Wakefield 200k

Even though it was windy...

NO! No, I'm not going to say that. I have heard about "wind" and THIS was NOT wind. Compared to what those guys faced, this was a gentle breeze. I mean, it was mostly cross winds even then, and not really head winds. So we got nothing to complain about.

The recent SIR video said that from bad decisions sometimes come great stories. Well from GOOD decisions come, well, stories that are good enough.

We had postponed this ride twice due to bad forecasts. Part of the motivation was a new rider wanting to join us for his first ever 200k and our desire to not require a trial by fire.

OK, the real motivation was that it was going to either rain or to be really early and really cold and I didn't want to have to get up. This date, however, looked great.

So we got 6 of us and didn't even try to start until 8AM (cause we like to sleep as late as we can) with it having warmed up to 40 degrees by then as well.

This route has lots of rollers but few real hills, but can be a challenge if you have some super strong riders like Pascal (now riding a geared bike instead of his fixie- may God have mercy on us) and his pal Michael riding his first 200k.

It quickly became apparent that they preferred a faster pace so we split up into 2 groups and sacrificed Kim to the task of guiding them through the route since she is familiar with it. Me, Brent and his friend Jacob (riding his 3rd 200k in preparation for an upcoming brevet) held together and were at least able to catch the others at each control and rush through so we could start off with them after our stop.

Lunch in Lawrenceville came with temps now edging over 60 though the wind breeze kept things feeling cool enough that long sleeves were still the preference.

It stayed sunny until quite late and we made it in well before dark as we had hoped we could do even with our lazy start time.

New randonneur Michael

So, good story if not great. Good decisions are sometimes the best.

PBP Part 4 What worked: what didn’t

These notes have languished and been occasionally updated since last August so when this arrived this week

 it prompted me to go ahead and post them

Worked

ShowersPass doubleCentury jacket

(The elite 2 is touted as their ultimate, but is a bit too heavy. ) The double Century is a perfect weight as a shell. The cavernous pit zippers can be opened and closed with one hand while still riding. The Velcro wrap closing sleeves allow an open position to create even more airflow. Ditto the up/down zipper. It also packs up small enough to jam into a rear pocket. (Also, more durable than their gossamer thin Pro-tech jacket)

My backpack for a drop bag.

Doubles as your carry-on and carries a laptop then well. Choose garish colors to help you quickly identify it in a pile at night in Loudeac. Also didn’t have a need for the 2^nd drop bag location that Des Peres travel offered and which I didn’t use. 

Wool base layer under a polypro jersey.

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool fan of wool tops. But sometimes you sort of want to show off a fancy logo jersey that isn’t wool. In this case my RUSA and NC rando jerseys. Well, it worked out good. Actually BETTER than good. The wool base kept me warm but never too warm and the polypro top seemed at times to even work better at some temps than a 2^nd layer of wool would have been. Maybe the best combo for the 50s-60’s temps we had.

The XL towel-size wipes. 

Faster than a shower and really involve no more time than just changing clothes.

MTB shoes. 

OMG I never walked so much on a ride in my life.

Full fenders + light but waterproof shoe covers. 

So little water even GETS to your shoes that the minimalist covers are enough.

The Ostrich rear bag + its support and the VO Champagne front bag

Carried everything with nary a problem.

The new reflective vest

Wow were these things bright at night. Rear slits for access to our jersey pockets. An easy to one-hand zipper. Breathable enough to wear even when it was warm

My little Camelbak

Carried enough water to supplement my bottles without being too heavy as a backpack

My new bottles

Well, I think they helped. Insulated and with covers to keep filthy road spray from other bikes off the mouth pieces

My bike

Everything that really mattered worked great.

What didn’t

Aluminum fenders.

I don’t know. Maybe I did something to them, but having them disintegrate in cold/rain/fog with 600+km to go sort of puts me off of them. Just got my new set of steel ones in the mail

Planning to change shorts every 200k.

Had been easy and a real mood lifter this past season, so, yeah, sure, carry extra clothes on the bike. No time, not needed, shouldn’t have bothered.

Using tires with substantial miles on them

Jan Heine had touted this saying they were more pliable and faster. Well, fine until they delaminate at Carhaix on the way back

My meal plans

Should have carried more food with me. Being vegetarian was part of the problem since the quicker sandwich stands never seemed to have anything I could just grab and go. Having to rely exclusively on the cafeterias with their long lines and limited options for me meant lots of wasted time and not the foods I would have preferred.

Riding with other riders

I don’t mean this the way it sounds. With MULTIPLE start times (and therefore multiple cut-off times for the finish) you couldn’t tell who was at a pace that matched your needs. Early on I just rode fast as I could. But later, it was easy to join a friendly group on the road (who weren’t under the time pressure that you are under) and unknowingly be going much slower than you needed. 

Learning some French in advance

This one is a split actually. It gave me confidence at first, but by later in the ride I was too tired and frazzled to use anything I had “learned”

-------------------------------------

So, given that the first thing I did after sleeping 18 hours was to start a list of why I wouldn't ride PBP again, why WOULD I do it again and what would I do different?
 

Take food. Lots of food. Carry on the bike and pack it in the drop bag.Almost never eat at the controls (The control food is not the experience of France. It was and is likely to be in the future, fuel and nothing more). I thought there would be more rider interaction I wanted to experience while eating at the controls but that didn’t really happen. Had lots more of it rolling along on the road.

Unless they begin offering an early AM 90 hour start, probably would choose the free start 90 hour to avoid crowds.  Sleep deprivation is the biggest problem I faced and was totally due to the evening start. So, whether I start at 6, 8, or 10 PM really isn't going to matter. I'm still going to have to ride through the first night, but at least I might not have crowds to deal with. 

Carry a 3^rd water bottle (which I might ditch when empty) in addition to my camelback and the 2 on the bike to have enough to get to the 200k 1^st real control w/o stopping

Why ride it again?  Well I don’t have the best memories about it. And I want to. Maybe with familiarity of having done it before, and a better meal plan to get just a few hours of sleep, it could be the great experience I wanted it to be. I know I can do the ride and my bike is perfect for it. I’ve already worked out a lot of the issues that need to be worked out to do such a ride.

Early to bed early to rise gets a 200k before dark

The New Years day Edenton 200k.

Since I just did this, mostly just pix this time

 Coming into Hertford

 A local Cat 2 racer admiring Kim's Specialized Roubaix

 Edenton

 Shorts and short sleeves

 Prettiest info control ever

Brent and Jacob near the end

Ron's NEW Permanent. The Hertford-Edenton 203k

I keep wanting to design a new route, myself, but Ron is encouraging my sloth by turning out great new rides. His Wakefield ride was already a favorite among our sparse band of randonneurs here in the Hampton Roads area. Now he's come up with another great and picturesque ride.

Though 5 of us were originally planning to ride it last weekend, illness and other bike issues took 2 out. That left Brent and me along with Jacob who would be riding his first RUSA event and first ride beyond a century.

We had cold enough start temps in the upper 30's that I had trouble reading the cue sheet past watery eyes. So we promptly missed, like, the first turn.

Jacob, welcome to randonneuring; these are bonus miles.

The first 40 miles took us through empty rural roads with a few dogs for extra excitement ( as per the law in North Carolina, they were appropriately not on leashes of course.)

By the time we got to the first control around mile 40 in Hertford, the temps were warming up and we were shedding clothes in the sunny conditions.

We chatted with some locals and rolled on to an information control in Edenton

Like this house?

Here's the view they have from their front porch

More canons and a light house

Lots of cool houses in Edenton

So, I missed another turn leaving Edenton and MORE bonus miles. But that made us arrive down the road at the right time to see

So it wasn't all bad. There were more horses later in the ride but they were a bit wary of us so no additional pix.

2 other controls plus a couple of information controls would be needed and provided good stops at well placed intervals. We continued to be treated to some great views

The sun was getting low and we were making good enough time to finish JUST after sunset but we'd all brought lights and reflective gear.

Jacob, late in the ride

Long shadows this time of year

Pulled in around 5:30 with the temps just starting to dip again.

Jacob, welcome to our own little corner of cycling madness