Wine Country Popularie Pre-ride
Joshua Bryant writes "The course has no memorable climbs, but it doesn't have any pancake-flat portions either. In
short it's a great introduction to Randonneuring. The weather will likely be cold and rainy, but hey, this is the
Pacific Northwest and we don't hibernate for 9 months, do we?" He then goes on to describe the route including
wine stop suggestions, food alerts, and a good description of an easy to miss corner. This is a pre-ride report
to read.
Bikenfest
The Kramer has extends many thanks to all of the courageous riders who braved the weather forecast, dared a Kramer
brevet and tempted the Hood River Hops Fest and a special thanks to Paul Whitney for taking care of the Maryhill control.
His full summation titled Cold and Windy Road
has more.
Photos of the drier side of Bikenfest or as photographer Cecil-Anne put it "my photos from yesterday's Bikenfest - they are deceptive because I did not take any pictures while it was raining. And it rained quite a bit. At least on me, it did."
Climbing the Barlow Trail
Early reports on the Barlow Trail 300 are in, first from Geoff Swarts
Both riders reported GPS units recording over 12,000 feet of gain.
Mark provided
this profile.
Have you ever considered riding a brevet on a longtail? An extracycle?
David Parsons did and lived to tell the tale
of A Brevet Too Far. Ironically, he rode to the start, got 300K in and gave it up while in Government Camp.
All that was left was 4,000 feet of descending into Sandy. Read his report to find out why it wasn't a good idea.
Darting to Centralia
This ride report from Ann Schelert takes you on Team BicyclingNortwest.com's
journey from nonchalance to frenzy as the full time allotment is put to
varied uses. You might want to open up another window and
follow along with photos.
Two minutes to spare. Anxious, nervous, stressed, excited, elated, thrilled and satisfied…that's how we arrived at the end of our first-ever DART. Who would have thought that with a 13½ hour time frame that we’d show up with only 2 minutes to spare? We certainly didn't.
We started in downtown Portland at 6am. Well that's when we got the cards stamped. We actually started off with a leisurely breakfast and finally got on our bikes around 7:20am. Our first two checkpoints were in North Plains and Vernonia. It rained off and on the whole way to Vernonia but as we made the final descent into Vernonia the clouds finally broke and the sun came shining down upon us. We stopped for a second breakfast of bagels and oatmeal at the Black Bear Café and continued on to Longview.
We spent a couple of hours In Longview where we saw the internationally renowned Nutty Narrows squirrel bridge, a giant carved wooden squirrel, had a long lunch stop at The Olde World Cafe, and followed that up with coffee at Fusion. By the time we left we had 3 hours 45 minutes to ride 55 miles. Piece of cake? Maybe, but that all depends on the terrain you have to go over.
We stopped very briefly at the next two checkpoints: 1. Castle Rock – a local convenience store that also sells guns. Yes, guns. The gun store is as big as the convenience store. That's always a bit creepy. And 2. Boisfort – a sleeply little town/store with a yellow lab running around that may or may not growl at you.
Between Castle Rock and Centralia lay nearly 3000' of climbing. Someone on our team said all the climbing was in the first half of the ride. Ha ha! That was pretty funny. While we were in Longivew I estimated we could easily cover 55 miles in just under 4 hours. Let's just say that was starting to seem, mile by agonizing mile, less and less attainable. The climbs were steep and relentless and they just kept coming. Our team was strong but there was the question in everyone's mind if we would actually make it on time.
Finally we crossed over the I-5 into town with 20 minutes to spare and thought "Yes! We finally made it and we weren't late!" But in our somewhat exhausted daze, we quickly realized we were not in Centralia, we were in Chehalis. Oh no! But as homage to the Indian word for Chehalis, which means "gathering medicine spirit", we gathered up our courage, the adrenaline started flowing, and thrill of the day truly began.
In the descending darkness and seemingly endless amount of time it took to get there, we finally entered Centralia. It was almost as if some unseen hand guided us precisely to the final checkpoint where Susan was waiting for us with clock in hand. Whew! With her official stamp, our signatures, and spouses and other teams cheering us, we felt total satisfaction, accomplishment and relief at what we had just done. We had finished the ride in true DART fashion by using every available minute allotted to us. Incredible! Way to go Team BicyclingNorthwest.com, you guys are awesome!
Bikenfest
In other good news, John Kramer has announced Bikenfest 2009.
600 XTR - Tales from the eXperienced
Michael Johnson
is the first to get a report out. The honorable guy says that's wrong
"Geoff Swarts had the first." Michael was also first with photos. Leslie Larson was 2nd with a link.
It seems everyone else is still recovering. Rumors were right: Cecil has a Flickr set up too.
Winner for the most evocative ride report title goes to
"I am not dead, therefore I must be Stronger" Cecil Reniche-Smith.
600 XTR Preview of eXTreme Randonneuring?
Eric and Dave tell it like it
is: "The combination of 20378 feet of climbing (measured by my altimeter), long distances between controls or services,
and the large temperature swings and strong winds of the eastern Oregon high country combine to make this ride an epic
adventure."
