Cyclists on the Road
Many cyclists will be participating in a series of warm-up rides throughout Haywood County on Saturday. This gives participants an opportunity to both experience local cycling routes and prepare themselves for the road ahead. Because the routes will take cyclists throughout Haywood County, we ask that if you are traveling throughout Haywood County, particularly through our towns, surrounding rural roads, and any routes leading to and from the Blue Ridge Parkway, please practice caution and be on the lookout for cyclists. The riders will be departing Waynesville early on Sunday morning taking a route from the Waynesville Recreation Center to Raccoon Road and connecting to Highway 276. Local citizens are encouraged to come out to cheer the cyclists on along the route as they begin to depart between 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM. Cyclists will continue on to this route into Brevard and eventually on to Hendersonville. There will be a rest area at the Cruso Fire Depart from 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM on Sunday, so if you are planning to be on the roads throughout the aforementioned areas, please take extra caution to both watch and share the road with cyclists.
If you have any questions about the Mountains to Coast ride, please contact Anna Smathers at the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority office – 828-452-0152 or anna@visitncsmokies.com. For more information on the overall event, visit http://cnc.ncsports.org/.
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