Brevet Season ..... sort of

As I sit writing this it's snowing like crazy here in Black River Falls. We probably have 3 inches on the ground and it looks like it's not going to let up for a while. This has been one crazy "spring". However, even with the protracted winter, there have been chances to get out on the bike. To this point I have just over 500 miles in for the year. I've also done both of my 100K permanent routes and have completed a 300K brevet (admittedly, that one required driving to Kansas City). In other words, the "spring" hasn't been a total loss.

As I said I drove to Kansas City for the April 5th 300K starting in Oak Grove, Missouri. I had made plans with my friend, Spencer, to come down and join him and his gang for this ride back in January. At that point I figured we would have a fairly normal spring and I would have plenty of base miles in to get through an early season 300K. OOPS! The week before the ride I waffled back and forth on whether it made sense to spend 8 hours each way to do a ride that I was in no way prepared for. In the end I decided to just and give it a shot. I figured that when I got dropped, I would just slog in by myself.

I arrived in Kansas City the night before the ride with a grand total of 260 miles for the season. Not exactly a large base for a 194 mile ride. Waking up the morning of the ride, the wind was immediately evident. Not breezes twinkling the leaves, but real wind. When I checked the Weather Channel the winds were listed at 20 mph at 5:30am. This was the kind of wind that was pushing shopping carts around the parking lot and knocking over bikes.

Nineteen riders lined up for the 6:00 am start. The ride was to ride generally east for 95ish miles and then return by the same course. On the way out the wind was mostly a cross wind. This was the kind of cross wind that made it hard to control the bike. I found it was nearly impossible to take a hand off the bars to eat or adjust clothing. I rode with Spencer across the Missouri River and out to the turnaround in Fayette, Missouri in reasonably good shape. As bad as the wind was on the way out, the main talk at the turnaround was about how hard the return trip was going to be. Spencer and I joined up with 4 other riders for the start back. As predicted the wind was a real force to be reckoned with. Crossing the 7 or 8 miles of the Missouri River floodplain, I really struggled to keep moving over 10 miles per hour. There were several stretches where I was topping out at a speedy 8 mph. At the controls, the local riders were trying to keep their spirits up with the encouraging news that the forecast called for the headwinds to drop to 18mph at 4pm or 5pm or was it 6pm. In any event, the winds did not really drop significantly until it got dark around 9pm.  We did finally finish as a group of 6 at 11:02- for a 17 hour and 2 minute time. Thats a really slow 300K, but given the conditions and the lack of training, I was pretty satisfied.

Part of the crew enjoying the rando lifestyle in Marshall, Missouri.



On Saturday, April 13th, I decided to ride my Whitetail Wander 119K permanent. This ride is one of my favorites for a good, hard ride when time is limited. I waited until 11:30am to let things warm up a little bit. The temperatures never did get very warm. I think it was about 31 degrees when I started and got up to around 35 for a high. Throughout the day, I had periods of strong (not Missouri strong) headwinds, short sleet showers and the occasional snow flurries. Not exactly a great day to be out on a bike but I did get a decent workout in.

This is my bike parked near Lake Lee in Millston. At least the ice fishing shacks are off the lake. Real Spring can't be that far away.

I ended up finishing the ride in 5 hours and 44 minutes. Thats a pretty slow time but it's still early.

No Ride Today!

Looking Back - - - Looking Ahead

The New Years Holiday provides a great chance to look back at the adventures of the year gone past and look forward to the challenges that await.

 

Looking Back



2012 was a great year of cycling for me. I finished the year with 5615 miles, 3 more than last year. Its kind of funny that I could ride two full seasons and without planning it at all end up with almost exactly the same number of miles. Additionally, I finished 2012 with 6312 kilometers in RUSA sanctioned events.  The highlight of my cycling year was a successful completion of the Shenandoah 1200K in June. As I detailed at the time, the ride was a tour of the mountains and beautiful backroads of Virginia. Other highlights of 2012 included the first ever ACP sanctioned brevets held in Black River Falls, Wisconsin and my first serious foray into ride organization as the Director of the Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together held in May.

Looking Ahead

 

2013 promises to just as interesting. Early on New Years morning, I was among the first to register for the Endless Mountains 1240K ride to be held in Eastern Pennsylvania in August. Apparently, my post-Shenandoah statements about never riding another mountainous 1200K didn't register. It could be that I have a serious case of randonnesia. In any event, Endless Mountains is probably the only US grand randonnee which can legitimately claim to be harder than Shenandoah.

 

I am also setting a goal of 5500 total miles and at least 5500 kilometers in RUSA sanctioned events. Stay tuned!

 

 

Happy New Years!!

6000K's

With this Saturday's ride of the Coulee Challenge Permanent, I reached my 2012 goal of 6,000 RUSA kilometers. Any RUSA organized brevets or permanents count towards the annual total. I reached my total by riding a variety of brevets in Minnesota and Missouri plus the Shenandoah 1200 in the Mid-Atlantic region. I also rode permanents in Wisconsin and Connecticut.

Saturday's ride  was a mixed bag. The Coulee Challenge is a beautiful ride. It was even more beautiful than normal this time as the faded colors and bright sunshine of late fall covered the hillsides. On the negative side, I had only ridden three times in the last month and my lack of conditioning was obvious as I struggled to climb A-Hole and Tamarack Hills. I actually rode fairly well for the first 80-ish miles, but then things got lots harder. I did manage to push through and ended up finishing the 125 miles in 8 hours and 56 minutes. Not the fastest time ever, but pretty decent overall.

The season isn't quite over yet. I hope to get in a few more rides and keep enjoying the fall for as long as the weather allows.

Disney Vacation

Rando Road Trip

Last weekend, the Minnesota Randonneurs came to Black River Falls for back-to-back brevets. The idea was that randonneurs would have the chance to ride some new routes and we would all have the chance to get together over some beer and a meal to tell stories from the road. Overall, I had a great weekend and I'm pretty sure the other riders enjoyed their time in West Central Wisconsin.

On Saturday, we rode the Coulee Challenge route. The Coulee is a 200 kilometer course through the Coulee region south and west of Black River Falls. Nine riders showed up for the challenge.  When we left at 8:00, the temperature was around 40 degrees, a sure sign that fall is on the way.  The nine of us quickly broke into 3 groups. A lead group of 2 riders, my group of 5, and 2 others sweeping the course. I rode all day with Rob Welsh, Mark Olsen, Kelly Hines, and Glenn Seager. We finished the course in 8:34 minutes. This time was over 40 minutes faster than I have ever covered the Coulee route. Saturday evening everyone came to our house for chile, beer and tall tales.

Sunday morning came way too early. I was feeling less than perfect when I wheeled to the Holiday station for the start of the Dairyland Dandy, another 200km brevet. Seven riders showed up at the start to give it a shot. Without any real plan, we reached a consensus to ride audax style, basically riding together all day. My day was a little odd. Leaving the start area, I had lots of trouble clipping into my pedals. After 2 or 3 miles, I was finally able to clip in, but it would be an all day problem. All told, I rode over 60 miles with only foot clipped in. By the end of the day, we got into a pattern of prying my pedal open at the control, putting my shoe in, putting my foot in and then getting on the bike. Not exactly convenient but it was good enough to get me home. We finished the route in 9:40. Not exactly fast, but it was lots of fun riding with some fun people and sharing good conversation.

All in all, the BRF weekend was a success and plans are already in the works to get this on the Minnesota Randonneurs calendar for 2012.