RISON - The first ever organized bike ride cruised through Cleveland County this past Saturday, marking what organizers described as a successful event and setting the path for a bigger event next year.
The Crusin' Cleveland County Bike Ride featured four routes ranging from 22 to 65 miles of scenery for 37 bike riders that arrived from all over the state.
Rison Mayor Charles Roberts and Darren Austin, a county native and Arkansas Parks and Recreation manager, organized the bike ride with assistance from Kickstart Cleveland County and Cleveland County Extension Homemaker mem-bers.
Roberts said he did not know what to expect with this being the first time organizing a ride, but the reward paid off. "We've received a lot of positive feedback," he said.
Most of the participants were experienced riders with many events under their wheels, Others, while being experienced riders, were making Cruisin' Cleveland County their first official event. Some said the Cleveland County ride made the perfect training for other events in the coming weeks.
Roberts said the comments from those experienced riders provided some constructive feedback to improve next year's ride. He said they intend to make some improvements with starting times, rest stop items and road markings next year.
Several of the riders and their families said they are already making plans to return next year to Rison, as they enjoyed exploring the Pioneer Village and venturing into town to shop at the Twisted Mule Mercantile and have breakfast at Main Street Cafe.
One area of the bike ride that needs no improvement is the post-race meal riders enjoyed courtesy of Roberts and Kingsland Mayor Sharon Crosby. Rid
ers raved over the street tacos and pulled pork sandwiches.
This year's bike ride was sponsored by Martin Orthopedics, FBT Bank, EASI, Mark and Debi Attwood, Gateway Bank, Wilson Bros. Lumber Company, Pizza Pro of Riso...
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