2019 Randonnees
 

So the new 2019 randonneuring season has begun and this year is going to be a special one because of Paris-Brest-Paris. Let's talk about our goals for this year, ride reports, as well as PBP talk (for those planning on participating).

For me, it's going to be complicated. For the regular Audax Malaysia Randonneurs brevets, I won't try to do everything like last year but will still be attempting the SR series at the minimum, and that is primarily for the qualification to go to Paris. I'll be using my BRM1000 ride from 2018 as prequalification for PBP (whenever that is open), but there's a bit of complication in terms of logistics. Air travel and accommodation I can deal with somehow, but family scheduling will be tricky so while I'll still register and hope for the best, I have to consider that something might clash and prevent me from going in August, no matter how remote the chances may be. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, as the saying goes.

Aside from the randonneuring scene, I was also thinking of joining the Powerman duathlon in March. Only problem is, I'm not much of a runner and so far, I've only done two 3km runs at a relatively slow pace so... I'll have to see how fast I can train up to 10+10km before the registration closing date to decide if it's a thing I really want to do.

And that's about it for my plans. First brevet of the season (for me, at least) will be a hilly 300k at the beginning of December. Here's hoping to be in Paris in August 2019!

I'm still waffling a bit, but I'm leaning towards PBP. I was hoping something on the US calendar would be super-tempting (there's some intriguing 1000ks but not as much in the 1200k slot that appeals) and I could avoid international travel for my first 1200k, but there's nothing that particularly appeals and works with my schedule. My husband's kind of excited about a France vacation, too.)

My tentative plan is to try to make it to the Central Florida brevet week to get a bunch of my qualifiers done early (especially the 600k) as the NER 600k is the absolute last qualifying weekend, so I want it to be a training ride, not a qualifier. So ideally I'd end up doing two full series -- the NER one and the Florida one, plus the brevet week would give me more confidence in my ability to keep going day after day, since riding a 1500k in 7 days is easier than 1200k in 4 but it's closer than a normal series spread out over months.

I'm also organizing two rides -- the annual NER overnight 200k (will be RUSA-sanctioning only, date isn't firm yet) and reviving an older NER 200k/300k route (Lake Champlain) to have yet more ACP qualifying events. Hoping to figure out a way I can preride that one without too much hassle/expense as it starts quite a ways from home.

My husband's training for a 100 mile ultramarathon run, so we'll both be kind of overly focused this summer.

My primary goal for 2019 is to complete a 300K. At the end of most 200K rides I've done thus far, I was more than ready to be done riding for the day. I have been pushing the envelope a bit as a friend has a 200K perm that starts 4 miles from my house. And it is actually a 211K route so by the time I ride from my house, do the route, and ride home, I've put in 141 miles (226K). I have done a 200K on a Saturday followed by a 100K on a Sunday a couple of times. But I still haven't found saddle nirvana yet in spite of trying several different saddles as well as cycling short combinations.

I'm thinking the 300K I will do will be the one my club is holding on 6/29. That will minimize the time spent riding in the dark. I'm a slow rider.

I always feel wiped out at the end of any ride 200k or longer. Funny how that works. I remember finishing a 200k a couple weeks before PBP 2011 and I was pretty worn out. I was wondering how I was going to finish a 1200k, but I had a good ride on PBP. On my first 300k, I remember cresting a hill just before a control thinking that it was only 100k to the finish, and that wasn't going to be a problem because I had done that so many times before. And I was right, it wasn't a problem.

I will have to remember that. I can't tell you how many times when I was doing long trail runs (marathon or 50K) when I would get to that point where it was ONLY 5K or 10K to the finish and I'd think that anyone could walk a 5K/10K. Of course in races of those distances my legs were always hurting like heck by the 20 mile mark, if not sooner.

I'm thinking about the PacTour brevet series down in Tucson... there's also the Florida brevet week but I'd rather see someplace a bit different. I'm still kind of on the fence about PBP...

Just planning to get lots of riding in. I just hit K-hound for 2018, and hope to repeat in 2019. No plans or interest in PBP.
We've got a 1200k planned in September in north Texas (Hound Dog 1200k), and I'll be riding that in sections through the year finalizing the route. Hoping to ride Day 1 this Friday and Saturday.

