Category: Cycling

While I have not been blogging as much since PBP I have still been riding. Here is a summary of some of my rides since August. All in all I rode over 7000 miles for the year, my biggest year to date.

Mountain Populaire 110k

Fresh from PBP my form was still good and I hammered through this hilly course in a little over 4 hours. By the end it was just myself, Robin and Bob off the front as other people who had been riding with us earlier on fell behind due to either fitness levels or mechanical issues.

Olympia 200k

This relatively flat course allowed for some nice tempo riding. I had no rain gear along so when the rain set in I carried on with Tyler to keep warm while the rest of the group stopped to don their gear. I thought they’d catch up to us relatively quickly but it was only about 40 miles later when we stopped at a control that we regrouped. I was debating going for a 7 ½ hour 200k but in the end decided to wait at the control and ride in with more people for a more social ride. In the end we came in just under 8 hours and were treated to some nice hot pizza at the finish.

R12

I’ve kept the R12 going with a number of solo and group permanent rides, many of them organized by Chris Heg. It’s promoting a higher level of fitness going into the start of 2012 so it’ll be interesting to see how I can build on that for the year ahead.

5000k

Going into December I realized that I was within shooting distance of the RUSA 5k award, for riding 5000k of brevets or permanents within the US. I needed around 420k and so lined up a solo 250k (Whidbey-Mambo) and signed up for the Solstice Ride on December 21^st.

Solstice Ride 200k

One of my more memorable rides though not one I would do again in similar conditions. This started at 7pm on the longest night of the year with predictions of freezing fog and low temperatures forecast. I was bundled up in 7 layers and felt like the Michelan man as we took off into the night. There were a number of top ultra racers along for the ride, Chris Ragsdale, Brian and Mick so the pace was a reasonable clip out of the gate. I was wondering if I’d overdressed as I was getting a bit hot but as the night progressed and the temperatures dropped it turned out to be about right.  The course was pretty flat with an out and back section which meant we ended up seeing all the riders coming up the Centennial Trail as we headed back. For the later half of the ride my legs started feeling a bit weary from my 250k a couple days previously and I dropped off the pace a little on the final climb back out of the valley. I was covered in ice and my rims froze up so that on the last steep descent I had to walk the bike as my brakes were no longer slowing me down. I finished in about 9 hours which was pretty good for the conditions so I was able to get some sleep before heading into work.

Average moving speed for the whole ride was 15.8 mph (> 30% faster than my moving pace in 2007 which was ~ 12mph). I recorded the ride as 4 different stages due to memory limitations on my Garmin 800.

Stage 1 (St. Quentin – Tinteniac, 224 miles) : 18.3 mph

Stage 2 ( Tinteniac – Brest, 159 miles) : 15.2 mph

Stage 3 (Brest – Fougeres, 190 miles) : 15.1 mph

Stage 4 (Fougeres – St. Quentin, 193 miles) : 14.8 mph

The first 224 miles was significantly faster due to a number of factors including flatter terrain, adrenaline common to the start of any ride, daylight and the opportunity to take advantage of the initial large group of riders in our wave.

My planning going into the ride had assumed a 17 mph average out to Brest and then 16 mph back. We did average 17 mph to Brest but then only 15 mph on the way back (i.e. 1 1/2 hours of potential sleep/rest/buffer). All in all not to far off the planned pace.

Total moving time on the bike was 48 hours 12 minutes (of our total elapsed time of 55 hours 45 minutes). That means that we spent 7 1/2 hours not moving forward 🙂  I would approximate this as 2 1/2 hours on road side stops (mechanicals, toilet stops, ditch naps, rain gear) and 5 hours at controls (roughly averaging 20 minutes per control).

The out leg to Brest took 26 hours and 45 minutes (22:43 riding and 4:02 off the bike). Returning took 29 hours (25:29 riding and 3:31 off the bike).

So what would it take to go even faster?

The main place we could have saved some time was by being even more efficient at the controls. The lead group while riding a bit faster on the road seem to save a lot of time by 1) having their support crew at every control, 2) sprinting once they get off their bikes to get their cards stamped while their support crews restock their bikes and then are straight back out again riding (I would guess 5-10 minutes max per control compared to our 15-45 minutes which adds up over the course of the ride), 3) stopping once a control en masse for a quick toilet break by the side of the road (if you need a Number 2 too bad), 4) not stopping if anyone has a mechanical (again too bad, good luck chasing to catch back on), 5) no ditch naps and 6) dropping anyone that can’t hold the pace as the ride progresses.

Some of these points you can’t do to much about if you are with a group that is going to stick together. The flip side to this is that by having a trained group riding together you can afford the inevitable extra mechanicals, toilet stops and ditch naps because you can be confident of making reliably good time on the road with just your group sticking together. If you were attempting this by yourself you would be reliant on the strength and ability of whatever group came along that you could ride with if anything caused you to drop from the lead group or soloing it out at a slower pace.

The 17th running of the Paris Brest Paris brevet was the culmination of an 8 month long training effort.  4 years on from my last attempt at this ride in 2007, when I DNF’d after 900k at Fougeres on the return leg, I had returned to take on this course again.

