Clay Road Classic sees over 200 participants

Published 5:03 pm Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Last Saturday, Hubs and Hops hosted their 5th Annual Thomasville Clay Road Classic, inviting cyclists from near and far to bike through the beautiful clay roads offered by the local area. 

Roger Hawkes, owner and co-founder of Hubs and Hops, said that for 5 years they’ve been putting on the event to highlight what Thomasville has to offer.

“This is our 5th Annual Clay Road Classic,” he said. “Clay roads refer to the roads that we ride on most of the time. For 5 years, we’ve been doing a ride which highlights Thomasville’s natural resource, which is the clay roads.”

Inviting cyclists to participate, the Clay Road Classic involved four different length routes for participants to experience, from 25 to 100 miles, before returning to Hubs and Hops, where a small festival greeted them. 

“People can do different routes,” Hawkes said. “Anywhere from 25 to 100 miles and then they come back and have lunch, we have music, we give away prizes and recognize people that have come from different distances and different age groups.”

He continued on to say that they had 251 participants overall, some coming from as far as Colorado, with about 30 cyclists taking on the 100 miles route, doing the same with the 75 mile route, with a split of the remaining 190 cyclists amongst the 25 and 50 mile routes. 

Hawkes said that the first cyclists left for their trek around 7 a.m. in the morning, with breakfast being provided for the group by Flowers Bakery and Ellianos Coffee.

“It was a great shared event, the cyclists were there starting at 7 o’clock in the morning,” he said. 

Overall, he said that the day went very well, with good weather making for a pleasant experience that encountered no injuries and only one mechanical failure.

“Everyone said that course was in pretty good shape,” he said. “The clay roads tend to change pretty rapidly with either drying out or being wet or anywhere in between, and then how much traffic has been on those clay roads. All in all, I think all of that went really well, the day was beautiful.”

Hawkes emphasized that the reason why they do the event is to bring new people into Thomasville and highlight an aspect that Thomasville has that other communities don’t. 

“One of the reasons we do the event is to really bring focus to Thomasville and to bring focus to the clay roads, and the reason we call it the Clay Road Classic,” he said. “There’s a natural resource here that most places don’t have and it’s hundred of miles of canopy clay roads attached to a very vibrant downtown that can support a beginning and end and everything in between as far as a ride goes.”

The event, he said, has opened doors for other events down the line with new groups that want to build onto the cycling community in Thomasville. 

Other sponsors for the event included Tvelo Brewing and live music was provided by Far 2 Fresh, a local band.