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Million Meters 2: The Dark Chocolate Cow (1000) July 12-15, 2019

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Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling Do you enjoy centuries, double centuries, brevets, randonnees, and 24-hour time trials? Share ride reports, and exchange training, equipment, and nutrition information specific to long distance cycling. This isn't for tours, this is for endurance events cycling

Million Meters 2: The Dark Chocolate Cow (1000) July 12-15, 2019

Old 06-16-19, 01:18 PM
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GadgetGirlIL
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Million Meters 2: The Dark Chocolate Cow (1000) July 12-15, 2019

Considering a 1000K this summer? The Great Lakes Randonneurs is offering the Million Meters 2: The Dark Chocolate Cow out of Green Bay Wisconsin, July 12-15.

Registration closes July 1st, so sign up today! We also offer a 300K option on Saturday, July 13 that heads up to Door County. Plus there are 100K populaires also on Saturday and Sunday for local riders.

For more information, please visit:
Great Lakes Randonneurs - Million Meters and Green Bay Getaway

or contact our RBA Michele Brougher, rba@greatlakesrando.org


I will be there volunteering for the entire ride as well as riding the populaires offered on Saturday and Sunday. Come up and join me!

Regina
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Old 06-16-19, 06:49 PM
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unterhausen
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I really wanted to ride this, but I couldn't talk iTrod into it. Door county was a really enjoyable part of Mac 'n' Cheese
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Old 07-15-19, 03:30 PM
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Just finished this ride last night. The route was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and the volunteers were phenomenal.
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Old 07-15-19, 08:04 PM
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Originally Posted by kingston
Just finished this ride last night. The route was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and the volunteers were phenomenal.
Amen! Great riding with you.
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Old 07-16-19, 03:23 PM
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Cool, Congratulations! I look forward to a fuller ride report!
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Old 07-18-19, 03:35 PM
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Originally Posted by rhm
Cool, Congratulations! I look forward to a fuller ride report!
Here you go!

The Million Meters of Milk is a cloverleaf 1,000k with a home-base in Green Bay
Day 1 – 271 miles
Day 2 – 204 miles
Day 3 – 154 miles

I started the season this year with the Bleeding Rando Series, which were the hardest rides I have ever done. Probably deserves it's own ride report, but I was too exhausted after those to even think about it. There were two other riders besides me who completed the series and while we didn’t ride the whole series together, we rode together for a lot of miles and have shared some amazing experiences on those rides. The Great Lakes Randonneuring (GLR) Club RBA calls us the Bleeding Randos, and we ended up riding together for the entire Million Meters of Milk, which made it a lot more enjoyable ride.

Day 0
Everyone met at the hotel in Green Bay at 5 on Thursday night for the mandatory rider meeting. The RBA went through the routes for the next three days with helpful tips on the info controls, where to get food & water, etc. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes then everyone went to get something to eat and get to bed early for the 4 AM rollout on Friday.

Day 1
After the volunteers fed us breakfast, most of the riders rolled out at 4AM and we were on our way for the first day of the MMM which would take us through the central part of Wisconsin, Northwest of Green Bay through rolling hills with views of a lot of dairy farms. The group at the front started out at a fast and easy pace in the mid-teens. Around 10 miles in, we were passed by a couple of guys who got a late start who were training for a Charly Miller time at PBP. I wanted to let them go, but the other two Bleeding Randos wanted to ride with them so we quickened the pace to the low twenties to hang on. We found out that the fast guys were planning to ride the first two days (475 miles) non-stop. After a while, we realized that we were on pace to get to the first control early, so we eased off a bit and still ended up getting in a few minutes early, which has never happened to me before. I always wondered what those opening times meant on the brevet card. I got an OJ and a receipt and was back on the bike quickly so I could soft pedal for a little while to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. A few minutes later they caught me, and we were hammering away around 20 mph again. Second control was another pretty efficient stop and the group was back on the road at the same pace. At 100 miles someone mentioned that we were 5h10m into the ride. Since I knew I couldn’t’ keep this up for three days, I was already thinking about hanging back at the third control so there was no temptation to try to keep up.

The third control was at the Dells of the Eau Claire. The RBA was planning to meet us there with lunch, but we were way earlier than she expected so nobody was there. We called her up and she said she was at least 30 minutes away. The Charly Miller guys took off, and the Bleeding Randos decided to wait for lunch. I really needed a break after starting that fast anyway. We waited almost an hour and still no RBA, so we decided to head back out. We cruised along at a more sustainable pace and stopped at a subway around 15 miles later for lunch. The RBA found us there while we were eating and signed our cards for the park control. We each ate half of our 12 inch subs and were back on the road. The mid-day heat was in the low-90’s so we stopped again 30 miles later to eat the second half of our subs at around the halfway point for the day. The rest of the day we settled into an easy rando pace, sharing the work among the three of us and finished the day around 11 with a moving average of 17.6 mph where I’m normally around 15 mph for a 400k with a lot less time off the bike than we had. So, while we rode a lot faster than I normally do, the elapsed time was about the same, which I thought was interesting, but not unexpected. The scenery was the usual Wisconsin farmland that we see on many of our GLR rides. A few of my NDS rear spokes were a little loose so I tightened those up quickly when we got back to the hotel. The RBA and volunteers had dinner for us at the hotel in Green Bay, so we got showers and food and went to bed.

