Events: Guy Fawkes Ride 2024

The dramatic season change of hardwood leaves emblazoning the area for the weekend of Kermesse Sport’s Guy Fawkes Ride has passed through two weeks before. Just before the two-distance event, the area crossed into the longest it had gone without any precipitation. The unprecedented dry spell meant the trees dropped their leaves early, but some held on to provide the spectacle that is autumn in Bucks County, PA.

Started in 2021, Guy Fawkes Ride celebrates the English holiday where conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, namely Guy Fawkes, were caught attempting to blow up Parliament. It was a Catholic assassination attempt against a Protestant king. Observed every November 5, Guy Fawkes Day in England concludes with the burning of Fawkes’ likeness. Kermesse Sport originally planned to light off fireworks after the 2021 event, but the amount of dogs attending the Bucks County Brewery band session put a halt to it. Meanwhile the ride expanded.

In 2022 the long course was added alongside the standard 28-mile route. The long course explored the roads north of Lake Nockamixon, where hardwood forests dominate the landscape. Often when riding through there, locals question why they don’t ride as often north of the lake. 

The Guys Fawkes event is one of the marquee fondos on the calendar. It bookends the long road season. It’s hardly a race. Everyone is looking to glide into the offseason with one more gathering. 

Since Guy Fawkes is right down the street from the creakybottombracket.com offices, I took the yearly pilgrimage to Bucks County Brewery, signed in, and headed onto the long course to evaluate early morning roads. There were frosty temperatures and ample wind gusts accompanying us along the way. 

The Bucks County Brewery in Pipersville, PA, hosted the Kermesse Sport Guy Fawkes Ride for the fourth time in as many years.

The long course has roughly two KOMs: Schwenkmill Road and Geigel Hill Road. But don’t dismiss this light uppage. Last year when riding the long course with a buddy, he admitted the final miles of shallow climbs finished him off despite having a tailwind for assistance. Schwenkmill definitely provides a challenge that juts up to a healthy 22%. Geigel Hill, meanwhile, provides a lengthy climb with short sight distance and a 5.5% average over a half-mile. It comes at the end when little is left in the tank. The climb also ushers in the dreaded Bucks County rollers that slowly eat up any remaining gusto. 

The goal of the Guy Fawkes routes is to showcase the roads we ride daily. The short course explores portions of an iconic farm road - Sweetbriar Road. Bouncing along this road in late autumn is a delight. On the long course, riders pounding roads like Apple Road, Saw Mill Road, and Stoney Garden Road get to immerse themselves in State Game Land tunnels of hardwoods. It is a plea, even to local riders, to come through this area again. At one point a group of riders were seen pulled over, propping their bikes on an old farm stone wall and posing for a selfie, snacks hanging from the mouth. 

Both the long route and short route follow a similar trajectory - meander through suburbia before plunging into rural settings. Enjoy the peaceful middle portion, and then riders navigate the return to suburbia with the finish at Bucks County Brewery in Pipersville, PA. The routes go far enough outside of the realm of hustle before the return trip. The buzz of leaf blowers means one is nearly done with the Guy Fawkes Ride.

Eventually I wound my way back to Bucks County Brewery, signed out of the course, and used my beer ticket before having a seat with other finishers. The weather had warmed by finish time. The breeze provided the perfect fall setting as leaves swirled. Conversations were easy to start consisting of season recaps and optimistic plans for the in-progress cross season. Next year’s events were debated as they always are. The post-Guy Fawkes Ride conversations are a collection of accomplishments from the prior nine months. The libations are cheers to those finishes. 

Each year the Guy Fawkes Ride has had a wonderful setting. The long route addition has added just the right distance for someone looking to add one more event to their calendar. We get excited to host cyclists on our local roads as well as at our local brewery. This late season event by Kermesse Sport is certainly worth adding to the events calendar next year.