Ontario fatbiker covers more than 500 km in 6 days

Ontario cyclist Jonathan Amantea spent the week between Dec. 25 and Dec. 30 doing what he describes as: “the hardest biking challenge I’ve ever done.” Amantea took on the Rapha Festive 500 on his Norco Ithaqua fat bike, riding it entirely on the snowy trails of Durham forest in Uxbridge, Ont.

The Festive 500 is normally completed on a road bike, but Amantea decided to up the challenge by riding it on his fat bike. “I have a feeling I may have been the only person in the world who did this challenge strictly on a fatbike,” he says. He tried to contact Rapha to find out but hasn’t yet received an answer.

Six days of Durham

Armed with 45 Nrth Dillinger 5 studded tires, on Dec. 25 Amantea set out on his first day of riding. “That was the hardest hundred 100km I’ve ever done,” he said, completing 100.69 km in 10 hours and 25 minutes. “That was the second hardest hundred 100km I’ve ever done,” he joked on day two of riding 100 km in the forest.

Though it was snowy, “it was too warm to ride in the forest,” he says. Day three he rode 108 km, and then 128 km on day four. He was left with only 63 km for his last day of the challenge, Dec. 30 (though he actually rode 65km).

A chance to ride the Festive 500

In total, Amantea, who notes that he is a vegetarian cyclist, rode 502 km, climbed 5,097 m spent 42:52 hours riding in some very challenging winter conditions. “I have been wanting to do this challenge for years,” he says, “but I go to a mantra meditation retreat with my family the week before and after Christmas every year and was always unable to do it.”

His one disappointment? “Rapha, for the past decade, had mailed out a badge if you completed the challenge,” says Amantea. “This year they did not. I really wanted one.”