The Kramer annouced "there will be a bag drop at the overnight control in Prineville. Please use a smaller drop bag, something on the order of 20x10 inches, the standard size. My little Honda Element and Dave's Subaru thank you. :)"
More on the Tri-Cities 300
You like frogs? Between the time when I was a nine year old and being out on a brevet I didn't encounter
frogs very often. A ditch filled with ribbeting, croaking frogs can add some levity to a stretch of ride.
Steve Williamson found heart and
frogs on his first 300.
What a Day to 400
The sacrifice of John-Henry Maurice and Mark Janeba (several tires, tubes and hours of weather perseverance) or the
scheduling smarts of RBA Susan served up ideal conditions for the Covered Bridges 400. Morning lows in the low 50s,
high temps in the mid 70s and only a patch of cross wind mid-afternoon were conditions appreciated by all.
31 riders checked in pre-dawn and set out during morning twilight.
Did they see the hot air ballons being inflated for a morning float?
If so they were just one of the days scenic sites. (Hold up your hands, how many noticed the chickens grazing roadside
between the Hanna Bridge and Scio?) A lead group of three actually arrived at the open control in Scio before it opened
– they were almost giddy over the progress in the first 100K. Also notable was the paceline of nearly 20 riders
who kept together for at least the first 40k of the route.
Everyone finished with many hours to spare. Three of them have already posted photos for your mnemonic or vicarious pleasure:
Covered Bridges 400 Pre-Ride
You remember those torrential rains last weekend? Were you glad the 400 wasn't taking place then?
If you're agreeing with those questions you're not John-Henry Maurice or Mark Janeba. They were doing the pre-ride.
Mark's pre-ride report tells the tale. The good news is the
road conditions were pretty good. Mostly.
Tri-Cities 300
The 200 got all the fantastic weather. The 300? Gary Prince asked "Last time I did one of your rides it started easy and
ended hard. Is this one of those?" It was.
Jason Karp
came over from Montana. In "dry" eastern Washington he found unexpected rain and hills.
He still had time
for
photos.
Organizer Paul's description:
Wish You Were There
Weather for the Tri-Cities 200 was "perfect". See for yourself with
Paul's Flikr album. In his words:
The weather was near perfect as the first brevet to start/end in the Tri-Cities started. Ten riders started - some local, some from the Portland area, the Seattle area and Montana. All finished. The route and weather conspired to allow views of Mt Adams and Rainier. All riders found the Golden Nugget in Zillah - the turn-around point, and a variable-speed headwind to keep them oriented as they returned to Richland.
Don't be Shy
If you blog, scribble, note or otherwise make a record of your experience on a brevet please share. A couple of
not-seen-here-before reports include
Narayan Krishnamoorthy's
Birkie description. It includes a ultimate criteria for what constitutes a "wet ride". And
Don Boothby's highly visual
Cheeseburger, hold the Cheese Three Capes travelogue.
Don't be shy, share your reports with all of us.
Three Capes Squeeze
As organizer Cecil-Anne stated:
Thanks to everyone who braved a pessimistic weather forecast to come out for our Three Capes 300 - as it turned out, the weather cooperated and folks got only a little wet out at the coast - nothing like the Birkie Monsoon, that's for sure.
60 riders total started (including three pre-riders), 55 finished.
Our first riders finished in 10 hours and 48 minutes; our last riders (both rding fixed-gear bikes) completed the course in 19 hours and 52 minutes. Many riders set personal best times for the course (and for any 300, for some).
Quote of the day goes to Michael "Shrinking Violet" Wolfe, who proclaimed himself a "Sexy, Shoeless God of War," as he stormed into the final control. He later conceded that he was, in fact, wearing shoes.
She has a Flikr photoset up for perusal.
The days before and after featured pouring rains and stiff winds. The 2009 Three Capes took place in, while not ideal, conditions that were better than surrounding weather. Michael Johnson contributed the first ride report. For a view from the speedy crowd up front this bit from Steve Lamb details life in the fast pace line.
Birkie Bravery
Rain, rain, rain. 2009 seems to have a brevet theme shaping up.
Three Capes
organizer Cecil described the brevet:
That WAS a tough ride, wasn't it? Who knew it was possible to get that wet and still have a good
time! I sure hope the many people who told me that this was their first brevet ever did not get too
discouraged :-)
First photos of the wet event
come from Michael Johnson.
First ride report comes from
Michael Johnson,
followed quickly by the still froggy
Cecil-Anne's
multimedia, year to year photo includin', weather intensive tale.
Baiki-Velomann Michael Man reported also. In the
purley pictorial realm Leslie Larson
has the eye on many things.
Three Capes Coming to the coast on April 11 this 300k will have more than 60 riders.
Snoozeville Recap
Michael Mann rode his first event and
was baptized
into randonneuring.
Organizer Bill describes the
soggy, windy Snoozeville
that had 30 finishers among 38 starters. It was nasty out there,
see for yourself.
Jersies Arrive
You'll be seeing warm and wonderfully clad ORR Riders in these fine jersies
soon.
How does this work?
Another well run Snoozeville, Berkie and Three Capes coming soon, how does
the ORR set up such wonderful events? It only happens because
dozens of people volunteer
and do what needs doing. Remember to thank them early and often.
Calling all riders! People outside of or new to our area are curious about these rides. Share your descriptions of riding a Oregon Randonneurs event. Contact Michael to get your story on-line.