The weekend got started with the second annual Cave Creek Bicycle Festival. On Saturday, mountain bike racers headed out for a 20-mile loop. The route took them through some scenic territory northwest of Cave Creek. The weekend continued with a road ride, a wild adventure-style race called the Alley Cat (which sounded like a cross between bicycle race and scavenger hunt) and the “Kids Kriterium.”
Sunday also provided some fun for mountain bikers, all centered on McDowell Mountain Regional Park. It started off at the Competitive Track with the “Columbia Muddy Buddy Phoenix” race. What is a Muddy Buddy race? The Muddy Buddy Web site explains it best:
Muddy Buddy is all about having fun with a friend, family member, partner or co-worker! Teams of two traverse a 6-7 mile off-road course and 5 obstacles.
At the start of the race, one team member will run and one will ride the bike. At the 1st obstacle, the rider will drop the bike, complete the obstacle, and begin running. The runner will arrive, complete the obstacle, find their bike and begin riding. Teams will continue leapfrogging each other through the entire course.
At the end of the race, racers crawl through the infamous Mud Pit crossing the finish line together as official “Muddy Buddies”!
You can find out more at Columbia’s Muddy Buddy website.
By the time the Muddy Buddy event wrapped up, Trek Bicycles was setting up shop to offer test rides at the Pemberton Trailhead just up the main park road. The Trek crew had road bikes in addition to mountain bikes such as the Trek Fuel and the Fisher Rumblefish and Superfly Elite.
According to the Trek techs on-hand, most riders were curious about testing “anything that’s a 29er.” They estimated that about 70 people tested a bike.
Check the Trek website to see if there’s a demo headed your way.
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