This time however rather than just attempting to finish the ride within the 90 hour time limit I was trying to finish it within the 56 hour 40 minutes required to join La Societe Charly Miller:

“One hundred years ago, Charly Miller of Chicago was the first American to ride Paris-Brest-Paris. In the second edition of PBP, in 1901, he finished an excellent fifth place in 56 hours, 40 minutes. This was an outstanding achievement for an unsupported rider, especially when one considers the poor roads and bicycles of that bygone era. Though many of his opponents at PBP had elaborate teams of pacers and helpers along the route, Miller persevered alone for three days and two nights, non-stop. While other racers with better support threw in the towel, Charly Miller had to use all his resolve to overcome a disheartening amount of punctures and a broken bicycle in order to finish. Yet, even on a hastily borrowed replacement bike obtained 350 kilometers from the end, the 26-year-old still set the fastest speed over the timed final kilometer to the finish line in Paris! Not surprisingly, his heroic performance at PBP was very much appreciated by the French cycle-racing fans of the day. Moreover, Miller’s hardy athleticism and never-say-die determination is still an excellent model for today’s randonneurs to emulate no matter what pace they choose to undertake PBP or any other long randonnée. It wouldn’t be until 1975 that another American finished PBP, and it took till 1979 for someone (the amazing Scott Dickson on his first PBP) to do it as swiftly as Charly Miller did.

To celebrate this cycling hero, a list of Americans who have equaled or surpassed Charly Miller’s time at Paris-Brest-Paris and the year(s) they did it is maintained here. It should be noted that the modern route used by the Audax Club Parisien since 1979 is definitely hillier than the one Miller rode along the N-12 in 1901. The new course, though entirely paved, also varies in length from year to year and is a little longer than the original 1196 kilometers of dirt and cobblestones that Miller cycled. On the other hand, today’s randonneurs have vastly improved sports training knowledge and nutrition, not to mention far better equipment, lighting, and clothing. Indeed, their lightweight multi-speed bikes weigh half of what Miller’s single-speed did, so any comparisons shouldn’t be taken too seriously–if at all. With several exceptions, the riders listed had personal support crews meeting them at the checkpoints, too. Nonetheless, anyone going under 56:40 at PBP richly deserves their membership in this esteemed fraternity of fast American randonneurs and randonneuses. Chapeau!”

I’d decided to attempt this following a successful Spring brevet series when I ended up being able to maintain the pace during the SIR 300k of the sub group within SIR that had been training to attempt “Charly Miller” for the past couple of years. A 25 hour 600K further cemented the possibility that this was a realistic target. I rode a strong 1200k in Colorado in July and then went into taper mode leading up to PBP itself, focussing primarily on shorter high intensity rides.

Susan and the kids stayed in Seattle this time around and supported from afar via Skype and online tracking of my arrival at controls. This had the benefit of allowing me to be well rested leading into the event as I was able to sleep when I was tired and dealing with jet lag.

The plan was for 7 of us (Robin, Greg, Bob, Alex, Bill, Ben and myself) to ride together during the ride, supported at roughly every other control by Amy and Trudy. The couple of days leading up to the ride were occupied by a couple of training rides along the first 20 miles of the route, buying supplies for the support car and last minute tweaks to the bike to make sure it was all set up correctly. The afternoon before our start time I went out to the start to see the 80 and 90 hour group starts and then went back to the hotel for a nights sleep before getting up at 3:30 am in preparation for a 5 am morning start time in the 84 hour group. This morning start worked well for a number of reasons, firstly I got a bonus nights sleep before heading out and secondly it meant we didn’t need to wait for hours in 80+ degree sun before an evening start time as the previous days groups had to do.

The start (4 am, -1 hour to the start)

Jan, Michael and Ian were going to hang with our group for as long as they could to get some time in the bank.

There was a great buzz at the stadium as we waited to head off. At around 4:45am they let us through the control and stamped our cards. We set up near the back of the first wave and at 5 am rolled out with around 500 other people in our wave (the other 84 hour starters would go out in waves space 15-30 minutes apart). Unfortunately Ian just missed getting into our wave and so wasn’t able to ride with us at all on this ride.

1st Leg (St. Quentin – Mortagne-au-Perche, 87 miles)

It was still dark as we rolled out and we stuck to our planned formation, Robin and Alex in front followed by myself and Bob, Bill and Ben and then Greg in the rear keeping an eye that we were all together.  Jan and Michael were hanging on the back. Our main goal at this stage was to take advantage of the draft from all the other people in the wave and make sure we all stuck together and didn’t have any silly accidents in the first crowded portion of the ride before things would naturally spread out. We quickly found ourselves moving up towards the front of the wave and settled in near the front. As daylight struck and we moved out into the rolling hills of the countryside things had spread out enough for us to start into our rotating pacelines. We soon had a good few people hanging on behind us as we rolled along and we periodically waved some of them up to the front to do some work while we took a break. Near the end of this leg my chain dropped and wouldn’t spin back on so we had to stop briefly as I put it back on. We soon caught up to the people who had passed us and carried on.

We reached Mortagne in good time and had our first rendezvous with Amy and Trudy. This was not a timed control stop on the way out to Brest so we simply refilled our water and moved on.

