Southern Breeze 2007 Summer Issue - (Page 48) Cycle Zydeco takes cyclists on a 200-mile ride through the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun Country. story and photography by ANDREW COLLINS Street signs along the route in Breaux Bridge (top) greet the participants in last year’s Cycle Zydeco (above, right). A sign outside Olivier’s Grocery (above), a favorite pit stop between Washington and Mamou. The town of Breaux Bridge, which claims to be the “Crawfish Capital of the World” (opposite), warmly welcomes riders during Cycle Zydeco. 48 s o u t h e r n b re e z e . c o m I In Louisiana’s Cajun Country, virtually any activity can be improved upon with the addition of two ingredients: local music and local food. You would not, in fact, be entirely mistaken if you thought the idea of an annual four-day, 200-mile cycling event themed around boudin markets, fried-seafood shacks, and Cajun and zydeco dance halls existed solely to prove this point. Just about anywhere else in the world, combining the rigors of endurance bicycling and music-club-hopping might appear oxymoronic—or even just moronic. But in the bayou-laced villages surrounding Lafayette, just such a marriage of athleticism and aestheticism has rapidly blossomed into a much celebrated, wildly fun tradition, Cycle Zydeco. Each year, the week following Easter, hundreds of biking enthusiasts ranging in age from 18 to 87—and hailing from more than 35 states—descend upon culturally fertile Acadiana for a toe-tapping, oyster-slurping bicycle tour that snakes through about 10 convivial little towns. Stops include St. Martinville, the setting for Longfellow’s tragic poem, “Evangeline”; Breaux Bridge, which claims to be the world’s crawfish capital; and Eunice, Louisiana’s unofficial hub of zydeco and Cajun music. Some of the participants are fit as can be and ride at a brisk clip. Most, however, view pedaling a bicycle as a leisurely form of back-road exploring, and a way to get from one rollicking juke joint to the next. What all of the participants of Cycle Zydeco share is an insatiable enthusiasm for Cajun dancing and dining. CYCLIST IMAGE COURTESY OF THE LAFAYETTE CVB http://southernbreeze.com
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