Well it’s done and dusted. The first annual Dirtbag Cycles Rambler is now in the past. I’ve had a few days to do some thinking about how it went, so now I’m going to try and put that all together.
Now I’ve already put the ethos of the ride on the site somewhere, so I won’t go into it too much again. Long story short, I wanted to put on a ride that fit a niche somewhere between racing, shop rides and big bikepacking expeditions. I think we did just that.
The thing about this kind of ride is that it’s all about the people. If we had a boring group, it still would have been an ok ride, but the fact that so many (16) awesome people came out to ride bikes with complete strangers and we all ended up having a great time really means that we touched on something. This kind of thing works.
Highlights: I really liked the singletrack sections, the Medicine Bowls, sending it hard down that one trail where I think everyone let out a “Whoop,” and the burritos at the end. That being said, the rest of it was pretty damn good too. It also felt really good to raise $115 for wildfire relief. There are some folks in B.C. who did not have as good of a summer as we did, and it feels good to give back.
Thank you to everyone who came out, helped out and supported this experience. It went as well as it possibly could, and I’m stoked.
Now I have the daunting task of recreating the experience for next year.