Ride Report: SIR Summer Populaire. The original plan was to do a perm pop here in Portland with a buddy, who was going to earn his Mondial award about 24 miles into the ride. But just before the Wednesday cutoff we decided to join the SIR scheduled pop instead. Both of us are working toward a RUSA Cup and needed a calendered populaire, but it did mean 6 hours driving round-trip, and a 4:30AM wakeup. The route was urban, featuring Seattle bike trail infrastructure. I planned to tootle along, but ended up riding a bit harder than that.
Route
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39849071
The forecast looked like 50-60 degrees with rain likely, but the rain situation looked better and better as we got closer. Turns out we had threatening looking skies, a few sprinkles, and even some sunshine. The route was flat, we had a bit of wind, but overall really quite nice. We stayed with a group for the first 25 miles or so, then I backed off the pace to increase the enjoyment. Actually I think the trails are mostly 15mph max anyway. At around 40 miles we stopped at a farm market for a quick bite; I had some kind of Indian inspired deep-fried mashed sweet potato sliders, and my buddy had pot stickers. Yummy. If I'd been alone I'd have burned another hour trying to navigate the trail system (even with GPS), but my buddy is from Seattle, and we had people up ahead much of the day. 10 miles to go we caught up with a recumbent rider, just in time for some 'bent friendly rollers. That was fun, as I recalled my many thousands of 'bent miles; rollers are a blast. The end featured riding the bike trail along I-90 over Lake Washington, then climbing up through the neighborhoods to the finish. Nice fun ride, easy 100k. Now I just need a 1000k for both the RUSA Cup and ACP Randonneur 10000.