» Patuxent Velo »

» Background

Patuxent Velo (a.k.a. Pax Velo) is a USCF (road) and NORBA (mountain) bicycle racing club located in Southern Maryland. Our members primarily reside in St. Mary’s and Calvert counties which are the two southern most counties on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

The club provides a network for training, racing, local bike tours and related fun. Our membership continues to grow but the average annual membership is always over 100 riders ranging from teenagers all the way up to a select few in their 60’s and 70’s and includes both men and women. While the majority of our riders are recreational ones, we do have a few that actually race throughout the year.

Pax Velo is known for promoting two major cycling events in Southern Maryland throughout the year. The first even is the May Criterium Race — for 2008 we have partnered with the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata to present the first ever Southern Maryland Criterium (SoMD Crit). This year, the event takes place on Sunday, May 18th at CSM La Plata. After taking a year off in 2006, the Amish 100 century ride returned last year in September of ’07. The event turned out to be much more popular than anticipated and for 2008 it will be even better, most likely with some new and improved routes in the 30, 60 and 100 mile categories. This year’s Amish 100 is scheduled for Saturday September 20th. For additional information on the SoMD Crit and the Amish 100, click on the respective links above.

In addition to our major events, our members enjoy many different rides throughout the year. Our showcase ride is the famous Tuesday Night Ride (TNR) which is well known all over Southern Maryland. For more info on this ride, click the highlighted link or go to the “rides” page. Additional rides are offered on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Since many of our members ride year round, the locations of some of the rides change for the winter. Email announcements are always sent out to make everyone aware of the upcoming ride times and locations.

New for 2008, everyone that rides on any of our rides needs to be a Pax Velo member. For insurance reasons we must make sure that everyone we ride with (on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays) has signed a liability waiver which can be downloaded by clicking the link to the right in the quick links section.

In addition to riding we do have monthly club meetings that are held on the first Tuesday of every month at Blue Wind Gourmet in St. Mary’s county starting at 7:30pm. During the season, these always follow the TNR.

» Membership

To join Pax Velo, download the 2008 membership application form. A single year membership is $25 annually and a family membership is $35. Membership is open to all who share our appreciation of bike racing, sportsmanship and the camaraderie of the road. For additional information contact Patuxent Velo President Curtis Cook at curtis.j.cook@gmail.com.

Once you’re a member, be sure to join the Pax Velo email list so that you can be kept up to date on all upcoming rides and events.