Once upon a time, in a Los Angeles long past, I dreamed of an LA version of Danny Chew’s famous Pittsburgh hill race, the Dirty Dozen. I wanted ‘racers’ to ride their bike deep in the city and I wanted to show bike commuters the fun in a physically challenging ride. In other words, the manifestation of my cycling ADHD- ride everything, everywhere and keep it fun! And of course an obscure nod to BMX history.
That first year -2006- saw pouring rain and possibly more volunteers than riders, but we pulled it off. We showed that Los Angeles has paved roads as steep as anywhere (take that San Francisco) and more importantly we got people on their bikes in an auto-centric city to explore incredible, tucked away locales. I measured it successful when someone in a cycling forum refused to believe that the photos were indeed taken in Los Angeles.
And here we are nine years later at Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #10. Number ten! Los Angeles is much improved for cycling and the number of events each week is too much for me to keep up with. This could more related to the fact that I am now in my mid-30’s, not my mid-20’s (yet somehow that doesn’t stop me from getting red light tickets on my bike, like the one I got last night!). I’d list some of the groups doing great work for cyclists, but there are so many I’m afraid I’d leave some important people out.
This a long way of saying that Sunday November 8th is this year’s event. If you are first hearing about this now, I apologize! Between my instagram, facebook and twitter I feel like I rarely write on my site anymore. Here is the facebook event.
Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #10
730am Sunday November 8th 2015
The standard rules apply- no event-affiliated cars allowed on the route for any reason. No entry fee, no prizes, no bs. Open to anyone and everyone on a bike. Causal, non-competitive cyclists encouraged! PLEASE read through the history for more detail if you plan on riding. Here are some great photos from 2014 to get you stoked. And there’s a video below.
A huge thank you to everyone who has helped out or ridden and the entire #bikeLA world. It’s an honor to be a part of this community and this event wouldn’t be possible without you.
See you Sunday! Follow along at @MattRuscigno.
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=z8hBCztL5bR0.k54M-cq0f1c0&w=640&h=480]
A few of the climbs on video.
Posted by Ramon Cortes on Monday, November 10, 2014