Congrats to the RUSA Election Winners

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the RUSA board election. I came very close but fell just short with a third-place finish behind Jennifer Wise and Cecil Reniche-Smith in the race for two seats. John Lee Ellis, running unopposed, was re-elected as RBA liaison.

Jennifer won going away with 239 votes, Cecil and I polled in the low 100s; she outran me by 12 votes. Greg Olmstead and Phyllis Hamilton polled in the 40s.

Assuming everyone voted for two, that’s a turnout of about 293 voters among the 2,349 active members, for an estimated turnout of 12.5 percent.

Congratulations to Jennifer, Cecil and John Lee. I hope to get another chance to run; in the meantime, I plan to continue volunteering for RUSA and for D.C. Randonneurs. See you out there!

Election Night!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the RUSA election. If you read this the evening of Oct. 15, you still have time to vote. Click over to the RUSA elections page and email your vote in tonight. Remember to pick two!

MG Occasional Thursday: You’ll Never Get Anywhere With That Little Light.

Today was the first of the fall days where I left my office with dark descending. It took me back to the times when I had just started commuting (on my fixed gear which I sold six months later as I determined I was a danger to myself), and the uncertainty I faced with riding in the darkness.

For my first evening commute endeavors I purchased a clunky light from a store named Performance that had the wattage of a small votive candle and constantly fell off my bike at every bump in the road. (I live in DC, and I can assure you the potholes and bumps are plentiful!) I never wore reflective gear and was certain that because I was keenly aware of my existence and the streetlights sort of lit up the street that everyone saw me. Ha ha ha ha! What was I thinking???

Fortunately, I soon fell in with what a friend of mine calls the “Army of Randonneur Experts,” and I was able to kick that sad light to the curb, upgrade my luminosity factor, and invest in reflective sashes and ankle bands. It may not be sexy to commuters, but lighting and reflective gear are essential to the sexy lifestyle we randonneurs all seek to lead.

Photo by Bill Beck

Nowadays, as I wander around town, I check out the lighting (or lack thereof) of my fellows commuters and feel just so proud that I have the Army of Randonneur Experts to advise me.

On brevets, frequent chatter about E3’s, LED’s, Dinotte headlights and taillights, and many others abound. One little battery light? You’ve got to be kidding me! You’ll never get anywhere with that little light! No, you need this light, powered by your generator hub and bright as the light of a thousand suns! YES, that’s what you need. I’ve noticed that taillights don’t generate (ha ha) the same sort of buzz, but everybody has one (or ten or twenty), and I am witness to seeing someone be pulled over during a brevet for not having a working taillight.

This level of concern does not permeate the commuting scene. It continuously perplexes me that people think they can see anything on the road when using a quickly strobing tiny blinky light. A randonneur would never stand for that! I’m astounded that people ride around sans lights and with maybe a reflector or two. I appreciate the devotion randonneurs have to adequate lighting. Sometimes this devotion may seem to delve into an obsession, but at least people make the effort to stand out in the darkness.

Photo by Felkerino

As I see it, the only down side of randonneur lighting is that it makes taking early morning and evening photos trickier. How many photos do we all have of little lights riding off into the darkness, and photos of our reflective sashes leaping off the frame as we stand dimly lit behind them? Ed has created the “randonneur salute” in hopes of partially addressing the latter photographic nuisance. Riders cover up the reflective sash with their arms extended across it and smile broadly for the camera (or whatever you can muster at 4 a.m., or 11 p.m., or… you get the idea).

Randonneur Salute by Felkerino

Thanks, Army of Randonneur Experts. It’s because of all of you that I am more visible on the local roads and making even greater strides in achieving that sexy randonneur lifestyle of mine.

Iron Cross VII Quick Report

UPDATE: I added my GPS track to MotionBased. It came out a little shorter than actual distance. See it Here. I also uploaded a map of the course below the post.

I just got back from the Iron Cross VII cyclocross/expedition race in the Michaux State Forest. Bright sun and trees bursting with red and orange leaves made for a perfect fall day. This was my second year at IC, and I posted the same time as last year, a barely-sub-six-hour 5:50 for 62.5 miles.

The “Death Spiral” Start

Powerlines Hike. I Only Fell Down Twice.

All Done. New Socks!

See photos by me from the course and scores of shots from the start & finish by MG at my Iron Cross VII Flickr page.

I don’t ride singletrack more than once or twice a year, and this is my only race of the year, so I know that I’m mostly there for the challenge and scenery. The course features miles of difficult singletrack with big rocks, roots, creek crossings and unrideable hikes up steep inclines. Overall, riders are either crawling up long grades — think Shippensburg Road — or careening downward on sketchy gravel and winding singletrack. The granny gear and big ring got a good workout.

