I Bike Budapest Reboots Tradition

Lance, Sequoia and Kristin pause for a foto at the end of the ride at entrance to Margit Sziget.

Of course, I joined the Ride Formerly Known as Critical Mass yesterday and had the usual good time. I have no idea how many people there were and couldn't find a head count in any of the media reports. Hungarian news agency MTI reported "several tens of thousands" -- which is a safe guesstimate.

We got out the door late, so missed the first couple kilometres from Bakats ter to the Chain Bridge. But from there, we completed the rest of the 19 km circuit. It was a pretty long ride compared to previous spring Critical Masses. The ride's facebook page reported there were more than 400 helpers out directing traffic at intersections. It's a credit to the organisers that so many volunteers could be recruited, trained and deployed so smoothly. It seemed they pulled it off beautifully. Other than a couple low-speed spills involving children (including our 10-year-old), I didn't hear of any big incidents.

My family and I took a little more than two hours to get to the finish at Margit Island -- and then Kristin took the kids home because they were wiped out and needed to pee. I rode onto the island to the big  grassy field where people were collecting, and I went to the Kerekparosklub tent to get a shirt (I Bike BP). Men's sizes were all sold out, except for smalls -- which I got anyway for a souvenir.

I hung around for half an hour but had to cut out before the bike lift. Happy hour date with Kristin in a nice quiet bar was the perfect way to cap off a great day.