 2nd Leg (Mortagne-au-Perche – Villaines, 50 miles)

We made good time on this leg as well despite a few mechanical problems, my seat needed to be adjusted as it started to tip up and my light rotated around into my rear wheel and needed to be tightened. These were minor problems and quick to resolve but it was still a pain to need to stop to fix them. The few cobble stone sections had obviously loosened things up a bit on the bike. On the plus side a squeak that I had been trying to diagnose for the couple days leading up to the ride vanished as soon as we had our first bit of rain. Ben also had the first, and only, puncture of the group on this stretch. It was a good opportunity to get a bit of food in and adjust layers while he fixed it.

We got into Villaines in 7:41 hours for 222km, a good time that put us about 2 hours in the bank for our target pace. We used up a bit of this time working on Greg’s chain as it had a dodgy link which we swapped out for a master link. Unfortunately there was some confusion over wether it was a 9 or 10 speed chain and the wrong size master link was put on initially and had to be forced off. It was raining at this stage and we were glad once we got moving again.

 3rd Leg (Villaines – Fougeres, 55 miles)

This was a pretty uneventful leg, riding in the rain for the most part though not that heavy. We did end up latching on to a fast group for the last stretch despite previous discussions to ride at our own pace. I think this hurt us a little later in the ride but it’s tough not to take advantage of a chance to go faster when it comes up. We ended up reaching Fougeres in 11 hours and 20 minutes for 311k which gave us about 2 1/2 hours in the bank

4th Leg (Fougeres – Tinteniac, 33 miles)

A short stretch which went by quickly enough with a quick stop at Tinteniac.

5th Leg (Tinteniac – Loudeac, 53 miles)

On this stretch we rode into a very heavy rainstorm. As the skies started to open up an industrial shed appeared on the side of the road so we made a bee line for it and huddled out of the rain as we put our rain gear on. This was Colorado strength afternoon rain which hammered down on the steel roof of the shed impressively. While we waited for it to ease up the lead group, who had started the previous afternoon, went past on their return from Brest. Chris Ragsdale was right up there at the front which was great to see.

As the rain eased up a little we headed back out, aware that we were on the clock and that we’d ridden in plenty of rainstorms in the past in Seattle. We saw a chase group about 15 minutes behind the lead group and then a handful of individual riders as we rode along.

It was on this stretch that we came across the scene of a recent accident. We were waved to slow down as we approached a large truck on the other side of the road (in the passing lane) and were told that a very bad accident had occurred as we were waved through. A glimpse of a body shape under the front wheels of the truck was enough to give the impression that a rider had been struck and was unlikely to have survived. We rode on in a somber mood as emergency response vehicles passed us racing to the scene. (We discovered after the ride that indeed an american rider had been killed here).

We arrived in Loudeac at 22:39 at night and met Amy and Trudy in the cafeteria for some hot food. They had purchased soup for us as we had requested so we could get some real food in ahead of our night of riding ahead. We were catching up to the 90 hour riders at this point so it was great to be spared using up time lining up to get food. We still ended up having a relatively long stop here.

6th Leg (Loudeac – Carhaix, 47 miles)

There was a bit more climbing on this leg and we started debating whether to get a little rest in Carhaix before heading on to Brest as we would not have any option to change clothes and rest in Brest if people were tired there. Amy and Trudy were going to stay at Carhaix and get some sleep while we did the out and back. In the end we decided to carry on without any break which was just as well as we would have probably stiffened up if we had paused here.

7th Leg (Carhaix – Brest, 58 miles)

About an hour after leaving Carhaix, around 4am, Robin was feeling very sleepy so we pulled over so he could have a 10 minute ditch nap. Everyone lay down on the pavement on a side road, spread out rear lights to warn people we were on the road,  and closed our eyes for a brief break. I’m not sure how helpful this was but the alarm soon went off and we got back on our bikes.

I had got some mud in my cleat so wasn’t able to clip in immediately.  By the time I was clipped in the others had headed up the road. As I was catching up a rider coming towards me drifted onto my side of the road, blinding me with their light and then hit my left shoulder and hand hard. I managed not to go down. My suspicion is they had nodded off as this would have been an 80 hour rider well into their 2nd night of riding. I looked back and checked they had stayed upright and then rode on to catch up with my group who were waiting up the road. This reinforced the importance of sticking together in our roll outs as a group in formation would be safer in this kind of situation.

We climbed over Roc Trevezel in heavy mist/fog and descended into Brest in low visibility conditions. Once we hit the control everyone kind of scattered so Bob and I headed to the canteen to get some food as had been previously discussed. We had a quick bite to eat and headed back to the bikes. Tempers were getting a bit strained as pre agreed plans were getting changed and then not clearly communicated to the whole group. Communication within the group was starting to break down as the strain of a hard effort and lack of sleep started to take its toll. By this stage we only had about an hour in the bank (which would remain the case for pretty much the rest of the ride) and were no longer looking at the likelihood of getting any sleep stop. This strain escalated as we left the control into shouting on the streets outside the control. A recurring issue with our coordination was our departures from controls with staggered roll outs and then needing to wait for people down the road unsure of what was keeping them and how long it would be. On their side they would sometimes not be aware that everyone had left. It started to work a bit better once we agreed on times for each control and then let people do whatever they wanted within that time frame and tried to roll out more as a unit.