After flailing through the singletrack last year on a cyclocross bike with 32mm tires, this year I went to the other end of the rubber spectrum and rode my rigid Rawland dSogn 650b mountain bike with 58mm Pacenti Neo-Moto tires — and a sprung Brooks Flyer saddle. There were only a few of us out there with big tires, and just one other bike with a sprung saddle.

This combination did not make me any faster, but I stayed on the bike for most of the singletrack and enjoyed the course much more. The tires rolled well enough on pavement and gripped like mad on dirt hardpack, while letting me plow over rocks and roots most of the time. I had a blast flying down the gravel roads, knowing I could bomb over the rocky bumps.

All that said, I’m beat. This is a tough ride for a non-racer. By mile 50, I was starting to wonder what I was thinking when I entered. The satisfaction at the end, however, is not unlike the feeling of finishing a super-hilly brevet. And, finishers get wool socks!

Thanks to Yellow Breeches racing and all the volunteers for another fine edition. See you next year!

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RUSA Election Week, And a Pitch for Your Vote

Less than one week remains in the 2009 RUSA board of directors election. Yours truly –hey, me, Ed Felker, not MG! — is running for one of two open seats this year.

Voting is as easy as turning in your control card. Check out the candidate biographies at the RUSA web site and then send an email to Edward Robinson with your name, member number and your votes.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the candidates. If you value experience, however, you should vote for Jennifer Wise. She helped found RUSA at a time when American randonneuring was at a crossroads and needed fresh leadership, and continues to keep RUSA strong and innovative. Jennifer gets my vote.

That leaves the rest of us. I offer myself as a candidate who has been a randonneur since 1996 and a volunteer for the D.C. Randonneurs and RUSA. I was processing R5000 applications Wednesday evening and realized how many friends I’ve made in this sport and how many great rides we’ve all enjoyed together. The growth in interest in randonneuring in RUSA’s first 11 years is just astounding. I want to help that trend continue.

It helps to have been there in the 90s when RUSA was born to see how much a vibrant, responsive national organization can keep the wheels turning. The newsletter, the online store, the fast processing of results — it all happens because RUSA has such dedicated volunteers. I can assure you I’ll do everything I can to keep RUSA humming right along.

My personal interest is to see RUSA offer some kind of formal recognition to clubs. That’s an idea that has to be discussed with the rest of the board, but I think the clubs are the heart of this sport and we should try to give them all the support they need.

Thanks for reading, and whoever you support, don’t forget to vote by next Thursday, Oct. 15. Your voice is important!

Endless Mountains 6×200K Week Fall 2010

Fresh off an epic inaugural Endless Mountains 1240K, which saw more than half the field withdraw from the hilly course because they fell behind the control windows in cold rain or otherwise were unable to continue, Pennsylvania Randonneurs RBA Tom Rosenbaurer has re-packaged the event into something quite attractive. Next year it will be presented in September as a supported six-day, ACP 200K brevet series. I expect this event will sell out quickly.

See more about it at Tom’s PA Randonneurs site.

Endless Mountains 1240K Updates

TDR wakes up from a post-summer slumber to post this link to the Endless Mountains 1240K in Pennsylvania and New York state. MG and I are following closely. Looks like everyone is in great shape at the end of the first day.

Follow updates at the EM1240K blog. Thanks to organizer Tom Rosenbauer for keep us up to date on our buddies.

Three Days and a Switch to Hiking

Our grand dreams of honeymoon tandem touring all the way down Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway came to a loud end on Tuesday morning. MG’s bottom bracket — a Phil Wood, no less — gave out a loud crack as we neared the top of the climb from Wintergreen Resort back to the parkway after staying the night before. It had been making some noises and we were planning to get it checked out up the road in Lexington, but we came up about 30 miles short.

We jumped off and pushed the bike up to the parking area, and it was clear there was no way to ride on. The crankset wobbbled when MG tried to pedal and the bracket made hideous noises.

Two bike shops, one pickup truck rental and six hours later and we were in no better shape. The first shop in Waynesboro gave its mechanic the day off on Tuesday, and the other in Harrisonburg hemmed and hawed and finally told us they wouldn’t touch it until Wednesday.

Meanwhile I tried to get the crank off and rounded the self-extractor bolt. It was mostly out and could have been removed, but then we’d need an exact replacement to re-install the crank because it was a part specific to the crank due to a previous shop stripping the threads.

We were beyond tired at this point and concerned about our honeymoon slipping away hanging around in Harrisonburg, so we dashed back to D.C. with the tandem, grabbed our hiking shoes and other gear, and drove back with the rental and our car to Waynesboro the very next morning. We changed our hotel reservations to match our new schedule, got a hiking guide book and have been driving and hiking ever since.

