Dates: November 2015

Route: Unfortunately there isn’t one… basically look for all the silliest things in Victoria and ride them!

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You could sum up my early years of bicycling with one word - naive. I jumped headfirst into all sorts of ridiculous adventures, absolute not knowing any better how challenging, dangerous, or just plain stupid what I was about to do was.

Which leads us to my first adventure in cyclocross racing - Single Speed World Championships in Victoria, Canada (SSCXWC). At the time, I had gone to one cyclocross race as a spectator, and sure as heck hadn’t raced.

“No bother, you’ll be fine” my friends said, and convinced me to join them for trip across the Canadian border. Sure enough, I was fine. More than fine, but again, I might not recommend this course of action to anyone else.

I arrived in Victoria via the Victoria Clipper, a speedy boat that transports you (and your bike if you’re smart) directly from downtown Seattle to Victoria in less than three hours. Knowing I didn’t own a single speed bike, I decided to rent one in Victoria, not really intended to participate in the weekend events as more than a spectator. This plan lasted all of an hour, as I quickly found myself getting rowdy on trails with my friends on a woefully inadequate bike.

By Friday night, we found ourselves at a private curling club with hundreds of other bike hooligans from around the glob e - signing the registration book and paying a dollar for lifetime membership. The weekend was off to a good start and I think it was this night that I was convinced to go to the Feats of Strength in the morning.

If you been to a SSCXWC, you know that you don’t just get to show up on race day and compete in the championships. Doesn’t matter if you’ve won all the local races, you’ve got to earn your ticket through The Feats of Strength - a daylong series of ridiculous challenges meant to whittle down the field and be a ton of fun.

I joined my group and very quickly realized that I was in for a surprise - I was the only one not on a cyclocross bike, I had a slick tires, and maybe most importantly, no clue what I was in store for.

Throughout the day, local organizers led our group all over Victoria - we found climby singletrack in the woods, a stupidly steep hill, a beach and a pumptrack. We partied in the woods all day - just a precursor for the fun to come on actual race day.

I can’t remember if I actually won one of the challenges or not, but all the women registered ended up getting an automatic bid for the championship race the next day. I wisely made the decision to only spectate on Sunday, but the fun on Saturday was way more than enough for me.

I’m still friends with a number of the folks I met that day and will forever remember their graciousness as I struggled to keep up, the laughs as I crashed many times, and most importantly, the lack of judgement towards me, my bike , or my ridiciulous ideas.

SSCXWX is coming back again this November, this time in Durango, Colorado. While I hope to be riding by then, I know that I’m definitely in for another good time.