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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn late winter 1976, California cyclist Karla Jones was training for her planned ride across the country as part of the Bikecentennial. An article published first in the Napa Valley Register, on February 12, 1976. and then republished in other regional newspapers, including the Fresno Bee, March 15, 1976, began with Jones\u2019 statement that cycling is the best way to travel across the country during the Bikecentennial year: \u201cI like the challenge, we\u2019ll see a lot of scenery and it\u2019s the best way to see the country. You can hear things, see things, and smell things you don\u2019t notice in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karla Jones has been riding for about seven years, and has already completed a 200 mile ride. Her plans for the Bikecentennial ride covered about 50 days, with an estimated journey of 60-80 miles each day.\u00a0 While working at the Napa City-County Library, her training rides include daily rides of 25 miles and weekend rides of 100 miles or more. She began riding in Los Angeles, with a local cycling organization, and will be joined by a dozen members of this club on her ride. Jones planned to begin her ride on May 16 in Astoria, Oregon, and ride east, eventually reaching Virginia more than 4,000 miles later. A map showing the Trans-America trail includes two Virginia locations, Yorktown, where Jones planned to end her ride, and Wytheville, approximately four hundred miles to the east across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what she expected to see, hear, and feel along the ride, Jones responded: \u201cRivers, brooks, birds, nature. And it give you a feeling of satisfaction when you climb a hill.\u201d Asked why she was doing the ride, Jones answered in a self-deprecating manner: \u201cWell, it\u2019s sort of a challenge.\u201d Photographs show her riding her Italian ten speed, with water bottle and toe clips, and, unlike most long distance cyclings in this era, a helmet.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n A diligent search of newspapers from summer and fall 1976 has not located confirmation that she completed her ride on the anticipated date, in late June or early July 1976.. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 12, 2026 by Tom Ewing In late winter 1976, California cyclist Karla Jones was training for her planned ride across the country as part of the Bikecentennial. An article published first in the Napa Valley Register, on February 12, 1976. and then republished in other regional newspapers, including the Fresno Bee, March 15, 1976, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-17-at-2.25.15-PM-1024x743.png\")
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