All in all, it may have turned out for the better. There is something romantic about a bike tour, but possibly not honeymoon-romantic, what with all the hours in the saddle, getting up early, and sticking to a timetable and seeing only a little strip of pavement the whole way. We were pretty bushed after just three days of riding — Skyline Drive was harder than we expected.

Since getting back on the parkway we’ve had a grand time driving two or three hours every day and getting in some big hikes — 10-12 miles with massive elevation changes of 1,000 feet or more. There is incredible hiking right off the parkway. So far we’ve hiked at the Peaks of Otter area, Rocky Knob, and Bluff Mountain, and our legs are as tired as if we rode a hilly century every day (without panniers!).

Tomorrow we’re going to hike Mt. Mitchell if the weather permits and then finish up with a night at the Pisgah Inn. Our interest in tandem touring the parkway is as great as ever, though. We’ll be back sometime next year for some riding on the BRP.

Photos to come when we get back. Right now we’re off to dinner here in Little Switzerland in North Carolina at our humble Skyline Village Inn motel. Cheers!

MG Thursday: Randonneur Dreams Coming True

Photo by CDD Photography (c)

Greetings, all. I know I haven’t written in a month of Thursdays, but please know I was taking care of important randonneur business. I couldn’t let my tandem captain get away so last month I married him.

Now my randonneur dreams can all come true, with my randonneur spouse by my side. I thought life was good when I first met the randonneuring community. Then I thought life got a little better as my bike stable grew and my wool collection flourished. But a randonneur spouse?  That’s the icing on the cake!

Photo by CDD Photography (c)

Spare Tubus rack laying around the house? Act fast, it can be yours. See a Carradice in your home that looks like it would go perfectly on your bike? Just “borrow” it. Dying to go riding at 4 a.m.? So is your randonneur spouse! And really, who needs a dining room? Just put all your bikes in there and eat off the coffee table.

Of course, it isn’t always paradise in the randonneur home. When it’s your Tubus rack that “goes missing” on your partner’s bike, it isn’t always that exciting. Just ask Ed. And keeping the bike stable allocation somewhat “fair” and manageable can also be a challenge. We don’t want our whole place covered in bikes now, do we? Overall, though, it’s a pretty good setup.

Initially, my randonneur spouse and I had visions of completing a 1200K as our honeymoon. But honeymoon and 1200K don’t really ring synonymous with me and we shifted gears, opting for a bike tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway instead. Thanks to our friends who encouraged and helped us in that pursuit! Now my dreams of a bike tour honeymoon with my randonneur spouse can also come true!

Photo by CDD Photography (c)

Kelly Smith’s 2009 Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee

Intrepid tandem duo Kelly Smith and Mary Crawley took his tandem up to Massachusetts for the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee, the D2R2, and gave it a shot. Kelly wrote up their experience in a short story that I’ve posted on its own page. See it Here.

Kelly has also posted photos at his Photobucket page.

Here’s an excerpt.

There was a fun section of maybe 1/4 – 1/2 mile that was all torn up by heavy logging equipment. They had dumped soil in to fill and then driven over it so you had huge puddles, rocks, branches, steep sided mud holes, etc., wall to wall. It was double track, but so ripped up that it rode like single track. Sometimes you could feel the rear end slip sideways. You had to stand and shift your weight to maneuver. We were pleased with ourselves to clear that section without stopping. At the next intersection we met a group of rides on skinny tire bikes that had ridden it without putting a foot down. Amazing!

We had to walk one climb, about 200-300 yards the organizers described as 27%, and it looked like it. Don’t know if we could have handled the grade, but it was also narrow with deep gravel in the center and on the sides. There were piles of dirt and gravel here and there where cars or trucks had spun out and dug holes. People were walking too. We had to cross the center ridge a couple times, then tried to dodge a walker and came to a stop. No starting back up on that grade!

Amazingly we saw people riding up the hardest bit. Not everybody for sure, but some. We saw a couple walkers on the next one, not as steep but over a mile long. We made that one.

Granite Anvil 1200K Update: Can-Am Award and Photos

Three DCR regulars joined the field at the inaugural Granite Anvil 1200K last weekend, and I neglected to mention in my earlier post that two of them — Carol Bell and Bill Olsen of New Jersey — earned the Can-Am Challenge Award with their successful completions. The award goes to randonneurs who complete 1200K randonnees in Canada and the USA in the same year.

Also bagging the award was Aussie randonneur Hans Dusink, the past Randonneurs Mondiaux president, who rode with us on the Woodbine Wallop 200K. He, Carol and Bill completed the Gold Rush Randonnee in California in July before taking on the GA this month.

Fellow DCR Granite Anvil finisher Maile Neel has put up a big set of photos from her ride. Check them out at her Flickr page. Nice work Maile!

Tubus Disco Disk-compatible Rear Rack

Rear racks have been problematic for those of us who like disk brakes. If your bike has the disk mount on the chainstay, most if not all standard racks will fit. But if the mount is on the seatstay, as on our Co-Motion and Cannondale tandem, then the only really good racks have been the Old Man Mountain Cold Springs and Sherpa. We have used a Sherpa with good results on both bikes. The drawback is that both mount via the skewer which makes wheel removal cumbersome. They also have an unconventional look if that matters to you.

Tubus Disco: typical minimalist design

No offsets needed

Tabs wrap behind the disk caliper

I’ve posted more photos at my Flickr page.

Topeak also makes disk-specific rear racks, the Explorer and Tourist, which use built-in offsets at the eyelet to space the rack beyond the disk caliper. I have used the Explorer and it’s OK for a $35 rack, but not elegant. There are some threaded spacers out there from Jandd and others that allow you to mount a standard rack outboard of the disk caliper, but the rack ends up off-center and is dependent on the spacer.

Venerable rack maker Tubus recently came to the rescue with their Disco rack. It uses curved tabs at the lower legs to position the rack behind the caliper rather than outboard. Tubus includes a skewer to mount the rack through the hub if needed, but the rack mounted normally to our Co-Motion dropout eyelets. I mounted the fender stays to the same eyelet between the rack and frame for now.

The only downsides to me are the top shelf, which is narrow for a large racktop bag, and the $154 price tag (at least until Wiggle starts stocking it). The Disco is rated to a maximum of 20 kg. or 44 lbs., which might be a problem for some folks. We’d rather not carry 44 lbs. in the rear panniers so it’s fine by us. We’ll still use an Old Man Mountain Ultimate Lowrider front rack, by the way.

We’re going to test this rack on our upcoming honeymoon tour of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I’ll follow up. For now, here’s a review from Bike Radar.

Congrats to Granite Anvil 1200K Finishers

We’ve been tracking the progress of Maile Neel and Carol Bell at the Granite Anvil 1200K. Latest word is that Maile has come in. See all the results at the Granite Anvil 1200K site.

We presume Carol is in or also close. She and Maile got into the next-to-last control on the route last night at the same time.

A hearty Well Done to both!

The Wild Edric Cyclosportive

Twenty-five percent grade forces most riders off their bikes.

I admit it: I got off and walked. I cut 12 miles off the course. I cursed the organizer to the seventh generation. I traveled five hours each way and paid £25 for the humiliation–but at least I could get a massage at the end.

The Wild Edric Cyclosportive covered 97 miles in Shropshire (England’s hidden county, or so we were told several times during the ride prep) and Wales, with an estimated 3,800 meters (that’s meters) of climbing that included three grades of 25%. And not just 25% for 100 yards–25% for a half mile or more.

To be honest, I can’t really recommend this ride. It seems to me that there’s no point in routing a bicycle ride up a climb that even fit cyclists who would choose to try it can’t actually get up. These were roads more fit for a hill-climb time trial than an endurance cycling event. I won’t be going back to this unless I learn that the organizer has omitted some of these climbs. On the positive side, it was a good day out. Atop some of these climbs (I didn’t walk every single one) were spectacular views, with open heathland with grazing sheep and picture-postcard overlooks of valley farmland. I just have to think that there’s a rideable way to the top.

A fuller account is on a separate page.

DCR Woodbine Wallop 200K Brevet

Mother Nature smiled on the D.C. Randonneurs 200K brevet on Saturday by holding back the big heat until the next day. The Woodbine Wallop runs from Woodbine, Md. southwest to Shepherdstown, W.V. and returns, taking in some of the most scenic climbs in between. Regular D.C. area riders cringe when they hear a ride includes Marlu Ridge (The Hard Way) and Reno Monument road, not to mention Buffalo Road near the finish.

Lisa C. powering to the finish

Catching up with buddy Ed of the Pedal and Paddle

Nick, Jan and guest Hans blithely unaware of what’s to come

Undaunted, 27 riders showed up and 25 finished. Best wishes to Jim Levitt, who took a spill and broke his collarbone on one of the sharp turns near the start. The rest of us soldiered on, covering more than 11,000 feet of climbing under mostly sunny skies and light winds.

See my photoset at my Flickr page, and esteemed RBA Bill Beck’s Flickr set.

This was the first brevet for MG and me since our wedding, so we dubbed it our “honeymoon brevet.” We had no tandem team meetings, but we did indulge in a couple of crucial stops to catch our breath and snack in the afternoon.

Thanks to Bill and volunteers, especially Keith Krombel, who we were glad to see again. Here is Bill’s report:

Twenty seven riders showed up in Woodbine yesterday for the second staging of the Woodbine Wallop. The weather turned out being better than expected. Temperatures were cool in the morning and never got too hot. And none of the possible showers materialized. Twenty five of the starters made it over all of the “skull and crossbones” climbs, some with 16% grades, and reached the finish.

Unfortunately, Jim Levitt crashed only 12 miles into the ride and broke his collarbone. Jim saw the doctor, who apparently confirmed that the bone was broken, but I haven’t heard any other information. We all wish Jim a speedy recovery from the classic pro racer injury.

Thanks to Keith Krombel for driving out to Woodbine to help with morning registration, despite having only partial movement in his (dominant) right hand. The hand seems to be the limiting factor in his recovery now, but it continues to show increased movement, which is a very good sign. Thanks also to Crista for bringing the route maps – a very useful aid that many clubs can’t provide.

And special congratulations to Chris Mento who completed the final ride that he needs for the Ultra Randonneur award. In case you aren’t familiar with that one (http://www.rusa.org/award_ur.html), it is more or less equivalent to 10 Super Randonneur awards.

Preliminary ride results are posted at http://www.dcrand.org/dcr/results.php?page=display-results&year=2009. My pictures from the ride are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wabeck/sets/72157621864836383/. (The separate site that hosted the captioned slide shows doesn’t seem to work anymore.)

Next up is the Civil War Tour 200K on Sep. 19. This is a new route that travels through four Civil War battlefields (Monacacy, South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg) in chronological order from 1862 to 1864.

Bill

Lance to Ride RAAM?

“Maybe I’ll do RAAM one of these years. Am I crazy? Anyone know how many miles a day they avg?” — from Lance Armstrong’s Twitter feed. RAAM is not exactly randonneuring, but it’s a start.

London-Edinburgh-London Update from Mike Dayton

Mike Dayton has posted a report at his Research Trailer Park blog after completing London-Edinburgh-London this week. He knows of some, but not all of the American finishers. If any of you knows of published results, please post as a comment.

Mike reports that Rick Carpenter got into some kind of accident that left him OK but his bike unrideable. He was able to borrow a bike from a friend at the scenic (read HILLY!) Yad Moss control and continue to a successful finish. Congratulations Rick, Mike, and all finishers. LEL is a real test of perseverence. There is something really long about a randonnee where you get to the end of the third day and still have 400K to go.

Some fragmentary rider information has been posted to a UK cycling list and some to Twitter.

Max Huffman’s Alaska 600K

Hello out there Randonneurs! TDR is slowly emerging from the wedding preparation coccoon. Years of anticipation, months of preparation, all leading to a nerve-wracking final few days getting ready, then a glorious but all-too-brief event. PBP comes to mind , except we didn’t have to pack the bike and get on an airplane. And, we don’t have/get to do it all again in four years!

If you enjoy wedding photos, check out a few from our wedding Here. We had a healthy contingent of randonneurs at our wedding and some of them even danced at the reception, despite plans for a big ride early the next morning.

MG and I will honeymoon in late August by riding our tandem from our new apartment home in Washington to Front Royal and then tour to Mt. Pisgah, N.C. on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway before driving back.

To get the cobwebs out of TDR’s legs, let’s enjoy D.C. Randonneur Max Huffman’s story of his June 27-28 600K ride with the Alaska Randonneurs. He rode with his brother Sam, a teammate of mine at the Oregon Randonneurs fleche in 2007. See Max’s story Here and check out RBA Kevin Turinsky’s photos and report at the Alaska Randonneurs site.

Also — TDR buddy Mike Dayton and a bunch of other determined North Carolina randonneurs have completed the 1400K London-Edinburgh-Edinburgh randonnee. Check out Mike’s updates at his Twitter feed.

Our Wedding Day

July 25, 2009

Many More Happy Miles Ahead.

MG Thursday-Good Brevet Training

Every randonneur knows that training is essential for successful randonneuring. Without those weekend rides, where will you be when the long brevets hit? In trouble, that’s where!

But it isn’t just banking those miles that a randonneur needs. No, it’s much more than that. A training regimen should also incorporate a range of elements to help prepare you for anything. ANYTHING! That part of the regimen is “good brevet training.”

Centuries ridden under sun-filled skies, just the slightest of cooling breezes, temps in the high 70s, and no humidity? Seriously, what kind of training is that? That’s just a bike ride, a mere prelude to the thrills of good brevet training.

Exhibit A. Too Nice to be Good Brevet Training

Good brevet training happens when the days get shorter and the temperatures begin to fall… into the thirties or so. You know what I’m talking about. The time of year when you wake up to go to work and it’s dark outside; you leave work and it’s dark outside. The days where temperatures are predicted to reach into the thirties, but only get above freezing for an hour or two. Good brevet training occurs on a bitter, gusty day punctured by chill and a flat tire or two… and some pelting rain. Those rides when booties and toe warmers are not enough to make the tingle in your toes wane.  Or those days when you wake up and temperatures are already in the 80’s, humidity is at 95 percent, and there’s not chance of a breeze or even a rain shower to cool you off.

Exhibit B. Rain.

Why, you ask? What makes this good brevet training? Because randonneuring is not just about having fun, it’s also about a little bit of drama, sometimes being uncomfortable, and enduring adversity! Those challenging rides build the randonneur’s confidence that, if you can make it through that windy winter century ride in the 20s when the sun never peeked out to say hello and it even snowed on you, or a sweltering summer ride where your tires starting melting into the asphalt as you rode along contemplating the amount of heat it takes for your head to explode.  then a brevet will be no sweat!

Exhibit C. Snow

For randonneurs, every frigid day, atrociously hot day, flat tire or mechanical, and each soaking rain shower is good brevet training. Bring it on! A bad day to ride, says the weather man? Not for you. Saddle up and get out there because that incoming snowstorm can mean only one thing– good brevet training.

Exhibit D. Cold and Windy

The next time you find yourself layered up with the rain stinging your face while you question your choice of rain gear; you feel your feet and fingers doing their wintertime throb; and you notice your shifter cable fraying 50 miles from home without a spare, remember that you are not just on a bike ride. You’re getting good brevet training, and what could be better than that!

Gold Rush Randonnee’s DCR finishers

The Gold Rush Randonnee wrapped up Friday evening. Congratulations to DCR regulars Mary Crawley, her tandem partner (and TDR fave) Jeff Bauer of Nashville, Carol Bell and Bill Olsen for their successful finishes. Read more at the Gold Rush homepage.

We hoped to ride this randonnee this year. I am very envious of all the riders and also congratulate the Davis Bike Club for another successful edition. Great job, all.

MG Thursday: Randonneuring – It’s Just Bike Riding

Randonneuring is a many-splendored thing,

It’s the April rose that only grows in the early spring,

Randonneuring is nature’s way of giving a reason to be living,

The golden crown that makes a man (OR RANDONNEUSSE)  a king (OR QUEEN).

Remember that old tune?  While the actual word in the song might be “love,” and not “randonneuring,” I find randonneuring fits quite nicely, and the stanza encapsulates how I felt at the end of our DC Randonneurs 2009 ACP brevet series.  Good thing that randonneuring isn’t a broadway play or I would have belted out those words upon completing the final ride of our series.  (It does make me wonder what randonneuring would be today if Julie Andrews had been a randonneur, though.  She would definitely ride a mixtie.  But I digress…)

While I may have been overcome by sentimentality and exuberance upon completing the spring brevets, I don’t always have those feelings.  Sometimes when I ride I wonder if I trained enough, am I making the right food choices, if I really do like my outfit, whether I’m riding fast enough or pedaling hard enough, and does anyone besides Ed know that I’m on this ride?

When these thoughts start rattling around my brain, I try to dim them by reminding myself that randonneuring is “just bike riding.”  Is it really worth all my fretting?

On one level it may be just bike riding, pedaling and pedaling and pedaling for miles and miles and miles and miles, but randonneuring is much more than that.  It is a social experience (and sometimes an experiment) on wheels that brings me together with other riders in the area.  The group bonds primarily by their affinity for being on their bicycles all day (and sometimes all night!).  I often have little or no idea what people’s day jobs entail, but I know how and what they like to ride.  We all find our place of belonging in the randonneuring community, and it isn’t based on what we do or where we live.

Riding brevets challenges my body and spirit, especially the long hilly ones!  It encourages me to maintain a basic level of fitness that allows me to finish the rides within the time limits and, hopefully, without suffering.

A ride takes me out of the day-to-day and allows me to reflect on my life in a different way and in a different space.   As I venture through the areas outside of Washington, DC, I often start pondering my existence in this big wondrous world. (This pondering is sometimes accompanied by an “Is everything ok back there?”)

Randonneuring is also a unique way for Ed and me to spend time together.  It is an incredible feeling to be able to share a brevet with a person you love.

