A caravan of more than 300 bikers cruised over the Heide Trask Drawbridge onto Wrightsville Beach May 7 during the 27th annual River to Sea Bike Ride.
The 20-mile event started in Bailey Park in downtown Wilmington at 8 a.m. and arrived in Wrightsville Beach Park 90 minutes later. Cyclists could then either bike back downtown or take the bus.
The slow-paced ride took participants along the River to Sea Bikeway, which winds through the city following the former Beach Car Line, the only railway to the beach in the early 1900s.
The ride has grown every year. Cape Fear Cyclists Club president Richard Knight said he remembers when the event only drew six bikers. Last year 250 bikers took part, and this year he estimated between 300 and 350 made the journey.
One purpose of the ride is to give inexperienced cyclists a safe opportunity to practice riding in the road. Between 20 and 25 members of the Cape Fear Cyclists Club took part in the ride, offering advice and carrying bike pumps in case of flat tires.
“The important thing is to keep your head up and communicate,” Knight said.
“Don’t make any drastic moves, don’t stop suddenly without letting people know,” club member Al Schroetel added.
But Knight said the main goal of the event is to let people share in the joy of bike riding through Wilmington.
“It gets people who aren’t used to biking introduced to what a pretty city we have, and how much fun it is to ride, get outside and get a little exercise,” he said.
Riders of varying abilities, and with varying equipment, took part. Mixed in the crowd of road bikes were beach cruisers, tandem bikes and bikes with various attachments designed to tow kids and pets.
Six-year-old Cooper Spells and his mother Beth Riegler rode a tandem bike with three wheels, two sets of peddles and one squirt gun. Riegler sat in front, admittedly doing most of the work, while her son sat behind her manning the little squirt gun Riegler’s brother installed between the rear handlebars.
As the two rested for a few minutes at the turnaround point in Wrightsville Beach Park, Riegler said without the squirt gun, her son wouldn’t be nearly as excited about the return trip.
“He’s going to squirt people on the way back,” she said.
Riegler said she does as many local bike events as she can in honor of family members who have MS. But she hasn’t done the River to Sea bike ride in years, and she said she was impressed with its growth. Its success was probably due to the local municipalities’ willingness to participate by offering a police escort and refreshments, she said.
“Not all towns embrace things like this,” she said, “the way the community came together, and the police and the city.”
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