Bikes roll through the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa’s lobby on the 2022 Slow Roll. — Photo Courtesy of Visit Hot Springs.
How many chances do you get to ride your bicycle through the lobby of one of the South’s grand old hotels?
In the case of the Güdrun – Northwoods Trails Mountain Bike Festival’s Slow Roll event, November 10 will be the fifth chance.
“We are super excited to be opening our Fifth Annual Güdrun – Northwoods Mountain Bike Festival with another Slow Roll through downtown Hot Springs,” Visit Hot Springs Trails Coordinator Traci Berry said. “The Slow Roll is a fun group ride for all ages and bicycles of all types. It’s a family favorite. You can ride your mountain bike, your road bike, your gravel bike, your cruiser bike, or your EBike. Folks of all ages join the ride.”
Berry said registration for the Slow Roll will be limited to 100 entries. All ages are welcome, but children under age 14 must be accompanied by a parent.
“Kids will be able to keep up,” Berry said, “as the average pace will be about 4 miles an hour.”
The Fifth Güdrun Festival will be held November 10 – 12 at Hot Springs’ internationally acclaimed Northwoods Trail System. Riders register for each of the individual Güdrun events, including the Slow Roll. Registration is at www.bikereg.com/gudrun.
The four-mile Slow Roll route begins with a meet-up at 4:45 p.m. behind the Hot Springs Convention Center on Church Street. The ride begins at 5 p.m. and takes about 90 minutes.
The route takes the group from behind the Convention Center north to Malvern Avenue then east to Spring Street, then onto Central Avenue, and along World Famous Bathhouse Row. The ride will then take a right turn onto Fountain Street and onto the veranda of the historic Arlington Hotel and through the lobby. Riders will exit the lobby out the back down the valet parking ramp and back out to Central Avenue.
They then will continue north, taking a left turn onto Whittington Avenue, around Whittington Park with a stop by Parkside Cycle, and then make their way back through downtown to 420 Eats Food Court for the opening night party. There will be bike parking available at 420 Eats.
Slow Roll participants receive a complimentary T-shirt, socks, koozie, and a sticker. The first 200 entrants will be entered automatically in a drawing for the third annual Güdrun Getaway Vacation Package, which includes a staggering amount of free stuff, including a free stay at The Hotel Hot Springs.
“It is wild that we are approaching five years of Northwoods Trails,” Berry said. “It feels like we have done so much in a very short time — are we sure it has only been five years? We have grown our trail system from 15.7 miles with Phase 1 to 21.5 miles on city property today, giving us 31.5 miles of awesome trail just five minutes from downtown.”
For more information about the race, call Traci Berry at 501-321-2027.
