The Verde Valley Rally is returning for its third year as a community-driven bicycle race offering two days of racing, live music, family-friendly activities, food trucks and a farmer’s market.
Hosted by the Verde Valley Bicycle Company, the event encourages the community to enjoy cycling and the outdoors while supporting young riders and local nonprofit Chain Reaction, which focuses on getting kids on bicycles and creating bike paths in the area. The nonprofit is currently building a mountain bike course at Clarkdale-Jerome Elementary School.
Verde Valley Bicycle Company owner Greg Miranda said that the event has always been community-oriented and aims to provide what he considers to be a healthy environment for children by keeping them off screens, drugs and alcohol. He added that the event also draws like-minded people from out of town who wouldn’t typically visit.
Miranda described the event’s goals as safety, being invited back by their community partners and having fun. He also stressed the importance of encouraging kids to wear helmets when riding bikes.
“It’s family-friendly and community-based but then there’s also a little bit of a competitive edge to it, if that’s what you want,” Miranda said.
The event will include two races, the Historic Clarkdale Criterium on Saturday, April 6, and the Verde Valley Rally CrossCountry Race on Sunday, April 7.
The former will lap around Clarkdale and will be organized into multiple categories based on distances, including a one mile all-wheels community parade that is free.
The cross-country race will offer five different options that cross the Coconino National Forest and are both competitive and non-competitive.
The rally will also include an all-day bike rodeo sponsored by Sedona Mountain Bike Academy and a scavenger hunt for kids.
“We are excited to see the mountain bike racing scene setting foot in the Verde Valley,” U.S. Forest Service representative Mike Suggs stated in a press release.
“I love grassroots, family-friendly community events,” local mountain biker Tim Allen said in a press release. “The Verde Valley Rally encapsulates the essence of Cottonwood and the greater Verde Valley with mountain bike culture and competition open to all skill levels while giving back to the community.”
Miranda likened the bike shop, the nonprofit element of the rally and its events to the Olympic rings, with the bike shop as the hub being connected by Chain Reaction to the events they put on and the team they started at Mingus Union High School.
He said that a joke he and his fellow bicycle advocates make is that they want to make bike racing cool again.
Registration is still open to participate in the races. The event is also seeking volunteers to help out on both days. For more information, visit verdevalleyrally.com.
