atwl77

Recently someone posted their ride report on next week's BRM300 which made me curious. Why would anyone want to ride the same route twice unless you are the organizer scouting out the route? And even if you were the organizer you won't be riding twice anyway, you'll be driving between checkpoints on event day itself. But on the other hand, it gives all the other participants a first-hand account on what the route looks like and what to expect, which can be especially useful from the perspective of a cyclist (instead of just driving the route where you don't get any idea of effort/feel/etc).



Is it a "taking one for the team" kind of thing, perhaps?

Thoughts?

unterhausen

It's a really, really good idea to make sure the route doesn't have any problems. My club has routes that have been used many times and there still is almost always a pre-ride. Occasionally there will not be one for a 200k. It also allows for volunteers to ride for credit and then help the day of the event. The ACP has rules for pre-rides being ridden for credit.

atwl77

Yeah, I get it if you're part of the organizing team (or volunteers)... and even then they'd only ride the route once and not actually do it a second time during the BRM itself. But for the regular participants?

Machka 

As an organiser, it is a very good idea to ride the route before the event. In fact, Audax Australia allows for "vollies" rides where organisers and volunteers can ride routes in advance to check things out.

In addition to that, I/we have, on several occasions, ridden portions of the route.

We have a 600K event coming up in a few weeks. I have created three permanents from that route ... two 160 km perms, and one 200 km perm. This allows us, and whoever else comes along, the opportunity to ride portions of the 600K route. For us, it means we can check roads and signs and things ... for others it means that they can, if they want, see what portions of the 600K route look like before actually tackling the 600K.


As for participants riding a route in advance ... they may be able to do it as a Perm or DIY. If they are going for an R1200 (?) or the YRR, they will need an "official" 200K ride minimum each month. So if one particular month doesn't have a calendar event, they might decide to ride a calendar event as a Perm or DIY and thus get their qualifying ride.


And why not ride a route twice? If it is a route you like, you might enjoy riding it a second time.


Back in my Manitoba Randonneur days, they used to run two 200K events on back-to-back weekends or maybe with one weekend in between. Same route for each. The idea was that because the rides had to be held so early in spring, there was a chance one might be snowed out and cancelled. But if both were on, I'd ride both.

joewein

My club always pre-rides the route by staff, 1 or 2 weeks before event day and posts one or more reports on the website. The final cue sheet and GPS track is not posted on the site until the pre-ride has been completed.

It usually catches roadworks, road closures, issues with restaurants or convenience stores that may or may not be open, etc. but also gives staff a chance to get credit towards SR, PBP qualification etc. if they can't participate on event day because they'll be travelling by car.

I have privately pre-ridden brevet routes or parts thereof on a number of occasions, usually at less than event speeds. The first 300 I rode I partially pre-rode in three 200+ km sections. Both times I completed a 400, I pre-rode it a few weekends before. It gives me a chance to take pictures of the course without worrying about PC closing times. Especially for the longer events, having recently ridden the course to me makes it appear shorter and less intimidating on event day. All I have to do is to ride what I rode before, only a little quicker (which will be easier when there are other cyclists who may draft each other). Psychologically it makes a huge difference to not be doing the ride for the first time when everything counts.

StephenH

People vary. I know some people that would just as soon sit in a gym spinning pedals as they would actually bicycle somewhere. And if you think like that, then there's nothing to doing the same route over and over.


Some of our local brevets are also perms, and in some cases longer brevets are broken up into multiple perms, and that lets the organizers ride it ahead of time, then again on the brevet day.


Some people do brevets and perms as training rides for other events, and they may not mind riding the same route over and over again.

Machka 

Here in Australia, we've also got annual kilometre awards of 1000 km of audax events, 2500 km of audax events, etc.

A person could ride a favourite 300 km as a perm and then ride the 300 km as an actual event and have 600 km toward one of those awards.

atwl77

Interesting insights, thanks.


My local Audax doesn't have permanents yet, not even Fleches (website says coming soon 2019) so maybe some routes may get popular enough to be ridden multiple times if/once they start having those. But anyways, this upcoming BRM300's route isn't going to be that pleasant -- rolling hills, dogs, unlit roads at night -- so I'll have to be careful and be extra-extra-extra visible for this ride.

Machka 

I try to design my routes on unlit roads at night ... quiet country roads where it's just you and the darkness.

Generally speaking, I prefer that to areas with light when tend to also have a lot of night traffic.

atwl77

Yeah, quiet with little to no traffic is always more enjoyable.

anotherbrian

I wanted a bit of adventure on my first time doing the San Francisco Randonneurs 400K and 600K last year, so I didn't pre-ride those (the first/last 100K'ish are on roads I'd been on many times before, so I knew what to expect on those). I did read peoples ride reports from prior years to get an idea of what to expect, and I did pre-load my GPS with the control points so always had an idea how far I had left to go to the next stop, but I didn't want to do so much preparation that the ride would feel like a grind to get the mileage credit.

Some of the tough California Double Centuries (200mi; Devil Mountain Double, Alta Alpina) I did pre-ride segments of, because they had so much climbing, or time limits I wasn't confident in being able to meet, and wanted to know what to expect and where.

There are only so many routes nearby, so I've ridden many brevets more than once. I do own a permanent for the months there isn't anything on the schedule, and this year I may actually do a RUSA R-12, but I don't think I'd be interested in doing that same route more than once or twice a year.

I've read that people doing RUSA K-Hound's (10,000K/year) will set of 100K permanents to/from their office so they can rack up official mileage on their commutes. Dunno that I'm there yet.