unterhausen

I would say that the vast majority of 1000 and 1200k randonnees have at least one loop that comes back to the same hotel. The proposed Northern Virginia 1000k does. When I rode the Taste of Carolina, the first overnight was at the start hotel, then there was control at a hotel in Lumberton at the 600k mark, and then an overnight at that same hotel the last night. A big advantage to this is that it accommodates supporting the horrible people that finish in 65 hours. A lot of these longer rides are essentially out and back, so there will be 50% repetition, more or less. I certainly thought I had gone somewhere on ToC.

I guess I can see not wanting to do a cloverleaf, but exploring a region thoroughly has its appeal as well. And if you finish a cloverleaf 1000k, you will have the extra glory of not DNFing when it's the easiest thing in the world to just sleep late one day.

GadgetGirlIL

From a volunteer's perspective, a cloverleaf is much less exhausting for us. I think it took me a full week to recover from volunteering at the Mac & Cheese. Although a rider who has also volunteered at these long events told me that riding a 1200K is easier than being a volunteer.

kingston 

It's a huge difference. We needed ~35 volunteers to support the mac & cheese and will be able do the million meters with maybe half-a-dozen. The other option would be to host a super-limited support point-to-point or loop and just leave everyone on their own to figure out food and sleeping arrangements, but that has some safety implications, and I think most people prefer a fully-supported ride with food and a place to sleep every night. We're doing a 600k loop this year that we have never done before. It will be interesting to see if people prefer that to the 400+200 clover leaf that we usually ride. I'm planning to attempt that ride straight through, but there's a good bit of climbing so we'll see how that goes. I've been known to cat-nap on the side of the road.

unterhausen

I would have been perfectly happy if all of Mac 'n' Cheese was in Door county.

I am not sure the 600k loop has much appeal. OTOH, the Catskills 600k I mentioned above was a loop, and there really was no appreciable difference between that and one that returns to the start for the overnight. Actually, on that route the start/finish is not in a good area for cycling, so not going back there was a bonus. I am not convinced that a 600k prepares people for PBP, I know it didn't help me much. Same for night start 200k's. I had ridden 4 600k's before PBP and the whole thing was a shock. Except for waking up after riding 400k, that I had done before. What I wish is that I had ridden a domestic 1200k before I went to France.

clasher

All of the Ontario 600s are loops... there's a 1000K that is an out-and-back from Ottawa to Quebec City but that only doubles up on the first/last 200k. The new 1000K out of Toronto that ran this year is also a loop and I don't know if anyone did drop bags for it but there's plenty of places to stay along the way. My first experience with a dropbag and hotel on a 600 was this year on Devil's week where I appreciated the two hours of sleep and having a shower. Some of the Ottawa routes had to be partially supported since the small towns are disappearing along with the services at those places. My first 600 we didn't book a hotel and instead just took short naps at two of the controls. Outside of Devil's week and the rides that go into northern Ontario it seems we're mostly doing unsupported loops and making a decent go of it here.

If I can save up the money to make it down to Tucson it looks like the 600K in their brevet week is just the 400K and 200K stuck together so that'll be kind of weird to do the same rides twice.

unterhausen

Happy Valley to Ottowa is 7 hours and Toronto is 5 hours, so it's not unreasonable. Not sure I would travel that far for a 600k though, and next year I probably would want to be doing some other ride.

There was a Canadian 1000k (Courer de Bois?) I was interested in last year, but it didn't work out.

clasher

From my place to Ottawa is about 5 hours but I did that for a whole devil's week. That Coureur de Bois is on my "one day I'd like to" list as well... it seems to run most years but always seems to be on the July long weekend which makes getting a place in Ottawa a pain. I'd like to get down and try a PA ride... only ever driven through parts of the state but I liked the looks of it.

rhm

This year i sure did spend a lot of time in cars, getting to brevets and getting home again. I dislike everything about that, but I suppose it's better than flying. Next year I would like to rely more heavily on public transportation for getting to brevets. I realize it may be impossible most of the time, but at least I will investigate the options.

i should be able to ride to a lot of the NJ rides from home.

unterhausen

If you can get to Lewistown PA via Amtrack, we can get you to brevets west of us so you're not always dependent on the same people. Might be expensive though, and I'm not sure they take bikes on that line.

I always wanted to ride to the hostel for a brevet, unfortunately that's no longer an option. People from NJ and NY used to do that. Doing the same with a hotel is a lot more $. I think I could design a route to the hostel that's about 150 miles. The problem is getting back into the prevailing winds. 225 miles of tailwinds is the whole point of my fleche route.

rhm

I'm going to be working on a bike better suited to public transit. I'm going to try Rinko, and I will try setting up a folding bike for longer distances.

Amtrak is frustrating. On most lines bikes are allowed only as checked baggage, which means you can only get on or off at a station with baggage handling services. This severely limits the utility of the whole system. Trenton, seven miles from home, has no baggage handling. So to use Amtrak I have to take a commuter train to either NYC or Philadelphia, and this adds two hours travel time.

Meanwhile, while we wait to hear what location PA Randonneurs will choose for this year's flèche, I'm hoping (but not optimistic) it's a place with decent public transit options.

unterhausen

The rumors I have heard don't look promising on the transit front, unfortunately

rhm

Yes, that accords with the rumors I've heard as well.

