Events: The 2020 Rapha Festive 500 Days Six, Seven, and Eight
(2020) Ride Distance: 170 (Virtual) Miles/ -- Remain
Involve oneself in a scene long enough and one could read the state of the world in events. For cycling, the economic downturn a decade ago reflected vanishing sponsorship, disappearing events, and heavier leanings on equipment. Economic prosperity reflects big teams, flashy kits, and shiny cars loaded with racks of spare bikes. This year’s Rapha Festive 500, a cycling challenge to cross 500 kilometers from December 24 - 31, showed cyclists exactly the state of affairs for the year 2020.
The 2020 calendar year saw many changes, and Rapha’s event was not left out. New for this year, virtual miles counted toward the Festive 500 total. Instead of mailing physical roundels, riders successfully navigating the distance earned a digital badge. Some participants were in quarantined areas and had no choice other than to mount the bike trainer for the full challenge. These changes were not without controversy or disagreement.
Our opening miles were all outside. We explored numerous stops on the Underground Railroad that passed through Bucks County. The usual life/ weather/ obligation obstacles caused the back four days of the eight-day event to move to virtual miles. Further, the substantial virtual miles were divided up into two rides per day. Trainer rides may have come a long way, but they are still no match for the outdoors. With a handful of hours to spare, the distance was covered virtually and the apps shut down. The accomplishment was verified with a single email as well as a pinging Strava alert confirming the challenge’s completion.
But there was one moment we could not shake in all those miles of riding. It was the experience from day five’s ride - a jaunt to Quakertown - that had us wondering if maybe Rapha’s event isn’t the state of the world currently, but the glaring state of America. On a porch at the eastern exit of Quakertown, and after contemplating 1800s life during the Underground Railroad, a Confederate Flag (actually it’s the Army of Northern Virginia’s flag, but I digress) fluttered lazily on a porch not ten feet from the main road. This experience eclipsed meditatives whether cycling could bounce back in 2021. Here we were, in a northern state, researching the Underground Railroad, within a hard day’s ride from Gettysburg, PA, where men and women died to prevent the Confederate Flag’s advancement northward, and yet here it was flown proudly.
Be involved in a scene long enough and one can read between the lines, learn the lingo so to speak. The Richard Moore House is now a private residence, there is a sign that says so out front. People are requested to stay back from the building, while not even a mile away a flag representing the exact opposite - ancient - cause flew unabashed. I would love to say the state of the world has improved over the last year - or even the last few years - but I cannot due to the brazen display of hatred on a Quakertown porch. Once the 500 kilometers were crossed, I dismounted the bike and changed. There was no fanfare like years before. This is 2020, and the Festive 500 reflected it as such: Complete challenges socially distanced and digitally. But the racism issue is a much bigger issue to tackle, even in a state that hosted the largest Union victory against slavery. It didn’t require 500 kilometers to be disturbed by this.
