Dan Casey

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Kyle Inman rolled down the steamy window of his red SUV and beamed the beatific smile of a man who'd just swallowed two hits of Ecstasy. But no outlawed drugs were tickling his fancy. Instead, it was the prospect of the next 1,000 years of mountain biking.

Hours earlier, fireworks boomed over downtown Roanoke, paper dragons ran in the streets of China's cities, and pistol shots rang over Moscow, ushering in a new millennium. By noon on New Year's Day, as the mercury in Botetourt County's woods edged toward 28 degrees, college bowl games were well under way.

Inman, 41, had forsaken hard partying and afternoon football. By the time many people were waking up and struggling with 2001 hangovers, he was parked at Carvins Cove Reservoir, about to launch the 11th annual First Ride of the New Year.

"This one's legal," he said grinning widely and aiming his camera at nearly 50 cyclists who lined up near the water's edge.

The L-word has particular significance at Carvins Cove this year. For years, two-wheeled dirt dogs and their metal steeds have prowled Carvins' pristine woods. They've flouted regulations that banned biking but sanctioned (go figure) horseback riding.

The same bike riders have found, cleaned up and named dozens of old trails that crisscross the cove's 11,000 mountainous acres. They also fought to open the eyes of Roanoke politicians and bureaucrats to the watershed's potential as a mountain-biking Mecca. Last year, they won grudging acceptance from Roanoke City Council, which agreed to an outdoor management plan that includes biking.

Inman, an ad peddler for a Roanoke television station, was one of the leaders in that effort. Despite his pasty complexion, he's the region's mountain-biking Don King, a shameless promoter who hypes the joys of wheels in woods with the fervor of a TV preacher and the wordplay of a hard-core rapper.

Inman organized the very first Carvins Cove FROTNY in 1990, with a small notice in the Outdoors section of The Roanoke Times. Only 10 bikers joined him that New Year's Day, but the number has been growing ever since. At least 50 showed up for the 2000 FROTNY, when temperatures hovered in the low 60s.

The fact that that many turned out on 2001's first cold and breezy day to test their tires on snowy trails, frozen mud and iced-over streams is evidence of the event's growing popularity.

So is the distance they traveled to get here. Among them were Kim Kokko, an instructor at Virginia Military Institute, who drove down from Lexington to check out Carvins for the first time; Mike Seymour, who came from Abingdon, almost three hours southwest of Roanoke; Doug Hines, from Independence; and Rick Brecht, from Fort Chiswell. The New River Valley's cycling community was also well represented.

Beyond the time, day and meeting spot (the boat ramp parking lot at the end of Reservoir Road), the ride is wholly unorganized. We started down the gravel road on the cove's eastern side, and from there, fanned out along multiple single-track trails like Kit & Caboodle, the Enchanted Forest and Mad Cow.