Events: The 2019 Rapha Festive 500 Day One
Ride Distance: 48 miles/ 262 Mile Remain
(2019) To understand Bucks County is to recognize an unseen boundary. To the north and west of the line are antiquated mason structures wagging their cornerstone years around the years of 1800. Move to the south east, right up to the Delaware, and one has crossed into old land. Some abodes scoff at the northern brethren and with quiet satisfaction exhibit construction dates before 1750. Sure both sides of the line have seen two world wars, a Civil War, and the War of 1812, but the more southeastern structures have witnessed the Revolution. Six of the places in Bucks County can rightfully state the eventual Commander-in-Chief, General George Washington, verifiably laid his head down amidst the turmoil of 1776.
I acknowledge that, despite getting up early for work, I struggle to tumble out of bed for a bike ride at any time of year. Show me any convenient way to get to a ride at 7am, 8am, or even 9am, and I will show you a comedy of errors that put me at the ride departure exactly five minutes late. Curious coming from a person who used to arrive earlier and earlier to hockey games. Yet something was different this morning. Earlier attempts at Rapha’s Festive 500 yielded the same sloth approach, but this year on day one, I fired out of bed. I was prepared before the sun was. Take that reputation.
British cycling apparel company Rapha has sponsored a 500-kilometer sporting event for a decade. It challenges riders to cover 500 outdoor kilometers (310 miles) between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Though thousands register for the Festive 500, only about half pedal the distance. It is an event that sounds easy on paper but becomes increasingly stressful as the week progresses. This year my goal has been to hit all six of the places General George Washington slept during his time in Bucks County. The goal was to hit the farthest (and first) place on day one and narrow the gyre on each successive day. As previous participants of the 500 know, plans never work out. Today was no exception.
A sixty mile route was slated for today but time constraints altered the course. Luckily I knew of several closer houses General George Washington officially slept at during his planning of the invasion of Trenton. (Indeed as I write this, General George Washington would have been plotting for his men and supplies to board ferries for the Christmas evening invasion of the Hessian stronghold.) The house at Summerseat Mansion in Morrisville, PA, was the first place General Washington slept during his time in Bucks County. Our planned route was ambitious at best, crossing into old Bucks County. Some of planned mileage rolled over canal gravel, a transport system implemented in the 1830s. This was a stress point as to whether it should be attempted while frozen or gambled on the return trip and possibly thawed. No matter, Mike (that guy again), and I opted for a different route on account of wet roads, sun glare, and curious cold pockets on ripping descents.
Rapha score card to track the Festive 500 distance.
It is a Bucks County oddity that we continuously altered our route. Though General Washington navigated the treacherous waters of the icy Delaware River on Christmas evening, reenactors would be taking to the waterway on Christmas at day time. Our intended route meant to send us right through the melee of Crossing practice if there were such a thing. (Truth be told a dry run had occurred on December 8.) Even passing Washington Crossing Park would put us twenty miles from Summerseat Mansion.
Instead we twisted our way through ancient Pennsylvania countryside and tumbled out of the wooded land and onto Pineville Road. Along our route was at the Sam Merrick house in Upper Makefield. Here General Washington departed to begin his assault on Trenton on December 25, 1776. It was his third place to sleep since arriving. He had moved to the Merrick house on account of nosy homeowners in the previous location. He was so flustered by the previous location, Washington only allowed the daughter to remain in the house lest his strategies would be leaked. We were passing the location where the General of the Continental Army had slept 243 years ago. No doubt at some forgotten location we had crossed his path on the journey to history. We cycled through the threshold of American history.
We had set out to cross off the first location of Washington’s headquarters but settled for his third. It felt right to zip past the place where General Washington woke up, dressed himself as General, and moved down the Delaware River to execute one of the most desperate maneuvers in military history. And we did it at the same days he would have been put up 243 years ago. We returned to the ‘younger’ portion of Bucks County. We had made the opening salvo of the Festive 500, and we didn’t need to cross a river to do so.
