Richard’s Ride reflects Richard’s spirit and a continuation of his legacy which throughout his professional career was centered around bicycles. Nine years have now passed since losing Richard as a result of poor driving decisions and a vulnerable rider. Nine years during which Richard could have been happily riding one of his many bikes through the Vermont countryside. Through the Richard Tom Foundation, we ensure that Richard, and all that he did for the local (and beyond) cycling community, we carry his spirit and legacy forward.
As the morning broke for Richard’s Ride 2024 powered by Vermont Bicycle Tours (VBT), the weather was in the balance of 50:50 rain/no rain. Richard’s influence on the skies prevailed when a few sprinkles dissipated. We had great participation with well over 200 riders either pre-registered or registering on-site. We had set a target for this year of around 225 riders, and we exceeded that. For our tenth-year celebration of Richard’s life, we will seek to increase participation even more. We offered our usual menu of varying distances of road rides, ranging from our classic Richard’s 70, complete with “Richard’s Surprise” to Richard’s 30, Richard’s 15, and Richard’s 5 (consisting of a mix of road and river trail). The most popular route choices included Richard’s Gravel 40 or 50. What was particularly exciting to me was the increase in the number of riders for the MTB option. I think we at least tripled previous years. We are working at developing and enhancing our relationship with VMBA and we have recently become a Corporate Partner with them. VMBA and Fellowship of the Wheel do incredible work to create, develop, and maintain the many MTB trail networks locally and throughout Vermont. Eerily, we have been struck by Beryl’s calamitous and destructive flooding – one year to the day from the July 2023 flood event. I want to send special thanks, especially to all of the volunteers who supported Richard’s Ride this year. The Jackalope Team set up a food station for our gravel ride. Thanks to the many individual donors who offered support for RTF beyond the registration fee. Thank you!
We had a great gift item this year: Wonderful Osprey RTF logoed day packs. They are highly visible, conveniently sized for carrying a few extra items on your ride, with neat little zipper pulls, water bottle pouches, and compartments. Thank you to RTF Board member Eric Deziel for helping us design and purchase these through VBT. We have received many positive comments about these day packs. If you missed out, we do have extras and will be offering them for sale.