8th Leg (Brest – Carhaix, 53 miles)

We had a steady extended climb out of Brest and Alex did a good job of repeatedly reminding the group not to go too hard on the climb. We still probably went a bit hard but conserved enough energy so that people heading the other direction would later say they were wondering if we were hurting. In fact throughout the whole ride we tried to conserve energy on the extended climbs so we could push on the rollers and flatter stretches.

It was during this stretch that we saw many fellow SIR 90 hour riders heading down the hill towards Brest, following their sleep break the previous night.

We pushed a bit on the downhill stretch and arrived at Carhaix at 11:38am to connect back up with Amy and Trudy. Most of the team took this opportunity to change their gear but I decided to wait. This was a small mistake as the next stretch wasn’t very comfortable in my shorts (I guess 700k was the limit for the same pair of wet shorts).

9th Leg (Carhaix – Loudeac, 49 miles)

I’ve no particular strong memories of this stretch. There was a fair bit of climbing and my shorts didn’t feel to comfortable but it still went quickly enough.

It was along here that we started talking more about the pace needed to complete the ride in target time. I was looking at it as just 5 more 5 hour 100ks which seemed very doable. I was feeling good and the only real wild card was how my body would react to a second night of no sleep.

We reached Loudeac and met up with our support team again for a quick restock.

10th Leg (Loudeac – Tinteniac, 53 miles)

As we left Loudeac there was another breakdown in our departure, strong emotions and a temporary fragmenting of our group. I started to assess what would need to be done if our group broke up at this stage. I was feeling pretty good and confident that I would be able to finish as planned whatever happened but was pleased when we came back together to carry on as a group.

We hit a secret control on this stretch and I had the opportunity to give one of my SIR pins to a girl about Ashley’s age who was helping out at the control. I’d been sorry that one of the necessities of going for a fast time on this ride was forgoing stopping at any of the stands that supporters and well wishers set up along the route to provide riders with water, coffee and food. It was nice to see the delight on her face as she followed me to my bike for a souvenir which I dug out of my top tube bag (after a bit of hunting).

A quick 10 minute stop at Tinteniac and we were on the road again.

11th Leg (Tinteniac – Fougeres, 33 miles)

An uneventful leg with us reaching Fougeres at 22:08, just under an hour ahead of our must leave time for the control. This was the site of my DNF from the 2007 ride and it was a great feeling to be arriving here roughly 24 hours faster than in 2007 and feeling good (rather than nauseous, cold, wet, chronically sleep deprived and unable to hold my head up due to Shermer’s neck).

12th Leg (Fougeres – Villaines, 55 miles)

We left Fougeres with another person roped in to help with the rotation. Bob, Alex, Ben and myself were positioned at the back while Robin, Greg, Bill and this rider rotated at the front. I was feeling good and didn’t really see the point of bringing in a stranger and trying to train them at night rather than just doing our own ride and bided my time at the back with Bob while we waited to see how it would play out.

The new rider’s knee started acting up at our pace and they had to drop out after a bit. Alex replaced him but then Greg and him had to drop out of the rotation as fatigue started to take it’s toll. Bob and I moved in and we made good time over the ensuing steep “rollers”. I was feeling progressively stronger as the ride continued and was surprised that sleep didn’t seem to be an issue.

Unfortunately Alex fell off the pace during this stretch. This was a real shame as he had done a great job throughout the ride, both taking extended turns at the front and being the voice of reason on ensuring we didn’t go to hard up the many hills on the route.

When we reached Villaines Ben felt he wasn’t able to keep going without a longer break for some food and rest so opted to stay at the control while we headed out. I suggested he take a half hour or so to see if he could get some warm food in and then see if he could still finish in the target time as it was still possible with the buffer we had if he could recover a bit.

13th Leg (Villaines – Mortagne, 50 miles)

The five of us who were remaining then headed out. Robin, Bill and I got a good rotation going at the front and another rider ended up joining in.  Greg was having significant sleep issues along this stretch and was having a tough time staying awake and holding a steady line. We slowed quite a bit for a while debating what to do and then opted for a 5 minute ditch nap to see if that would help. I wasn’t feeling tired and seemed to be in steady state so didn’t want to risk my body deciding to shut down if I closed my eyes. Thus I kept an eye on the time as the others lay down and then let everyone know when the 5 minutes was up.

We got rolling again and Greg wanted to join the rotation. I didn’t feel he was holding a steady enough line to be safe so dropped back while he was in it. That didn’t last too long and then he dropped back to the rear of the group again. It started to get light as we approached Mortagne and everyone who had been feeling sleepy noticeably improved. It’s amazing what the arrival of daylight will do to revive the human body. We arrived at 6:23 and had a quick stop.

14th Leg (Mortagne – Dreux, 47 miles)

This was a great stretch. It started with some steady climbing in the woods and ended with some nice fast pacelines for the last 20 miles or so. We had been catching various 80 hour starters as we’d been going along who were strong riders who had opted to get some sleep along the way. One guy got on the front and got the pace up to 24 mph for an extended period. Robin and I were feeling good so we kept it going once they peeled off. This ended up being our 2nd fastest leg of the ride.

