I rode New England Randonneurs' "ah Canada" 400k yesterday. That's a long drive for me, but I wanted to do a long ride and I haven't ridden in Vermont before.
Drove up on Friday, picked up another rider in NYC on the way. Left our motel room at 3AM yesterday to get to Woodstock VT in time for the 4:00 AM the start. Weather was perfect, too cold at the start, too hot in the middle of the day, too cold at the finish, can you beat that? Also a lot of tailwinds that created a pocket of hot stale air around me on some of the climbs. You just can't win!
This is a fast route with a lot of long gentle climbing. The cue sheet is two pages long. Several times we stayed on the same road for 20 or miles.
Despite many "moose crossing" signs I saw no moose, nor deer, nor indeed any wildlife at all. The scenery is spectacular, though.
I was the last rider to finish, in a bit over 20 hours. I thought I was pretty fast, but everyone else was faster.