The 13th annual Bikes, Blues & Bayous will look a lot different this year.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers have been planning for a way to hold the event while also incorporating all of the state and national guidelines for social distancing and preventing the spread of the virus.
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“It’s not the bike ride that we wanted, but it’s the bike ride that we can have, and people want to have a bike ride,” said Richard Beattie, one of the event’s founders who works with the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce to organize the ride each year.
The chamber sponsors the annual event, which is known as the largest bike ride in the state. The non-competitive cycling event with 62-, 46-, 20- and 10-mile routes will be held at 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
From packet pickup to the finish line, Beattie said this year’s ride has been designed to where participants and volunteers will have minimal or no physical contact with each other.
“All of our volunteers will have face coverings, and we’ll have a supply if riders need a face covering,” he said.
Face masks will be available throughout the course, and participants are also encouraged to bring their own. All chamber employees and volunteers will be provided with and required to wear masks and gloves. Riders will be advised prior to the event to wear masks and gloves when contact with volunteers is unavoidable or necessary.
The 6-foot minimum social distance guideline will be observed at all locations from the pre-ride to the conclusion of the event.
Both the city of Greenwood and Leflore County have mandates requiring face masks to be worn indoors in public, and all riders have been notified.
“A lot of people have already commented they have mask ordinances where they are coming from,” said Beattie. “Everybody has had their antenna up about the virus for months, so they are coming here already in the habit” of practicing social distancing and wearing face masks.
Normally, Bikes, Blues & Bayous grows in size each year, bringing 1,000-plus participants to the Greenwood area. Because of the pandemic, however, the participant list has been capped at 511 riders, which makes social distancing more feasible.
Each year, Bikes, Blues & Bayous has a “huge” economic impact on small businesses in Greenwood, said Beth Stevens, the chamber’s executive director.
“This event provides a $1.3 million impact on our community, and that’s in a normal year when we have full capacity,” she said, adding that small businesses in the area have already felt strained financially as a result of the pandemic. “We just believe that we can do this safely, and we can do it where people can still reap the benefits of it in many different ways.”
This year, there will be a drive-thru packet pickup at the Chamber of Commerce on Friday, July 31.
“People won’t have to get out of their cars,” said Beattie. “We’ll have everything sorted out (at the chamber) in bags with their names on it.”
Participants may remain in their vehicles as chamber volunteers bring their packets to them with minimal contact.
On the day of the event, from 6:30 to 7 a.m., riders will head to their designated staging area.
Keeping with Gov. Tate Reeves’ executive order of no more than 100 people gathering at an outdoor space, the starting area will be broken up into seven different spots.
The seven different starting corrals are 250 to 300 feet apart and will be spread out across an area of about 52 acres — three along Fulton Street and four along Main Street, with two city blocks between. Each of the seven areas will accommodate 100 riders and volunteers who will be at a minimum of 6 feet apart. The pavement in these seven start areas will be marked with an “X” to position riders with adequate spacing.
When the ride begins, participants will quickly spread out along the various routes.
“You’re naturally socially distancing people with a bike ride,” said Stevens. “People will be spread out over the entire county.”
The event will include four rest stops, which will also look different this year. Three of the rest stops will move to different locations: the Itta Bena rest stop will be at Larry’s Fish House; the Schlater rest stop will be at Schlater Town Hall; and the Money rest stop will be at Money Volunteer Fire Department.
“Generally, rest stops are where people like to congregate,” said Stevens. “So we’ve pretty much eliminated everything this year that might encourage that, including live entertainment.”
Snacks and drinks will be grab-and-go. All food items will be individually packaged. Tables of food and beverages will be spaced and organized in a way to maintain social distancing among riders and volunteers at all times. Hand sanitizer, handwashing stations and masks will be available for riders at each rest stop.
There’s a cap on the number of volunteers at each rest stop, and volunteers will also be in charge of controlling the total number of riders at each rest stop.
But some of the Bikes, Blues & Bayous rest stop staples will still be available for participants to enjoy.
The Minter City rest stop will continue to provide some of its goodies the stop is known for, such as its homemade pimiento cheese sandwiches. The rest stop’s volunteers will prepackage the sandwiches in Ziploc bags.