We met Amy and Trudy once more at Dreux and basically knew that we had the ride in the bag bar some catastrophic failure. We also got the good news that Ben had recovered and was only about 30 minutes behind us at the last control having had the good luck to latch on to a couple of strong riders who towed him a good stretch of the way into Mortagne. I even had a chance to talk briefly with Susan as she called at this control as I waited for the others to be ready to go on. We rolled out at around 9:45 with around 4 hours to cover 40 miles.

15th Leg (Dreux – St. Quentin, 40 miles)

I was itching to hammer in the final leg but most people in the group were starting to hurt and the pace felt slow as we went along. Bill was slowing down, Robin’s knee was hurting and Bob’s neck had succumbed to Shermer’s neck so he was having a tough time holding it up.

We picked it up a bit as we got into the last 20 miles and then hit the stop and go traffic lights for the last stretch into town.

We finally finished as a group at 12:45, 55 hours and 45 minutes after we had started (and 55 minutes under our Charly Miller target time)!

Ben (below) came in around 10 minutes after us to join the celebration.

There weren’t to many people at the finish at this time compared to the crowds the next day to cheer in the bulk of the riders. Amy and Trudy, Chris and Ken were along (Chris having  finished about 24 hours previously) so we had a chance to take it easy and then start replenishing our calories at the nearby food tent.

The only thing left to do was to get back on the bike to ride back to the Campanile. It was amazing how my whole body had started to stiffen up once we stopped. It was just as well we hadn’t had any extended rest stops during the ride as it would have taken quite a while to loosen up and get going again if we had.

14 hours of sleep later I headed back to the finish the next day and had the fun of cheering in the bulk of the 90 hour riders.

Final Thoughts

I was really pleased with how this 1200k went. I didn’t know how my body would deal with the second half of the ride at this pace, particularly the second night, but found that I kept feeling stronger as the ride went on. The morning start definitely helped having more sleep in the bank before the start of the ride. I only used a small amount of caffeine in gel blocks and the occasional half can of Coke and that seemed to be sufficient (combined with chewing gum thanks to a tip from Amy). I never felt even remotely as tired as I had done in 2007 or on the Cascade 1200 in 2010.

The team was not always in perfect harmony, particularly in the second half of the ride, but emotions can understandably get pretty raw under the pressure that everyone was under doing this ride. At the end of the day 6 of the 7 people in the original group completed the ride under the target time. Alex didn’t quite make it but still had a great ride. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work and organization, particularly by Robin who had led training sessions over multiple years leading up to this ride.

Amy and Trudy provided great support along the course and it made a huge difference to have them there to help us at selected controls. They were always ready to help out anyway they could and to send us on our way with encouraging words.

I feel lucky to have had the chance to ride with such a great group of people in the pursuit of this goal. Thanks Robin, Bob, Alex, Greg, Bill and Ben!

Track the frame number : 8261 (James McKee)

Contrôle	Heure	Cumul		Intermédiaire
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES	22-08 04:59	0h00	0 km/h	0h00	0.1 km/h
VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL	22-08 12:41	7h41	28.7 km/h	7h41	28.7 km/h
FOUGERES	22-08 16:20	11h20	27.3 km/h	3h38	24.4 km/h
TINTENIAC	22-08 18:47	13h48	26.4 km/h	2h27	22 km/h
LOUDEAC	22-08 22:39	17h39	25.4 km/h	3h51	22 km/h
CARHAIX-PLOUGUER	23-08 02:58	21h58	23.9 km/h	4h19	17.6 km/h
BREST	23-08 07:44	26h45	23.1 km/h	4h46	19.5 km/h
CARHAIX-PLOUGUER	23-08 11:38	30h39	22.9 km/h	3h54	21.8 km/h
LOUDEAC	23-08 15:34	34h34	22.6 km/h	3h55	20.2 km/h
TINTENIAC	23-08 19:35	38h35	22.5 km/h	4h01	21.2 km/h
FOUGERES	23-08 22:08	41h08	22.4 km/h	2h33	21.2 km/h
VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL	24-08 02:27	45h27	22.2 km/h	4h18	20.4 km/h
MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE	24-08 06:23	49h23	22.1 km/h	3h56	20.6 km/h
DREUX	24-08 09:27	52h28	22.2 km/h	3h04	24.4 km/h
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES	24-08 12:45	55h45	22.1 km/h	3h17	19.7 km/h
Kilomètres parcourus: 1230

This past Sunday saw me down in Olympia for a final pre PBP tune up ride of 200k.  Generally over rolling terrain I rode with most of the people I’ll be riding with at PBP and we made good time despite some rather ragged pacelines due to additional people in our group who have not ridden together as much.

Bob and I had to chase down the group at one point after we had an extended toilet stop only to emerge to discover the group had rolled off. We chased for about 7 miles averaging over 25 mph to catch up. Quite a wake up to the legs as we had been averaging around 20mph on the flats for the ride in general up to then. Words were exchanged ….

Finished in 7 hours and 55 minutes which beats my best time for a 200k by about an hour. It’s also the first step in the Cyclo Montagnards R60 (completing a brevet series in less than 60% of the allowed time).

Fitness levels are looking good for Paris.

 

This was my first successfully completed grand randonee (although I had ridden this distance at the Cascade 1200 that I completed as a 1000k/260k option last year). It was a stunning ride with great scenery, wildlife, thunderstorms and high altitude. I ended up with a time of 82 hours 28 minutes, finished in daylight each day and averaged around 8 hours at each overnight control. This was quite a change from a year ago on Cascade when I was finishing each day at ~2 am and getting 2-3 hours rest.

