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bike76va.bsky.social
Bike 76 VA
@bike76va.bsky.social
62 followers 89 following 150 posts
Exploring 500+ years of history along 500+ miles of Bicycle Route 76 in Virginia.

Podcast episodes and more: https://linktr.ee/bike76VA

Project Director: Tom Ewing, Professor of History, Virginia Tech
Posts Replies Media Videos
bike76va.bsky.social
Song of Open Road 50th anniversary #brucespringsteen #borntorun
Jim Mowry about #bicycle ride across US: You get on a high. Your senses become sharpened and attuned. You reach out and grab the scenery and savor the flavor of the country you're passing through
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
August 29, 2025 at 12:18 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
New Bike 76 VA blog essay explores connections between Bruce Springsteen album Born to Run, released 50 years ago, and bicycling in 1970s, including desire for open road and impact of economic dislocation
#bikesky
Image: #bicycle on album cover Hungry Heart
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
August 28, 2025 at 5:58 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
New Bike 76 VA essay, "Wear a Helmet: Be Cool" examines helmet wearing by bicycling children since the 1970s #bikesky #bicycle @bikeleague.org @vtliberalarts.bsky.social @virginiatech.bsky.social

Circulating Now, National Library of Medicine
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/08/28/w...
August 28, 2025 at 5:50 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
New #Bicycle Repair Station in Palmyra Virginia serves cyclists along Transamerican Route 76 as well as regional riders and local community. Learn more about bicycle repair station, efforts of community organizations, and US / VA history from essay: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
#bikesky
August 22, 2025 at 10:43 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
Photographs: Arthur Ashe and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe on bicycles and statue on Richmond's Monument Avenue near US #Bicycle Route 1 #bikesky #tennis #usopen

Learn more about connections between Ashe, bicycling, and history from Bike 76 VA blog essay: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
August 21, 2025 at 11:57 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
Fifty years ago, Arthur Ashe won #tennis championship Wimbledon. Two years later, he rode #bicycle & carried racket to news conference in New York City

Read more about Arthur Ashe & American history along Virginia's Route 76 from new essay:
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
Photo: NYT 11/22/77
August 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
For national #lighthouse day, enjoy postcard showing bicycle races in early 1900s at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven CT

Postcard shows #bicycle racers on board track, with crowds watching from outside the track

Read more from New Haven Register, 9/14/2012
www.nhregister.com/news/article...
August 7, 2025 at 11:16 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
New blog post from Virginia Tech Bike 76 VA project explores freedom in 1775 and the tension between liberty & enslavement
@virginiatech.bsky.social @vtliberalarts.bsky.social @va250.bsky.social
Blog: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
Podcast episode: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/podcast...
August 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
Read about bicycling and health in 1890s in Circulating Now essay from National Library of Medicine
"The #Bicycle in Relation to the Physician"
by E Thomas Ewing & Grace Kostrzebski
circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/26/t...
@vtliberalarts.bsky.social @virginiatech.bsky.social #bikesky
August 6, 2025 at 5:01 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
100 years ago, Compton's #Bicycle Shop in Americus GA: "
Ride a Bicycle! Enjoy Good Health! There is no better health builder for weak, run-down children, also grown people than riding a bicycle"
#bikesky

Americus Times-Recorder 8/12/1925
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89053...
August 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
Linda Stein won US women's #bicycle road racing championship in 1976, the year of Bikecentennial. Four years earlier, @latimes.com profiled Linda Stein and Cindy Johnson in article: "2 Pedal Pushers Crash Male Sport" (9/13/72)
#tdff #bikesky
Read about cycling in 1970s: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/
July 31, 2025 at 3:39 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
Tillie Anderson captured the attention of the sporting world in the 1890s by her remarkable success in bicycle races. More than a century of women’s #bicycle racing prepared the way for popularity of Tour de France Femmes #tdff
#bikesky
Read essay:
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog/wo...
July 30, 2025 at 10:04 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
Bikecentennial Route 76 now part of training rides for women's #bicycle Virginia's Blue Ridge Team Twenty28
@visitvbr.bsky.social #tdff #bikesky
Ride info
ridewithgps.com/collections/...
Team info
www.visitroanokeva.com/biking/vbr-t...
www.facebook.com/twenty24proc...
www.instagram.com/teamtwenty24/
July 29, 2025 at 10:16 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
Bicycle decorating contest in Allentown Pennsylvania ca May 1972
#bikesky

Read more about #bicycle parades in #gildedage America from Bike 76 VA essay: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...

