ThermionicScott 

Well, this one was a bust, too, at least from an official perspective. The weather forecast was for strong, gusting winds directly out of the south and a thunderstorm, possibly several, during the day. My buddy and I figured the wind would suck, but if we finished quickly enough, we might beat the worst of the storms.

So we took off at about 7am into partly-cloudy skies and a benign sidewind. After a few miles, we turned south and encountered the headwind. Still fueled up on a continental breakfast and coffee, it seemed tolerable, but then the first thunderstorm blew our way and pelted us with sleet. We took turns pulling and realized we would need to stay on top of our calories and water if we were going to finish this ride, so we pulled over and snacked a few times. We expected that the westward stretch (and the eastward stretch much later in the ride) would be a relief, but the 20 MPH sidewind turned out to be unusually taxing.

A northward stretch let us relax and take it easy for a while, riding 20 MPH without much effort. Another westward stretch, and we decided that we deserved a beer at the control for our efforts. Our spirits restored, we went west a while longer before turning north again. The tailwind was nice to have, but it was getting strong enough to be a little nerve-wracking for me. About 82 miles in, we turned east and struggled far more with the sidewinds than we had before. We needed to continuously lean to the right, with lots of little corrections for gusts. And all to maintain a 10-12 MPH pace. At about the century mark, we started having doubts about even being able to finish the ride within the time limit, since the final stretch was going to be straight into that now-25 MPH (gusting to 40 MPH) wind. Safety was also a concern, as holding a line on the edge of the road was difficult. So we decided to push the last few miles to the next control and call an Uber. (The idea being that one of us could just go back to the start and retrieve one of our vehicles, each having room on its rack for both bikes.)

When we couldn't raise an Uber or Lyft, we realized that riding back might be our only option. We had slugged down a bunch of calories and rested for a few minutes, so we hit the bikes and ground out a few more slow miles with insane sidewinds before turning directly into the wind and watching our pace plummet to 6-8 MPH. As expected, we saw dark skies ahead and my buddy's phone announced a tornado watch for the town we had just passed. Hmm... We contemplated taking shelter at a farm just ahead when a pickup drove by and the driver let us know about the tornado watch, and would we like a ride where we're going? As randonneurs, we get to be pretty good at tuning out hints from the universe that we should stop what we're doing, but this one was too big to ignore. So, my friend and I shrugged and said "Sure!" We loaded up our bikes in the back, and the super-nice couple's dogs attempted to lick us to death as the next downpour began. What a relief it was to have decisively pulled the plug!

So, while we are frustratingly no closer to PBP 2023 pre-registration, we were pretty sanguine about the whole thing. We survived, had no injuries, and had gotten a damned good workout. It was my buddy's longest ride to date at 115 miles, and his enthusiasm to try more brevets had not been crushed. And I think my bike-handling skills improved, too. My confidence with steep hills and strong winds wanes if I don't exercise it, so it's good to have experiences like this.

I think our next step will be to do another 200k to officially get one in the bag, and then look at our options for 300s and 400s in the area. For PBP 2023 pre-registration, is anyone thinking that a 600k might be necessary to get in?