Ashlawn Farm to Hosting 2014 Tour de Lyme

Ashlawn Farm on Bill Hill Road, Lyme’s popular coffee house, will host next year’s Tour de Lyme, the fundraising cycling event launched this year by the Lyme Land Conservation Trust.

Land Trust President John Pritchard announced the Ashlawn Farm venue and the date for the next year’s Tour de Lyme cycling event, which he said will be on Sunday May 18, 2014.

“We are delighted that Carol and Chip Dahlke are allowing us to hold our event at their lovely Ashlawn Farm. Everything will be in one spot-- parking, registration and a picnic lunch with music by the EightMile River Band,” said Pritchard. 
 
Pritchard went on to say, “One of the goals of Tour de Lyme, apart from raising money for the Lyme Land Trust, is to showcase the special agricultural heritage and rural beauty of our town. Being able to associate Tour de Lyme with iconic Ashlawn Farm is an honor and privilege for the Land Trust.” 

“Ashlawn Farm is the embodiment of why so many people love Lyme – farms, forests, stone walls and lightly travelled roads,” he said.

Ashlawn Farm was an enthusiastic supporter of the 2013 Tour de Lyme, he noted, offering free coffee to participating riders who stopped for a break, and along with Erik Block, and Erica’s E-List they helped field a riding team - Builders, Baristas and Blabbers. 
 
This year’s Tour de Lyme on May 11 was “a huge success,” said Pritchard, noting that it was the first time the land trust held the event and that the weather was overcast and raining for most of the morning. 
 
More than 300 cycling enthusiasts turned out to participate in several road and trail bike rides, he said, and 13 local and regional businesses signed on as sponsors. 
 
Tour de Lyme is a non-competitive event in which none of the rides are timed. It is intended as an opportunity for both serious and casual cyclists to enjoy the beauty of Lyme’s highways and byways and of the trails on the thousands of acres of preserved open space in the town. 

“When we started planning our first Tour de Lyme more than a year ago, we really didn’t know what kind of turnout to expect,” he said, “but as the event date approached and pre-registrations poured it, we were pretty sure that the cycling community was going to support this fundraiser. On the eve of the event, we were a bit nervous because of the rain forecasts, but 90 percent of those who preregistered showed up, and last-minute on-site registrations more than made up for the no-shows.”

Now that the Tour de Lyme is an established cycling event, Pritchard predicted that next year it will likely draw even more participants who can enjoy the rural beauty of Lyme.