As much dirt as I ride, I’m not a mountain biker, but I was drawn to taking in PedalFest 2019 before the season closed out.

I only keep my distance because of my propensity to crash, but there’s obviously a side to me that’s attracted to all this fun.

Pretty much everyone who rides mountain bikes knows about PedalFest and the trip out to Castaic Lake Recreation Area is palatable for a lot of Angelenos.

I met up with my friends Doug and Swanny in North Hollywood at 4pm last Thursday making it to the venue in plenty of time for warm ups.

As someone with experience staging events, seeing the number of set ups for a weekly race was impressive, not to mention the booth where racers could check their results instantaneously.

PedalFest has something for everybody, including a number of age & skill divisions and categories for e-bikes.

 

 

Bringing my gravel bike along, I followed Doug and Swanny on a practice lap on this 3.3 mile loop that I made about halfway around.

Part of it was my bike handling skills, but not bringing my helmet made me take caution and abandon before the hills got a bit more serious.

A lot of the racing reminded me of using a lot of skills and fitness you would use in Cyclocross, just without all the heckling and the silly hopping off your bike part.

 

 

As tempting as the racing is, I know Mrs. CV wouldn’t be happy adding another bike to our crowded situation, but if one landed on my lap…

Regardless, the evening was a real family atmosphere and something that would be welcome no matter what type of bike racing you do.

I’ll definitely return next year because PedalFest is fun to take in under any capacity.