There was a mountain bike race scheduled for Sunday, 18 February in the nearby town of Santa Maria del Tule, so a group of local riders decided to pedal out that way to watch the contest. We were six gringos and one Mexican; five men and two women; a mix of experienced and newbie riders ranging in age from early 20’s into the mid-70’s. The terrain between Oaxaca and Tule is virtually flat, so ours was a very easy-going outing. The race itself took place in the same area as a previous contest — see: http://www.oaxacamtb.org/wp/2012/11/mountain-bike-races/ — but followed different and more technically challenging trails on the hillside southeast of Tule. Curiously, there were relatively few race contestants and spectators for the day’s event. There seems to be some difficulty with the organization that sponsors local races, which is unfortunate, as there is a lot of enthusiasm among Oaxaca mountain bikers for these kinds of contests. The normal turnout for a race is in the range of 100-300 contestants. Today’s race fell far short of those numbers. In any case, our group spent an hour or so watching the race, then rode on to Santo Domingo Tomaltepec before returning to Oaxaca by way of Tlalixtac. All told, we pedaled 24.5 miles (39.4 kms) with a total of 1560 feet (475.5 meters) of elevation gain and loss on the loop ride.