Day 1

The ride was limited to 50 riders and we started at 4 am from Louisville. Susan drove down to the start with me, or rather followed me in the car as I biked the 3 miles down to the Inn. The first 100k was on rolling terrain and I rode with the front group. We averaged over 20 mph and actually arrived at the first control only 5 minutes after it officially opened. 3 hours for a 100k (with a secret control along the way) was the fastest I’ve ever done that distance and we still had 1100 km to go. I fueled up at Verns and then started the main climb of the day up Cameron Pass.

This was a 60 mile extended climb up the Poudre Canyon with a steeper stretch for the last 12 miles cresting at 10,276 ft. I was riding with a couple other people for the first 20 miles or so but then I let them go as the altitude started to kick in and my energy output dropped. I settled into a steady rhythm and eventually made it to the top. The altitude meant that any time I stood up on the pedals I had no extra power available and ended up sitting back down and spinning again.

A thunderstorm was just starting to roll in as I reached the top so I raced down the other side to Walden and managed to avoid all but a couple drops. I drafted off one guy into Walden which helped wrap up this stretch pretty quickly. At this point we were about 150 miles in and had 67 more to Saratoga climbing progressively higher ridges to get there. This was a tough stretch for me and when I felt the altitude most during the ride. I was racing to stay ahead of a number of very dark lightning storms that passed across the road behind me. I’d see them sweeping across the plains towards me and feel drops from the edge of the storms but managed to avoid getting hit by the full downburst. I stopped for a Coke at Riverside across from the Mangy Moose bar and debated waiting out another storm that was approaching but the swarms of mosquitos got me back on my bike to finish off the day.

I arrived at the overnight at around 7:30pm, ate a bit of food and went to bed to rest ahead of my planned 3:30am departure.

Day 2

Day 2 started with a 40 mile climb up the Snowy Range. I was taking it pretty slowly, which was a pattern which repeated over the next day as well i.e. start slow and then get progressively faster as the day progressed. There were various people suffering from lack of sleep along the climb, some of them stopping to walk or take a short nap beside the snow.

I soon had all my layers on as we reached 10,700ft before our descent down into Centennial.

By the time I reached Centennial after a great descent I was in need of calories and stopped for a eggs, toast, bacon etc.. at the cafe there. Nice fast service and a large calorie intake soon had me back on the road to Laramie. I rode with Jim for about 10 miles into Laramie before we parted ways as I took off ahead of him back to Walden.

This was a non-descript 20 miles or so to Woods Landing before starting a steeper climb and then a nice descent down the other side. I caught up with Vinnie in Walden and waited for about 30 minutes while some pizza was cooked before leaving for the final stretch of the day to Steamboat Springs (via Muddy Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass).

I left at the same time as Vinnie and 2 other riders but they were going at a slower pace so I took off ahead. I was feeling strong along this stretch and made good time. The mosquitos were out in force and were swarming all over me when I dropped the pace down to 15 mph. It was a good incentive to keep pushing faster. I kept getting different views of Rabbit Ears Pass as I wound my way over to it.

This climb felt pretty good and as I reached the top the dark clouds that had been threatening over the pass started to rain. I put on all my rain gear and rode the brakes hard for the 7 miles at 7% downhill grade down to Steamboat Springs. I let the bike run free at the top to check my stopping distance and it was a long way, from that point on I took it pretty cautiously down the wet roads.

I managed to get in just as it was getting dark, ate and got into bed to rest up ahead of my 4 am planned departure.

Day 3

Yet another extended climb to start the day, this time over Gore Pass. I rode with George for the morning stretch and we took it easy and chatted all the way up. It made the time go quickly as we rode up in the morning fog. As the day heated up we stopped near Kremmling for an icecream cone which hit the spot. I was starting to feel like picking up the pace more so we parted ways and I rode with another group of 4 riders up to Grand Lake.

We stocked up on slaty food and drinks at Grand Lake as it was pretty hot now (high 80s) before returning to Granby for our last climb of the day over Willow Creek Pass. I headed on by myself at Granby as I felt I was climbing a bit slower than the rest of the group and thought they’d catch me after their stop for more drinks. I started to climb better though and didn’t see them again until the overnight control.

Willow Creek Pass started steeply but then settled into a nice gradient for 20 miles or so. I caught up with Ian at the top and we rode into the overnight at Walden together, over a 20 mile stretch of frostheave cracked road (ba bump, ba bump, ba bump all the way). We were smiling once it ended!

We shared a room and got up at 3am to head out around 4am. I didn’t feel I got any real sleep as we were at 8000ft but I did manage to rest and felt fine once I got up.

Day 4

This was the final day and yet another climb to start us off. This time just a 30 mile ascent up the other side of Cameron Pass. It was a great ascent as the sun came up with numerous moose sightings along the side of the road.

Then it was a 60 mile descent to Verns, woo hooo! Ian and I traded 1 mile pulls once the wind started to pick up lower in the canyon and made good time.