Have done a few 100 mile charity events in the past. I'm going to attempt my 1st 200K this year.
Maybe the Ronkokoma 200; or an event in New Jersey. It's a bit harder to do these events; no car,
family/work schedule, etc. Also; I want to use one of my folders. :)
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/952/2...cd6f8d01ba.jpg
2018 FIVE BORO BIKE TOUR by 1nterceptor, on Flickr
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5552/...32e1ecf7b1.jpg
100 Miles(160 Km.) on a Brompton by 1nterceptor, on Flickr

PBP is the focus for 2019. SR series with the Oregon Randonneurs, keep the R-12 going, and ride a few perm pops with newbies.

A friend I drew into randonneuring a couple years ago is doing his first PBP, so I'm torn between riding with him and going for a fast time for myself.

As for training, I need "more wattage, less cottage", as Susan O says. Gotta hit the trainer and bypass the brews over the winter.

My plan for 2019 is pretty vague at this point. Even with the calendar published, all the events seem unreal to me.

That said, I'm hoping to do the NJ Randonneurs SR series or possibly the PA Randonneurs one while continuing with monthly randonnees. In addition to those, I will do at least one flèche, and probably a 1000 km ride somewhere.

A friend had asked me if I'd like to do the Catskills SR600 permanent, and I agreed, but we have not set a date.*

Finally, I hope to do all the populaires that I can. I wish more of these events were offered. I will probably do a bunch of them as permanents, though I'd much prefer calendared rides.

PBP is not in my plans, but I look forward to hearing about it from those of you who undertake it!

this is my plan. It's not working right now though.

I want to ride PBP and a 1000k. The GLR 1000k in July looks nice. Maybe k-hound

LOL about the "more wattage, less cottage" comment. This is a really tough time of year to be bypassing brews or other treats. Says the woman who made chocolate mousse yesterday and a lemon cake today in anticipation for Thanksgiving dinner. I really don't think the populaires I plan to ride next weekend will offset those treats.

My focus this year has been less on brevets and more on centuries and social rides (many of my centuries bracketed a much shorter social ride with others). I am up to 27 centuries for 2018 so far, as many as I did in all of 2017 and November isn't over yet!

Since becoming a Randonneur I have yet to achieve SR status: I have attempted a 600 km four times and always DNFed because I became too sleepy.

That would have to change for PBP, but even though my randonneuring friends have urged me to aim for it since I speak some French and might help them participate, I am not sure if I will even sign up for a 600 this year. I have to say, I really enjoyed the 400 km I did the last few years, but anything beyond that it becomes difficult for me to ride fast enough to build up enough of a time buffer to be able to sleep enough to not turn into a zombie whereas with a 400 I can more or less stay awake for 26+ hours and finish it that way.

To really commit to SR as goal (and by extension, PBP), I'd probably have to sign up for multiple rides of 300, 400 and 600 in case of bad weather or clashes with my business travel schedule and I'm not that committed.

My plan for 2019 is to ride my favourite 200 km brevets, probably just do one each of 300 and 400 and then spend the rest of the season riding with friends without time limits again...

Go for it! If you can do a century, you can ride 200 km too! The only question is if you can do it in 13 1/2 hours, but for most people fit enough to ride a century that is perfectly doable.

As to riding it on your Bike Friday PakIT or your Brompton, that should not be an issue if both bikes fit you well. For my first four Randonneuring seasons I rode all my brevets on a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket with 20" (ETRTO 451) wheels and my first brevet ever was a 300 km, because I signed up too late in the season (by then the early 200s were already full). Even my first successful 400 km was on the Bike Friday. People have finished PBP on Bike Fridays before.

Most likely you'll have a more limited range of gears on those two bikes than I had on the 3x10 BF Pocket Rocket, but it all depends on your legs and what the route is like. I have since upgraded the BF to 2x11 (Shimano R7000) and have the exact same gear range as on my big bike, the Elephant Bikes NFE, just not as much choice on wider and/or more supple tires.

I'm thinking basically the same thing, I would really like to finish a 300K this year.

After looking through all of the GLR rides, I definitely want to hit as many of the 200Ks as I can this year and get more proficient with this whole long distance thing.

Then, if not the 6/29 Turtle 300K, I would really love to do the Upper Door Tour 300K, it looks like a really wonderful route! If that doesn't work out, then I would at least like to do the Chocolate Chicken 120K up there.

I read Michelle's description of the GLR calendar as having a really tough series early for people going to France and an easier series later. The numbers she was quoting for climbing were pretty outrageous, even for someone who lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania. If that is a concern, best to make sure before registering. Personally, I'm looking for an easy 600k, but I'll probably get stuck doing one that ends up being a sufferfest.

