Buddhapalooza 2019

If you have been following this blog you will know that I have started cycling regularly again. In my past, I tried racing. I never did exceptionally well, but I did enjoy it. Now that I am back on a bike and getting fitter, I decided to give a race a try. I saw a notification for Buddhapalooza and did some research. It looked like the perfect event for me to try racing again. It is set up as a fundraiser, 10 miles long (7 miles on road and 3 miles single track.) It looked like a fun, low-pressure event not so focused on winning and more on having fun. So I registered for the event and showed up to a course I have never ridden.

Billed mainly as a mountain bike race, there were several other people on cross bikes like me. It was a Le Mans start, set your bike down in a given area, all the racers are fifty yards away on foot. When the race starts, you have to run to your bike and then start riding. I placed my bike close to the run start line. I think this was a mistake. By the time I clipped into my pedals, there were already two groups far up the road. I managed to pass quite a few people on mountain bikes and get with a group and settle in. The two lead groups though were still pulling away. For a couple of miles, I was stuck alone between groups. I finished the road section with a couple of mountain bikers and let them lead the way on to the single track as I was sure they would definitely be faster than me on that segment.

Earlier in the morning, I had done a lap on the single track to familiarize myself with the course. Now that I was racing I felt comfortable knowing the course, how rooty and rocky it would be, and the bridges that would be crossed. Once on the trail, I felt pretty good having never raced off road before in my life. Some mountain bikers passed me and I passed some other cross riders. Once when I pulled off to let a mountain biker pass me, I hit a soft spot and went down a bit causing my chain to drop off my chainring. A quick reset and I was back on the bike. Coming to one of the bridge crossings, there were two racers stopped, contemplating the crossing. I too had to slow and because of the preceding corner, I walked across the bridge instead of riding. One of the bridges was simply what appeared to be two 2x8's parallel to the trail with a gap between them. In the morning ride, I crossed the bridge without incident. This time, however, my front wheel went right into the gap. Fortunately, it came out pretty easily and I didn't end up going over the bars as I had feared. There was one other incident involving cross-trail traffic in which I dismounted and then ran up an ascent before remounting.

All things considered, I was happy with my performance. I am not sure of the number of cross bike riders at the race, but I do know that I did not finish last among them as I passed some on the trail section and watched them cross the finish line after me. Out of 59 men in the race, I finished 32nd.





Trail Warmup Ride
The Race