George joined us as we were leaving Verns as he was concerned that his odometer wasn’t working and might have difficulty following the cue sheet. We were all in the same boat as all of our units had failed as well but the cue sheet was straightforward enough. We made short work of the last 60 miles despite the heat as we smelt the barn, stopping for drinks at a nice little store at Hygiene. It was impressive to see the number of fit bikers on nice bikes who were out riding mid week along the roads back to Louisville.

We finished in 82 hours and 28 minutes feeling strong. I felt I’d paced myself well and the long rest stops at the overnights had made this a pretty comfortable ride.

Earlier this year I set myself some target times to achieve in the spring brevet series. These were created by the Cyclos Montagnards group as a series of speed awards for those who are motivated by trying to go faster on these longer rides.

The R70 honor requires completion of a brevet series (200, 300, 400 and 600 km) with each brevet completed in 70% or less of the maximum allowed time limit.

I managed to hit the targets (my actual times are in brackets, the 400k was from 2010 as I did a more leisurely pre-ride for this year’s brevet).

200 km: 9:27 hours (08:54)
300 km: 14:00 hours (12:33)
400 km: 18:54 hours (18:36)
600 km: 28:00 hours (24:58)

You can find a list of people who have also achieved this and submitted their results here.

Saturday morning was the start of the final ride I needed to complete to qualify for PBP later this year. This was a 600k ride that I’d first ridden in 2007 in my first year of randonneuring. In actual fact it was my first ever 600k. Back then I took 37 hours and 13 minutes and still have memories of being pretty stiff after the couple of hours of sleep at the overnight stop at Elma before battling the hills in Tahuya to the finish.

This year’s plan was a bit different in that I’d decided to ride the whole distance with no over night stop with the group training to ride PBP this year in Charly Miller pace (56:20 or less for 1200k). My projections for this ride had a target time of 24:59, based on 10 minute stops at controls and 20 minute stop at Elma. While we ended up spending longer at some controls and less time at others we actually ended up completing the ride in 24:58. That’s 12 1/4 hours faster than 4 years ago!

On to the ride — I rode down to the start from Ballard with Jan, Chris and Bob at 5am, registered and chatted with various people as we all waited for 6 am to come along and a chance to start turning the pedals. I tried to stay near the front as we headed out from downtown so I wouldn’t get separated by the various traffic lights that can split the group up early on. We rolled past a line of people at the stadium who were already queuing up for the U2 concert that evening and climbed up the hill to the I90 tunnel and bridge. I had a bottle of Ensure fall off the back of my bike just before the bridge so had to stop and get it and then chase back on (checking my stats I ended up setting a PR across the bridge of over 20mph to rejoin the pack).

The group headed out to Buckley with a stop to try to figure out a mechanical issue with Greg’s chain. Robin joined us here and we then got rolling proper with rotating pacelines. We had quite a large group for a while before people started dropping off the pace and we got down to the core group. A quick stop at Buckley and it was on to fast rollers to Eatonville. This stretch took it’s toll on various people as the pace may have been a bit high for the heat and terrain. We were going 20/21 mph with a fair bit of climbing.

By the time we got through Packwood, Centralia and reached the “overnight” control in Elma there were various people in the group who changed their plans and decided to get some sleep here to try to recover before completing the ride the next day. We’d averaged 18.3 mph to this point and had hit 300k in 11 hours which was well ahead of planned pace. I’d had to take breaks from pulling in the pacelines for the last stretch so as not to fry myself. We took a 40 minute stop at Elma which allowed me to have a quick shower, change of clothes, bite to eat and to restock my supplies. Then it was off into the dusk to ride through the night to Bainbridge.

We reached Potlatch in good time and added a couple bonus miles searching for a Chevron station before backtracking to the Shell station that was the actual control. (It was labeled correctly on the brevet card but differently on the cue sheet and as my garmin had run out of power I was simply going by what things were called). Then it was on to Tahuya, for a great manned control in the middle of the night and the chance for some warm soup, tea and banana bread before tackling the infamous final stretch through the Tahuya hills, a series of pretty steep little climbs in and out of Seabeck.

Our group of 6 made it to the finish in Bainbridge at 6:58 am to be greated by Mark Thomas and his wife in a hotel room they had set up with some food and grub. We hung out for a couple of hours as we waited for the drop bags to be brought over from Elma. The overnight control actually only closed at 7:08 am so the bags weren’t going to brought to the finish until the last rider had headed off from there.

Then it was down to the ferry and a ride back home up to Ballard, ironically with a heavy backpack on my back this felt like one of the toughest parts of the weekend.

All in all the ride went really well. It was great to ride with a good group of strong riders and to keep stops to a minimum. No real aches or pains to complain about compared to previous years. Nutrition still remains a bit of a problem as I haven’t found quite the right thing to eat after a couple hundred miles in the saddle. My mind knows I need calories but my stomach rebels at the thought of another gel block and energy bar and the liquid fuels just seem to much drinking. The bottles of Ensure I had worked well for a quick calorie fix so may need to work out how to carry more of those. Will keep experimenting …

This was my first pre-ride (the ride the volunteers do before the scheduled brevet so as to scout out the course, verify the route and get credit for the ride). 6 of us started out from Mark’s house at 6am on Saturday morning. It had been raining on my drive over so I’d put on full rain gear which quickly proved to be too hot in the immediate climbing to get out of Mark’s neighborhood.  30 minutes into the ride I heard a loud bang behind us as Mark’s tire exploded so that gave me an opportunity to shed some layers while he put on a new tire and tube. It was the first of many flats for our group during the course of the ride (6 total by the end). My gatorskins proved to be resistant enough so that I was spared needing to fix one myself but all the stops added a fair bit of time onto the ride.

