Events: 2023 Rapha Festive 500 Day Six
Ride Distance: 36 Miles/ 210 Remain
As it turns out, it didn’t matter which direction I selected to ride the Delaware Canal State Park. After a drenching storm paused the Festive 500, a challenge to ride 500 kilometers across eight days, it was attempted to find an unbroken part of the pathway.
The Rapha Festive 500 is a global cycling challenge that occurs between December 24 and 31. Coincidentally, the UCI cyclocross calendar somehow manages to feature approximately fifty races in the same amount of time. During the heavy rain storm that completely derailed my 2023 attempt at riding 500 kilometers, I watched hours of delayed cyclocross footage, taking enjoyment of riders hammering through slippery mud, sticky mud, sandy mud, and full course mud.
For day six of the Festive 500, I once again descended to the Delaware River basin, only this time pointing the road bike south on the canal path in Point Pleasant. Every attempt to access north was full of detours. Surely the southern direction was connected from rivertown to rivertown. My goal was to simply reach Lumberville, access Fleecydale Road, and climb back for some stinging bergs coming off the River before rolling into the driveway. River Road itself was full of ponded water and heavy puddles. It felt absolutely commuter-life to ride the canal while cars plowed through heavy standing water.
The canal route was not without peril. The path base was loamy and viscous. It looked as if it were made of putty. There were occasional bike tire marks, encouraging signs to suggest this was the correct direction for success. I channeled the European cyclocross racers as mud and silt caked onto the bottom bracket shell. Even the top tube managed a splash or two of canal mud as the route hovered over the Delaware River ten feet in the air. I began to think a stop at the Lumberville General Store a good idea for a cup of coffee and a pastry.
To head south on the canal path from Point Pleasant, one is visually cued at the nearness of Lumberville. A relic of covered bridges, the Lumberville pedestrian bridge, now a concrete and steel span for walkers, comes into view shortly before coming to the town proper. I had successfully navigated nearly a mile of canal path, splashed through puddles, tailwhipped through mud before seeing the typical canal experience- the DCNR pile of obstructions telling travelers to find other ways to get around the missing path ahead. It was another dead end in an never ending saga of the Delaware Canal State Park.
Giving up on the coffee, but within sight of the general store, and no hope to hike the bike around the missing foot bridge, I turned around and headed for home. The bergs much farther north were now in play, kilometer-long climbs that gauge the climbing legs. Luckily frustration fueled the return trip back.
It was a fitting end to my Rapha Festive 500 mileage collection. This year’s attempt fizzled out shortly after it started. That’s the way it goes across many attempts. I feel the need to attempt the Festive every year due to its role in the formation of creakybottombracket.com - proof that I covered all 500 kilometers back in 2015. Whenever the weather turns favorable, the bike will be cleaned off, or at least that’s how I justify a dirty bike hanging in the service course. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the sandy roundel instead of the digital badge to show that I attempted the Festive again this year.