Photograph: Morning Call May 8, 1972
July 28, 2025 at 7:44 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
In Bikecentennial year 1976, Connie Carpenter-Phinney won US cycling championship, repeated in 1977 & 1979, & won first Olympic gold medal 1984:
In 1977, she declared: "“More women should get into bicycle racing”
#tdff #bikesky #bicycle
Read more Bike 76 VA:
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/uncateg...
July 28, 2025 at 11:44 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
90 years ago, US cyclist Miss Iona J. Allen trained to compete at 1936 #olympics (unfortunately, women not allowed to compete in Olympic #bicycle until 1984)
#tdff #tdf #tdf2025 #bikesky

Girl Cashier Seeks Bicycle Fame
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/uncateg...
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026...
July 26, 2025 at 1:22 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
100 years ago, US newspapers reported on #tourdefrance winner Italian Ottavio Bottecchiia
Also 1925, US newspapers reported on beating of John Barker whose daughter Jewell rode #bicycle for health wearing knickers #tdf #tdf2025 #bikesky #tdff
@momentummag.bsky.social momentummag.com/bicycle-hist...
July 25, 2025 at 4:24 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
50 years ago, #chuckmangione concert in Buffalo NY includes songs from debut album Chase the Clouds Away
Ad from Buffalo News 7/26/1975
Also 50 years ago, photo of children taking part #bicycle rodeo in Kingston, Ontario published on front page of Whig-Standard newspaper 7/24/1975
#bikesky
July 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
New Bike 76 VA essay by Virginia Tech student Grace Kostrzebski on Dr Pepper & Transamerica #bicycle Route 76 explores vim, vigor, & vitality in 20th C America
@drpepperofficial.bsky.social @vtliberalarts.bsky.social @virginiatech.bsky.social
bike76-va.vt.domains/home/uncateg...
#bikesky #depepper
A lion with a dr pepper bottle
July 24, 2025 at 6:02 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
50 years ago, "Evel Knievel syndrome" blamed for London youths getting hurt & losing teeth trying to jump over buses using #bicycles

#bikesky #bicycle. #daredevil

Cleveland Press, July 9, 1975
Young man falling while bicycles runs into bus
July 18, 2025 at 3:21 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
In 1892, #philly #cyclist Dr Egbert run off road by reckless baker's wagon. Egbert made complaint, driver was fined, and now "little children...are allowed by their parents to play on the pavement”
@thewaroncars.bsky.social #safestreets #bikesky #bicycle

circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2025/06/26/t...
Portrait of man with beard and collar
July 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
50 years ago, #tourdefrance final stage is Paris prompted reports by foreign correspondents from @nytimes.com @washingtonpost.com @latimes.com discussing #bicycle race & French national identity
Read new blog essay Bike 76 VA: bike76-va.vt.domains/home/blog-po...
#bikesky #tdf2025 #tdf #couchpeloton
July 18, 2025 at 11:09 AM
bike76va.bsky.social
In 1994, #tdf climbed #Hautacam for first time
Also Jul '94, Delaware park rangers began #bicycle patrols
"It's healthier. You're not putting as many hydrocarbons in the air as you would in a car."
Also, bike patrol allowed to wear shorts
New Journal, 7/28/94
#bikesky @waroncars.bsky.social #tdf2025
Men riding bicycles along a road
July 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
50 years ago, George Bates & Brett Reed: "We ride for fun and also because it's faster than walking."
US Energy Administrator Zarb: "We can conserve our gasoline and money, by making better use of this non-polluting way to go"
Folsom Telegraph 7/16/75
#bikesky #bicycle @thewaroncars.bsky.social
July 16, 2025 at 7:09 PM
bike76va.bsky.social
Scotch Gordon #dog on #tandem #bicycle, rides on level & downhill & trots alongside on uphill. Bicycle riders encouraged to attach a small balanced seat for dog @sciam.bsky.social
Scientific American April 1896, from journal La Nature
#bikesky #tourdefrance #tdf #tdf2025 @efprocycling.com
July 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM