Hello Blue Mountains!
Thomas Durkin is the first
of the riders to put up a report of his Blue Mountain 1000 experience. Earlier John Pearch
had posted a pre-ride description.
Bill Alsup
is the rider who got the most ride for the money, finishing with less than 20 minutes to spare.
All riders seem to be more than usually impressed with the beauty of the route.
But wait, you want the Blue Mountain Stories? The Kramer has them. Visit for all your vicarious thrills.
Weather hides and waits for night
Susan "Team Estrogen" Otcenas completed her first 600K
with ORR. Nice weather on Saturday lured her into getting gob smacked by overnight rains – complete
with hail. Her two part tale tells of preparations and
the Saturday start then the overnight, rains
of doom, and what transpired. (scroll down a bit from the top of the page) A tale of randoness.
or dip into the mind of Tom Durkin with his
stream of consciousness
600k experience ramble. For the visually inclined Michael Johnson's Flickr stream shows the
way.
Details! Details! 600K of …
Joshua Bryant pre-rode the 600 and
provides a detailed
pre-ride report covering terrain and road conditions.
400s in Kite Flying Weather
The Tri-Cities 400 organizer Paul Witney reports:
In the Wilamette Valley the
Flèche North
Oregon had one team ride north
Bill Alsup
has a really informative description of this unique kind of brevet.
Weather Gods Pleased by Sacrifice
Ken Bonner pre-rode the Three Capes on April 3, sacrificing comfort and
claims to good sense (two snow covered climbs? one with major traffic!),
several riders sacrificed their 300K opportunity as we resechuled. Combined
these sacrifices pleased the weather gods. Saturday's brevet day was sunny
and warm – one rider made a claim of 70° on the coast – the
previous and next days featured significant winds and rain.
For those who weren't there, it wasn't all sunshine and tailwinds for the riders. Particularily, it was a pretty chilly start – in the mid 30°s (2° or 3° C) and being damp the wind chill bit into faster riders a bit more than the slower ones. Later in the day, judging from the comments of finishers, the winds punished the fast and assisted the slow. Even though it may have felt like 70 to a late rider, the weather service makes a more modest claim of 64°F/17°C for Tillamook's high. It doesn't seem like weather often favors the slower rider. This day was an exception.
Thanks to volunteers Susan France and Cecil Reniche-Smith riders had a greeat send off and reception on their return to the Grand Lodge.
Red Lantern Lynn posted up the first known ride report for this event. Can you relate to the title? I need a Good Case of Rando-nesia. You can also catch some views from the ever eyeful Leslie Larson. Of flats and food aka Well, this is going to make those 200km brevets seem fairly short is David Parsons tale of his first (we believe) successful 300k brevet. Bad News Bears (??) Robert Higdon of SIR has a glowing description of the ride beauty – enough to make up for the lack of SIR amenities. Remember your first 300k? Hopefully it was as nice as Michael Mann's. Who had a spendid day. On his fourth Three Capes Brevet Bill Alsup was determined to shave time off his best. So he started by riding to the ride. It worked. Find out how much faster with his report and how he got home after his hammerfest.
More reports as they become known.
Are we Penguins?
OK, you thought it was a joke. You know, about the Birkie organizers spending the
entire ORR 2010 Bribe the Weather Gods Budget.
Since we're bicycle riders and not penguins, we have decided to postpost the Three Capes 300 for one week. Same everything else. Well, hopefully the weather will change!
Birkie Bliss
Rumors that the organizers expended the entire ORR 2010 Bribe the
Weather Gods Budget are untrue. However the Birkie did feature
an excellent spring day of sun and eventual warmth. The cookies were
reported to be wonderful too.
As Organiser Bill Alsup wrote:
Many thanks to John Henry for registering people in the wee hours of the morning, to Susan for making sure everything was up to snuff, to Ray and Barbara for the baked goods and checking people in at Anderson Park, to Ed for pedaling all his French press coffee making equipment up to Vernonia, and to my friend Amy for more baked goods in Vernonia, and those Guinness brownies at the end. Also, congrats to all of you who participated.
David Parsons describes his day. Joshua Bryant decided to take on time and did so with a vengence. Ever bright Lynne Fitzsimmons says "Wow!".
Photos
are popping up. Bill has
a series from the Vernonia control and finish and the ever observant
Leslie Larson has a Flickr set from the road.
A Pair of Threes
Three Hundreds that is, The TriCities and Three Capes 300K brevets are coming up. If you're inclined to
volunteer the organizers will be inclined to welcome you.
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.