Morrisville 200k

The DC randonneurs are some seriously tough hombres. They will ride in virtually any condition and find a way to put a positive spin on it. I rode the SR series last year with them and spent most of it in awe of their ability to ride in miserable weather over tougher courses than I would ever desire. Indeed, for me, that combination of terrain and weather (and the damn DC traffic) was a big part of why I'm riding the North Carolina series this year.

I have an EXTREMELY limited schedule for riding brevets. If (and it would be a first) a ride became impossible for me in some dimension and I had to DNF, it would be nigh on to impossible to arrange time off to do the same distance elsewhere on another date. That would ruin my chances at another SR series; and THAT is the goal I have at the start of the season. Like in golf, there's no comments section next to the score; either you completed an ACP brevet of the required distance or you did not. Nowhere do you get extra credit 'cause it was harder nor are you penalized because it wasn't as tough as the one somebody rode elsewhere.

I know the randonneur attitude is supposed to be that any brevet that doesn't have rain is the fault of poor planning on the part of the organizer. And I know the last PBP was 50's and rain for most of the entire 1200k. I know that much of the intent behind a challenging brevet series is to prepare you for PBP and for conditions that can be as bad as they were last time. But, I don't think 30 degrees & sleet is likely in France in August. Also, the difficulty of some of the climbs in northern Virginia seem unlikely to be representative.

So, I will gladly take the conditions I faced with yesterdays 200k. 44 at the start with temps eventually in the low 70's with sun. We had a 10-15 mph head wind for the outbound ride and a mix of cross winds and tail winds for the return with 7800 feet of rolling climbs that never required the granny gear.

Wonderful camaraderie that is helped by these moderate challenges that allow riders of similar skills to stay together. Even when someone would fall back on a climb, it was never a huge gap. That meant they could easily catch up without the other riders having to significantly slow down and wait. All in all a more pleasant experience without some of the desperation and worry about time cut-offs I had repeatedly last year.


(Dean from my Permanant, Rob AKA "Rico", Bob, and Chuck of Coho cycles)

So yes, I will be riding these brevets instead. At least until I can convince myself to try to set up a series here.



All smiles at the finish


My LHT garnered much attention.