Given we have so much time to think and reflect on our rides there is always some point on a brevet when I realize that it’s ok to worry some about the details (training, clothes, speed, etc.), but it’s far better to spend energy savoring the brevet adventure.

It’s when the savoring starts that randonneuring transforms from just bike riding to a whole lot more.

PA 1000K — Congratulations Finishers!

You hardy randonneurs continue to impress. A number of our riding buddies triumphed at Tom Rosenbauer’s PA Randonneurs 1000K this last weekend — Chip Adams, Rick Carpenter, Patrick O’Donnell, and George Winkert were among the eight riders who started and finished within the time limit. From what we know, completing one of Tom’s ultra-scenic courses in the time limit is no small feat.

With their completions, George and Chip also qualify for R-5000 medals. Way to go guys!

Tom also had help from able volunteers Ron Anderson and Jim Logan, among others. Read Tom’s comprehensive reports on the ride at the New Jersey Randonneurs Forum and results at his PA Randonneurs site.

Back here in TDR-land, MG and I have decided to set aside our plans to ride John Lee Ellis’s Last Chance 1200K in September. We could not put together enough long rides between now and then to be confident of finishing. Maybe next year.

Instead, we’ve decided to ride Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Mt. Pisgah near Asheville, N.C. later this summer. We can ride from home and drive back in one day, allowing us to complete the trip in eight or nine days. More to come on our trip.

Not an MG Thursday: Successful Randonneuring, 2009 edition

On the Road to Success 2009 - photo by Felkerino

One of the things I love about randonneuring (besides the glamour, the fans, etc.) is that it is a sport that thrives on individuality.  While each rider must start, progress, and ultimately finish the ride within required timeframes, the way we get to the start, pass through controls, and reach the finishing point can be diverse.  The way randonneurs define a successful ride or a successful brevet series varies.

As the 2009 ACP brevets come to a close, I find myself contemplating my own randonneuring success, both as a tandem team (Felkerino and me, movie coming out soon), and as an individual.  I’ve concluded that, overall, Spring 2009 was a randonneuring success!

Maybe you also had a successful spring riding season.  Congratulations!  And how did you measure it?  I measured my Spring 2009 success by evaluating my randonneuring against the criteria below.  They are listed somewhat in the order of importance, but all were critical to the success of 2009.

Teamwork-photo by Felkerino

1.  Multi-Tasking and Teamwork.  This year, my tandem partner and I balanced many exciting activities– new jobs, selling homes, buying a home, wedding planning, it has been a dynamic spring.  (I guess that’s life as a grown up!)  I am not the best multi-tasker so it feels amazing that we completed an ACP series.  By working well together, we had just the right number of base miles (ok, we could have used a few more), did the pre-brevet preparation fairly seamlessly, rode well together, and managed to balance our other life responsibilities.

Food-Yay! - photo by Felkerino

2.  No Vomiting.  In the past, the early morning starts combined with physical activity have been a recipe for some pre-dawn “incidents.”  Not this year.  Everything stayed down and my stomach felt strong for all brevets.  Further, I was happy with my food and nutrition selections for all the rides, which was a definite first for me.

Good Outfits - photo by Bill Beck

3.  Great Brevet Outfits.  We have enough to think about on our rides without regretting our choice in wardrobe.  It makes for a long day, when every time you look at your legs you think, “I hate these shorts,” or “this jersey makes me look fat.”  I loved the clothing I selected to wear on the long spring rides.  Just the right wool jersey and the perfect cycling shorts for each brevet.  I also loved the clothing Ed wore, which might be even better than loving my own wardrobe since I spent the spring looking at Ed’s backside for miles and miles and miles. And miles.

Not a Tandem Team Meeting - photo by Bill Beck

4.  Tandem Team Meetings.  As we all know, brevets can be intense.  And long.  Sometimes it’s hard to stay in a good mood and perfectly synchronized with my tandem partner for the length of the ride (although I always try to look like I am having the time of my life whenever there are onlookers).  This year, though, Ed and I did pretty well, and our team synchronization kept improving as the season went on.  We only required one “tandem team meeting,” which I am happy to report was short, mutually respectful, and did not involve any swearing.

Excellent Brevet Comeraderie - photo by Felkerino

5.  Excellent Companionship.  While Ed and I rode many miles alone, we also had the pleasure of riding with a lot of different people over the courses of the spring brevets.  I thoroughly enjoyed passing the miles with various DC Randonneurs.  Thanks to everybody who rode with us!  Being able to share the ride with others enhanced the brevet experience and made me feel we had an even better ride, making for even more SUCCESSFUL brevet.

Following the Rules - photo by Felkerino

6.  Starting, Controlling, and Finishing within the Time Limits.  Our Co-Motion tandem operated smoothly throughout the spring.  We experienced one minor mechanical this season.  Otherwise, our bike moved us smoothly through each brevet and we started, controlled, and finished within the time allotments.

Beautiful Brevet Days - photo by Felkerino

7.  Great Routes.  The DC Randonneurs route designers assured that each ride took us through green countryside, quiet roads, and even up a mountain or two.  Oh, and the excellent weather didn’t hurt either.  The beauty of the courses stays with me, and remembering them evokes a great feeling of fulfillment.

Other elements contributed to this successful brevet year, but these are the standouts for me.  I hope everybody else out there can say they experienced some 2009 randonneuring success, too, be it a great outfit, a personal best time, or whatever criteria is important to you.

And now, I’m happy to focus on non-brevet related activities for the next couple of months while I revel in the successful 2009 ACP brevet season!

The End! - photo by Bill Beck

MG Thursday: The Language of Tandem

Some of you may know that Ed and I ride tandem a LOT together. I mean, a LOT. And it is such a wonderful experience most days. The two of us riding the same bicycle together mile after mile (after mile), coordinating each pedal stroke, getting sweet looks from the passersby (yes, isn’t it so sweet, bleah), and getting comments like “who does the pedaling” or “she’s not pedaling.” You get the idea. What’s not to love about a tandem?

Even though Ed and I may look like we are having the time of our lives, as though every movement and every pedal stroke we take is perfectly synchronized, in reality it’s not always that way. Sometimes I dedicate time to wondering if a small saw would fit in our Carradice bag and what would happen if I starting sawing off the back end. Would it work?  Would Ed notice?

With my mind occupied by saws in the Carradice, my feet tend to slow. It takes energy to think about such things! I’m often unaware of my drifting until something alerts me. These alerts usually come in the form of “Mary, is everything ok back there?” or “Mary, what’s going on back there?” The tandem captain thinks he is being crafty, but I know what he is really saying. He is saying “You back there, you are not pedaling.” How do I know this? Because not only do I speak English, but I am also fluent in the language of tandem, which is absolutely essential for any tandem team that attempts brevets.

Ed and I have been working on our tandem fluency since we began riding together. While on the surface tandem may appear to be a rather rudimentary way of communicating, in fact it is a complex mixture of concern, irritation, caring, and discord.

We learned the language of tandem through the school of Crista Borras and Chuck Wood, which meets every Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. for 100-mile classes. Weekend after weekend we have attended this school, practicing our pedaling and communication.

One of the more critical parts of the language of tandem is communicating how to stand. At first, Ed and I could not find the tandem word for standing. This led to frequent shouts of “Danger!” from the school of Crista and Chuck whenever one or both of us was spied elevating out of the saddle, as it was likely that tandem leaning and weaving was about to ensue. Soon enough, we taught each other the question “ready?” “Ready” is not really a question; it is a rhetorical term that means, “I’m going to stand now, and you’re coming with me.”

We remember the significance of “ready” 90 percent of the time. The other ten percent of the time it is interpreted in multiple ways by one or the other of us, which leads to inopportune leaning or jerking of the bicycle. It should be noted that Chuck and Crista are so fluent in the language of tandem that they never use verbal cues to stand; they simply rise out of the saddle and sit back down in a perfectly synchronized pedal dance. Those two are great tandem professors!

While some parts of the language of tandem are spoken, others are not. “Steering from the back” is one of these nonverbal aspects. When steering from the back of the tandem occurs, this is a message to the captain that perhaps he or she is not going the right way, or in the way the stoker would choose. I’ve noticed that steering from the back is an excellent way to get the tandem captain’s attention. It’s a physical gesture that can have the strength of five sentences or more, and steering from the back is almost never misinterpreted.

When riding single, I have absolute control over my bicycle. If I want to use the brakes on a steep switchback, I am free to do it. If I want to stop and eat a turkey sandwich, I can do that too. On a single, I do what I want to do when I want to do it on my bike. Not so on a tandem. A tandem melds your two riding styles together, and there is a certain degree of loss of control. I feel this is particularly true for the stoker.

Fortunately, another part of the tandem language Ed has learned are the phrases “Gersema-approved” and “not Gersema-approved.” This is another quick way of communicating satisfaction with the movement, steering, or perceived antics of the tandem partner.  And most of the time, Ed’s Gersema-approval ratings are pretty high.

Next time you ride with a tandem team, you might listen in and learn a bit about the language of tandem. See if what I tell you is true, or what other phrases and non-verbal communication you might learn. There’s a lot happening on a tandem. As Ed sometimes likes to say, “It’s a whole different level of effort!” Now what do you think that means?