Day 2
After the volunteers fed us breakfast, the Bleeding Randos rolled out at a few minutes after 6 AM for day 2 which would take us up to the top of Door County, a peninsula off the east coast of Wisconsin, and back to Green Bay. The weather was perfect, about 60 degrees at the start with light winds. The first control was a place called the Chocolate Chicken in Egg Harbor 64 miles in. We kept our steady rando pace and met up with a friend of mine on a recumbent who pre-rode the Mac-and-Cheese with me last year. He was on the 300k that shared most of the route with our ride. The scenery in southern Door county is very much like the rest of Wisconsin with rolling hills and a lot of farms. We stopped for lunch at the Chocolate Chicken which served sandwiches and breakfast burritos. We ran into the RBA and a couple of other riders who were doing a Populaire, and headed back out on the road.

Coming out of Egg Harbor, our course was the same as the Door County Triathlon which was running at the same time, so for about 15 miles we were passing a bunch of inexperienced triathletes on bikes along with some cheering from the spectators which was sort of funny. After the bike leg we had to weave our way through a crowd so we could ride with the runners for a few miles. After we were clear of the triathlon, we got to the last food stop for 50 miles, so we fueled up at a grocery store. One of the guys bought a case of water bottles for $2 which was only a few cents more than one 20 oz. bottle of water, so everyone stuffed a few bottles in our pockets for later.

Then it was on to Peninsula State Park which was a delightful ride through the woods with views of Green Bay (the body of water not the city). We ran into the RBA again at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse info control in the park. From the park we continued to Northport which is the northern most tip of door county before the ferry to Washington Island which is a bit further north. The northern half of door county is more touristy/summer home area with some short but steep hills and frequent views of the water. Traffic was generally light and drivers were mostly courteous.

From Northport we turned south for the return trip to Green Bay along the Lake Michigan side of Door County. The ride went along really nice roads with occasional views of the lake. One of the Bleeding Randos was starting to fade a bit so stopped for dinner in Jacksonport at around mile 138. From there it was another 20 miles to Sturgeon Bay where we stopped to fill our bottles and put on our reflective gear. We made good time to mile 185 when one of the Bleeding Randos hit the wall. We had to slow way down, and it took us almost two hours to ride the last 20 miles to the finish, where we arrived around 11 again. It was a tough way to end a really great day on the bike. My NDS spokes came loose again so I decided to spend the 20-30 minutes to tension and true the wheel instead of just tightening a few spokes like the night before. Another dinner and a shower and a plan to depart at 6:30 for the final day of riding.

Day 3
While I was feeling pretty good at breakfast, the other two Bleeding Randos were suffering a bit and didn’t seem to be looking forward to getting back on the bikes. The final day was forecast to have pretty stiff East-Southeast winds which meant headwinds in the morning riding South to Lake Winnebago and East over to Lake Michigan, with tailwinds heading North and East for the final two legs of the day. We lingered over breakfast and finally rolled out around 7 along the Fox River trail, which is a nice paved bike path along the Fox River out of Green Bay for about 10 miles, and we were really soft-pedaling it. I was worried that it was going to be a very long last day but decided to stick with the group since we had already ridden so far together. After we left the trail, the headwind started to be a lot more noticeable. I took the spot at the front and quickened the pace a bit to keep things moving. At the High Cliff State Park in the Northeast corner of Lake Winnebago we stopped to fill our water bottles for the 45-mile run into the wind over to Two Rivers on the shores of Lake Michigan. I was feeling strong enough to let the other guys draft the whole way over to Two Rivers, so we made decent time. The RBA had a surprise ice cream stop planned for us, but I found out later that we were too early and missed it. At Two Rivers, we turned North and the wind was now at our backs. It was a lot of fun to cruise along at a good pace without really working, with spectacular views of Lake Michigan all along the way. A few miles out of Two Rivers I realized that I left my phone at the control. About 25 miles out, one of our guys said he needed a quick nap, so we stopped in a little cemetery for a short snooze. We texted the RBA and called the control to arrange for one of the later riders to pick up my phone. A few miles later we hit Algoma, the last control, and headed West to Green Bay for the last 35 miles of the ride. We enjoyed a stiff tail wind for most of this leg and had an easy ride into Green Bay. The volunteers were there with dinner again, so we ate and chatted with the volunteers and greeted the rest of the riders as they came in. I packed my car for an early Monday morning departure and went to bed around 10.

If you ever have a chance to join one of our GLR Grand Randonnees, I highly recommend it. Our RBA and the volunteers are absolutely first-rate and make it so easy for the riders. Hope to see some of you at the Iron Porcupine next year.
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Old 07-20-19, 06:57 AM
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I agree about GLR, the Mac 'n' Cheese was the best run 1200k I have ridden
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