In Spring of 2021 my wife, bicycle and I travelled to Lafayette, Louisiana to attend the Cycle Zydeco event, a “Cajun and Creole cycling festival”. The Cycle Zydeco folks characterize the event as a “party on a bike” and I found this description to be accurate!
In anticipation of this level of fun, I made sure to decorate my cycling helmet with some appropriate swamp adornments:
The multi-day festival featured rides through the flat Louisiana swamp landscape during the day followed by food, dancing and general merriment in the evening. Several cycling routes were available each day with distances ranging from 13 miles to 64 miles.
I found the event to be well-organized, with SAG (Support and Gear) vehicles patrolling cycling routes, shuttles to/from local hotels, a shower truck, luggage hauling and rest stops with hydration and snacks – including the one pictured below at Bayou Teche Brewing in Arnaudville, Louisiana.
Rest stops on rides included not only hydration and snacks but also music!
As noted above, the rides each day were through the flat Louisiana swamplands surrounding Lafayette and Breaux Bridge. The destination on one day was McGee’s Swamp Tours, with a swamp tour included as part of the event fee!
The post-ride parties each night included a Cajun shrimp boil, on-site adult (and other) beverages, Cajun dance lessons and conversations with people from all over the United States and elsewhere!
My favorite post-ride entertainment was music by Rockin’ Dopsie Jr & The Zydeco Twisters – a vibrant, high-energy, entertaining and danceable Cajun music band.
Also notable were the enthusiastic and friendly volunteers who staff the various functions of the event. My lovely and gracious wife accompanied me on this trip and she was quickly recruited to be one of those volunteers!
Her other volunteers were happy to describe their love of the area as well as their experiences growing up in the swamps and small towns of the bayou. These descriptions greatly expanded our understanding of the difficulties and joys of life in the Cajun culture of southern Louisiana.
I’ve found that the personal connections made at cycling events like this are the real treasure to be found in the experience.
Virtual Riding with Kinomap
I video my rides and then edit and syncronize them with the GPS track of the ride. I then add the GPS-syncronized and tagged video to the Kinomap app video library.
The Kinomap app, which is available for iPhone and Android, allows people with a smart bike trainer, or even a not smart trainer, or an exercise bike, or even an elliptical trainer, to experience the Cycle Zydeco experience virtually in the comfort of your own home, whenever desired.
The advantage of using a “smart” exercise device is that the Kinomap app on your Android or iOS device can control the difficulty level based on linked GPS data while you exercise.
Here are links to Kinomap videos of the rides from my Cycle Zydeco experience: