I was lucky enough to be part of the 1st Ever Broken Spoke Challenge. The Broken Spoke Challenge (BS for short) “is a Dirt/ Road cycling event that most closely resembles a gravel grinder”. Their was two ride millage options, 80 and 40 miles of dirt, gravel and road and on some never before trails in West Ventura County. There were also many different types of shenanigans that riders had to participate in to continue on the course. For my riders out there the elevation started at 102ft, max 2,784ft, and gain 7,646ft.
I photographed in the Barlow Canyon section of the event, that both courses went through. The first time I hiked Barlow Canyon was March of 2020 to take some marketing photos and to get a bearing on a small portion of the course. Barlow Canyon was lush and green. One section of the trail from side to side was a sea of green and yellow waist high Wilde Mustard California Flowers. Broken Spoke Challenge had a ruff beginning due to COVID19. It quickly went from all steam ahead and then a postponed. Eventually the difficult decision came down and the event was cancelled.
From March 2020 to June 2021 we had very little rain fall. During this drought the green rolling hillside turned brown. A heat wave hit Ventura race weekend. With some much that had been stacked up against the event it went smoothly. Riders took off from Made West and returned after their finish cool down ride. They battled the heat, hills, hike a bike, and crazy shenanigans. Each rider received an award that was a bottle opener that had the Broken Spoke Challenge logo stamped on it and a customized leather cover.
Broken Spoke Challenge
Maureen Bates Photography Photos Of Broken Spoke Challenge