As a contrast, for the 300k I was off the bike for less than an hour while for this 400k I was off the bike for over 4 1/2 hours. We made decent enough time while we were moving and had good pacelines going along low traffic roads and the Centennial Trail through Marblemount, most of it in rain. The climbing started on the way out to Baker Lake as we left Concrete with a steep 3 mile stretch or so which started to spread our group out a bit. Then it was up and down to the Panorama Point Campground before turning around immediately as there was no shelter there from the rain and riding back to Concrete. On the official ride we’ll have a manned support stop out there to break up this stretch and provide some sustenance before the ride back.

We stopped for some food at Concrete (a nice burger and chips) and then headed off with about 100 miles to go as it started to get dark. We started to split up along this stretch as people started riding at their own paces and I rode mostly with Hugh and Kevin until Arlington where we waited for Mark and Michael to catch up at a Safeway for about 20 minutes before Hugh and I decided to carry on as we reckoned he had decided not to stop. It turned out we were right and we caught up to them at Granite Falls just as they were leaving the control stop there.

Hugh and I rode the rest of the way in together and finished up at 3:18am (21:18 hours after we had started). All in all my legs felt pretty good and no real soreness. I still need to work out some alternative food options to give me more variety with real food for deeper in the ride. My ham sandwiches tasted a bit dry by the time I got to them so I’ll try some mayo next time to moisten them up a bit.

Some shots from the ride:

One of the awards available in the world of Randonneuring is the “Randonneur 5000”. In 1961, the Audax Club Parisien created an award for those randonneurs who have completed 5000 km in BRM events. It is called the Randonneur 5000. To qualify for this award, the successful randonneur must complete the full series of ACP brevets (200, 300, 400, 600, and 1000k), a Paris-Brest-Paris randonnée, a Flèche Vélocio, and additional ACP brevets to bring the total distance up to at least 5000 km. Kilometers from a Randonneurs Mondiaux 1200k event (e.g., BMB, Cascade 1200) can be used as supplementary kilometers but cannot take the place of the ACP 1000k.

Last year once I started thinking about doing PBP in 2011 I rode a 1000k to get an optimal pre-registration opportunity. This left me with just a Fleche to complete in order to be eligible for this award once I complete PBP later this year.

I’d been wanting to ride a fleche anyway for a while so this year took the plunge and joined a team. Myself, Wayne, Hugh and Jan formed team Ocean Breeze and Wayne designed a nice route for us starting in Bremerton and heading out to the coast before looping around to the mass finish in Olympia. The Fleche has some unique rules which makes it a little different from other brevets. Each team participating (this year there were 11) designs their own route to finish in a common location after riding at least 360km in a 24 hour time period. The historic intent was for each team to see what was the maximum distance they could ride in this 24 hour period. You have to ride at least 25 km in the last 2 hours and can’t stop at any one location en route for more than 2 hours. These rules would all come into play as our ride went along.

We’d decided on a night time start as good practice for PBP and caught the 9:10 ferry for a 10pm start in Bremerton.

Once the ferry docked it was off into the dark on relatively low trafficked roads for our planned breakfast stop on the coast at Westport 8 hours down the road. With a fleche everyone needs to stay together as at least 3 of the possible 5 team members (in our case we had only 4) need to finish together for the ride to count. We all ride at compatible paces so were able to ride at a steady pace (averaging around 15mph, which is pretty good for riding at night).

We reached our first planned stop at about 2:15 am, a post office in the middle of nowhere. A useful feature of country post offices is that the heated lobby with post boxes is never locked and so we huddled in there for a snack and quick warm up before hitting the road again.

Shortly afterwards we stopped for Hugh to put on some more layers at a misty crossroads when a figure emerged walking down the middle of the road. He was as surprised to see us as we were to see him and we had a surreal conversation before he staggered on home. We passed the pub were he had originated from a little further down the road.

The night went pretty smoothly and we arrived at Westport a little after day break for a well earned breakfast.

Then it was back down the coast beside the sea to loop around to Olympia. Some great views along this stretch with the odd scattered shower hitting us even while the sun was shining down on us.

We reached Centralia just after 3pm which left us 7 hours of our 24 hours to go and only around 2 hours of riding left on our route. So it was off to a beer garden to kill 2 hours with some food and beer before heading on to our next stop 12 miles down the road were we stretched out in the sun for another 2 hours.

It’s a strange experience to be deliberately killing time on a ride rather than trying to keep moving as efficiently as possible!

Finally we hit our 22 hour mark and could depart for our final 25 km to the finish at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia. We got in around 9:20 and had a quick beer and then off to bed for a good night’s sleep.

The next morning saw all 11 teams getting together for a breakfast banquet and chance to share tales from all the respective rides.

Susan, Ashley, Ethan and Sean came down to pick me up and caught the tail end of the tales from the rides.

All in all a fun ride and weekend.