But the Berkshire Brevets are doing a flèche that same weekend, and their location seems to be about ten miles from an Amtrak station that has baggage facilities. Hard to beat that!

unterhausen

does rinko work for Amtrack? I was impressed by the room available for luggage on Amtrack cars, but I don't know if a rinko-ed bike would fit.

rhm

No, at least not if you play by the rules. According to their website, the maximum size of a carry-on Is 50 lbs and 28 x 22 x 14 inches. That's a pretty unwieldy item, but not compatible with a rinkoed bike.

What you can actually fit on the train (without making yourself unpopular) is another question; and then there's the question of what the conductor will let you get away with.

I am going to try using Amtrak at some point during the next year, not expecting it to be the answer to all my problems. But I am pretty sure I can bring a rinkoed bike on NJ Transit during rush hour to get myself to an Amtrak station where there is baggage handling, which frees up the options.

Buses are a better option. There are more of them, they go more places, and when it comes to the question of what fits into the luggage compartment, the final decision is left to the driver. Coming back to NYC from Greenville SC after the eclipse, my bus driver looked at my bike and said "ten dollar." I handed him a twenty and indicated that no change was expected. I think that's the best way to ensure that bikes are welcome.

In my past experience, Rinko is not necessary on buses. Even so, I suspect a rinkoed bike will be easier to deal with when improvising, using Uber or whatever.

unterhausen

serendipitously, someone posted an email to the ibob list about this after I asked my question above. Folding bikes on Amtrack have to be smaller than 34" x 15" x 48", but they also have to fold. Which is a little silly. I think a Rinko bike will fit in those dimensions pretty easily. Why they care if it folds or not is beyond me.

samkl 

kingston 

Tell all your friends about it. We're running brevets in Illinois for the first time in a long time in an attempt to expose more Chicagoans to Randonneuring. It would be great to have a big turn-out at the opener in Evanston.

abshipp 

I'm also planning on the Evanston Opener, and as many of the shorter rides in the Psychedelic Rando series as I can as well.

If everything works out like I hope it does, I would love for my first 300K to be the Upper Door Tour.

Really great looking rides this year!

atwl77

My hilly 300k brevet is happening this weekend and for this ride, I'm going to try and follow a very disciplined time management routine of staying on the bike most of the time, limiting off-bike time to 1 hour or less. The cue sheet is out and it seems like the two checkpoints are spaced almost-but-not-quite evenly apart (91km and 217km) so I'm thinking those are the only two places I will be stopping for a maximum 30 minutes each (to stamp brevet card, toilet stop, refill water, buy food that can be carried/eaten on the bike).

Well, at least that's the ambitious plan but no idea how well that will hold. Part of this push is because I want to see if I will actually be faster going slow-and-steady all the way, and also because I'm hoping to get over the final hill before dark. At the moment it's a lot of wishful thinking on my part... but I'll see how things go this weekend.

joewein

The worldwide BRM calendar is online at the ACP website. Just select the country and/or club name, distance etc. to see what's available in the new season!

atwl77

Nice, didn't realize this existed.

atwl77

Did my 300K. Elapsed time 15:56:51, moving time 14:05:29. Quite a bit over my initial target of 30mins per checkpoint, but still a whole lot better than all my past rides. I had to go through a lot of suffering to complete the ride though.

I think I screwed up my nutrition; in my mind I would grab some bread at the checkpoints and save time by eating on the bike, supplemented by a couple of cereal bars and energy gels stuffed into my pockets but turns out that wasn't anywhere near enough and I was paying for it halfway up the first major climb after 100km. I don't think I hit what you can call a 'bonk', but my legs were sore and I had to resort to spinning up at my lightest gears until I reached the second checkpoint at 217.8km. By that time I had accumulated only 40+ minutes of stopped time and I figured I should really spend a bit more time here to rest and have an actual proper meal.

So I had some chicken rice along with a cup of coffee and a bottle of coke. Also spent a couple of minutes massaging my muscles. What a huge difference that did. Legs no longer hurting and able to climb at a much better pace, but I think I've learnt a valuable lesson here to not skimp on nutrition planning. From this experience I think I can try to optimize even more of my off-bike time in the upcoming brevets, but at the same time also make sure I do not neglect proper meals and a bit of rest when necessary.

My ride video here doesn't really show the amount of suffering that I went through, but for anyone who's interested to see it: https://tinyurl.com/yboz67xp

GadgetGirlIL

Congratulations on your finish! Have you thought about what else you could eat while in motion? Just reading what you tried to get by on left me feeling hungry. I recently added a Mountain Feed Bag (https://www.revelatedesigns.com/inde...ountainFeedbag) to my setup so that it is easier for me to eat a sandwich while riding as well as other snacks. It works better than my top tube pouch whose lid with the velcro closing has been known to pop open at inopportune times and leave some of my food scattered on the road.

atwl77

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not really a fan of bags that attach to the handlebar. They either get in the way of a hand position (i.e. the tops), or get in the way of the gadgets (light, bike computer, camera). I usually get by with stuffing my food in my jersey pocket, although this time I had my tools taking up one pocket slot which limited my carry options. When I ride longer brevets I tend to have a bigger saddle bag where my tools will reside, freeing up a pocket for more food and gels.

GadgetGirlIL

Completely understand the premium of handlebar real estate! I've managed to squeeze in mounts for 2 headlights, an eTrek GPS mount, a daytime flasher, and inclinometer along with the mounting strap for this bag! My bike computer is mounted on the stem of my handlebars now as my Shimano Flightdeck finally stopped behaving properly after 15 years of use.

You might say I have a lot of redundancy! And you are right, but I've had rides where only 1 of my 3 mileage tracking gizmos was working the entire time.