[QUOTE=unterhausen;20670089]I read Michelle's description of the GLR calendar as having a really tough series early for people going to France and an easier series later./QUOTE]

If the event has the adjective "Bleeding" in the name, then it will be a sufferfest. If the event has the adjective "Psychedlic" in the name, then it will be much kinder on your knees. The "Puff the Magic 600K" on 6/29 is in Psychedelic series.

Planning to ride the GLR 200k opener in Evanston, then the Bleeding 300, 400 & 600k. Pre-ride the Dark Chocolate Cow 1,000k and volunteer for the event and some of the psychedelic series rides. The dates for PBP don't work for me so that will have to wait at least another 4 years. Hope to see some of you IRL again this year.

In 2013, i did the New Jersey 600k thinking they always did the easy route through the pine barrens. It turned out that ride was the route through the catskills, which is very climby. One feature of that ride was a group intervention with a rider that was going to dnf with less than 20 miles to go (and very little climbing left). I was thinking about doing their 600k this year and hoping they do the pine barrens route. But I might end up with DC or Eastern PA instead.

I think iTrod and I will do the Million Meters of Chocolate Milk 1000k

I heard that the NJ Randonneurs are going to do a "flat series" this spring, and the 'East Creek 600' will be pretty flat. I haven't seen the route, but it probably starts at Hightstown and the places listed (Browns Mills, Salem, Newfield, Ocean City, Eldora, Hammonton, Vincentown) are all in the southern part of the state. So it will definitely be flat.

If you want a really flat 600K Randonneurs Ontario is having one out of Windsor, Ontario which is a super-flat area... the windsor 400k only has 541m of climbing and there's not really a lot of hills in the next 100km in any direction. Our schedule isn't posted so I don't know when it is happening but I'd guess June. Probably a bit too much a drive from PA though. Other ontario 600s start in Toronto and aren't as flat but also probably not as hilly as PA is. There's a devil's week happening out of Toronto next year too... end of May I think.

And if you want a hilly 600k tune-up before PBP (or a last-minute qualifier), the NER one is the very last weekend of qualifying and is like 20-21k feet of climbing. It's flatter than the old NER one by about 1000 feet, but that's not saying that much. I'm planning to do it but not as my PBP-qualifying 600k, because I do not expect to be able to sleep on it and finish under the limit, so it will be an adventure. I've ridden a lot of the course on various rides and it's beautiful.

The Central NY one was my first 600k this year and it has 13k feet climbing -- a bunch of rollers (especially at the start and finish), two big gentle climbs barely steeper than a false flat, and some big swoopy downhills. And great pavement for almost all of it, which was a pleasant change from New England. Really nice route, definitely recommended for something not too hard, though it probably doesn't line up with my schedule this year.

I mentioned somewhere above that I'm planning to do a 1000 km brevet somewhere in 2019, and by "somewhere" I mean I don't know where or when. Obviously it has to be somewhere I can get. Less obviously, I'm looking for something that covers some ground, see some changes in the landscape. I mean, a route that starts each day at one place, and ends it a another one. Not the same place, if you get my drift. A big loop, or a point to point. Not what they call a "cloverleaf."

I understand that having all the riders and volunteers stay in the same hotel four nights in a row makes for manageable logistics, I understand the attraction to an organizer who reasons, "we can do this, and it's better to do this than to do nothing." Yes .That's good logic.

But that's not the logic that makes me want to ride a route. To speak plainly, I'm not interested.

So... for those of you with intel: can you direct me to the1000 km rides that aren't a cloverleaf? I know about LOL and it is a great ride, but I've already done that one.

R

I haven't done this route but I think it's on the Ontario schedule for next year: Manitoulin 1000. I've ridden about 600km of it though, the first bit on Manitoulin up to Espanola on tours, and the last 300 I've done on a few brevets, a fleche and on tours too... and the bit between Parry Sound and Huntsville is on the Granite Anvil and it's really nice riding. Once you're off Manitoulin Island there's about 500km of Canadian shield country so lots of trees and granite everywhere. If you're lucky you'll see moose or even a bear. The transition back to southern farmland is neat and then last bit of the ride is along the Niagara Escarpment so there some climbing but nothing too intense.

The first time they ran this route there was some limited support and given the remote nature of the ride they will likely be some supported stops along the way. I think there were 6 riders that did it on the first go and they all had a good ride. Last time it ran on the first weekend of August so if that happens again I'm not sure that I'd do it and go to PBP but I've wanted to do this ride since it's pretty local. It does involve a a ferry ride across part of Lake Huron the night before and leaving your car at the finish.