“You’ll still get the stuff that you love, like the bottle Cokes and the Moon Pies at Money, but we’re having to format some things a little bit differently,” said Stevens.
The finish area will also have some changes, including no live entertainment.
“We’re encouraging grab-and-go when they come in,” said Steven.
The finish area will be split up into three zones, and no zone will be permitted to exceed the 100-rider limit at any time. Individually packaged food items and individual bottles or cans of beverages will be available. Each zone will have tables or seating areas spaced out. The seating areas will be cleaned and disinfected by volunteers throughout the day.
Riders usually begin arriving to the finish area between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
“They all don’t come in at the same time,” said Beattie.
One thing new this year will be a place for bike parking.
Richard Beattie, left, and Beth Stevens hold up an electric blue Bikes, Blues & Bayous jersey. Proceeds from the sale of Bikes, Blues & Bayous apparel will be donated to the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s.
“Wade Inc. is going to have two big tractors down on Front Street, and we’re going to have a cable strung where people can put their bikes,” said Beattie, who is riding in the event he helped create for the first time.
On a sad note, the event will be the almost one-year anniversary of the death of Jim O’Daniel, a Clinton cyclist who participated in Bikes, Blues & Bayous last year and was killed after colliding with a vehicle near Itta Bena. According to authorities, he failed to hear the warnings to stop from state troopers who were directing traffic at the scene.
O’Daniel was a civil engineer and avid cyclist, and the Bikes, Blues & Bayous event website features a page dedicated to the memory of O’Daniel.
“Safety is always a top priority,” said Beattie. “We feel like we have a real good safety program. ... We do reminders every year that it’s an open course, and you have to obey the traffic laws.”
Bikes, Blues & Bayous provides a variety of safety information to its cyclists each year. In addition to obeying traffic laws, all riders must wear helmets and the use of headphones and ear buds is prohibited. The course will be patrolled by six volunteer SAG vehicles to offer non-medical help and will include a bike mechanic. City, county and state law officers will be stationed at major intersections.
Redesigning the plans for Bikes, Blues & Bayous this year because of the pandemic has been a lot of work, but it’s all worthwhile if the participants have an enjoyable experience, Beattie said.
“Regardless of whether we have 500 or we have 1,000, the success of the event is based on if we have happy customers, because they’ll be back next year,” he said.
To come up with the new plans for the cycling event, Beattie researched guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mississippi State Department of Health and suggestions from the Event Safety Alliance.
Event planners from Memphis who put on biking and running events will be in Greenwood to observe Bikes, Blues & Bayous and all of the safety guidelines in place.
Beattie said he doesn’t mind sharing the information with others because, “We’re all in this together.”
Stevens complimented Beattie for coming up with a plan for the ride based on the different mandates or executive orders in place at the time.
“He’s done a fantastic job of literally walking through — cycling through — the whole entire event from beginning to end. ... We’ve had to take the event and break it into pieces and redesign it based on the new guidelines. Richard’s done a great job of trying to figure out how that looks like, and I think it’s evident in the plan that he came up with.”
Bikes, Blues & Bayous is again partnering with the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s, a cause important to Beattie, who has Parkinson’s disease. Proceeds from the Bikes, Blues & Bayous apparel sold will be donated to the foundation. The Pepsi distributor in Leflore County sponsored the jersey, which features a unique design. Jersey, shorts, caps and socks come in electric blue or neon pink.
“I think this is probably the best jersey design we’ve ever had,” Beattie said.
This year’s raffle will feature a grand prize of a Viking outdoor grill. The second-place prize is a weekend stay at The Alluvian hotel, two seats in a Viking Cooking School class and a spa package for two. Tickets are $10 each. Prize winners do not have to be registered for the bike ride or be present at the event. The winning tickets will be drawn prior to the ride.
For more information or to purchase a raffle ticket or apparel, visit bikesbluesbayous.com.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
What: Bikes, Blues & Bayous
When: 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 1
Details: Rides of 10, 20, 46 and 62 miles start in downtown Greenwood.
Online: For more information, visit www.bikesbluesbayous.com.
