Ride Report from David Hamilton:

In August, 2015, I rode the tour d’Essex 200km as a permanent ride. It was amazing!

Since I live in Ottawa, most of my rides are on Ottawa Chapter routes, but I fortunately have relatives scattered throughout southern Ontario – and a son who plays competitive baseball – so we end up travelling the 401 quite a bit. With this in mind, knowing I’d be in the Windsor area in August, I booked a permanent ride.

I began the ride at 6:00 am and rode in darkness for about half an hour. The weather was quite cool for August, and the winds were gusty which is why there are so many windmill generators there. The ride started out gently enough going east along Lake St. Clair and then dipping south towards the first control in Tilbury. This is farm country, pure and simple. But that changed as I approached Lake Erie.

Following Lake Erie west along the Talbot trail, there was something fishy in the air, and the route takes you through the commercial fishing areas around Wheatley. I was keeping a good pace at this point and didn’t find the wind too troublesome. Fortunately, the showers that had been forecasted had held off and the roads were nice and quiet.

The route through the Hillman Marsh conservation area was truly magical. Bull rushes on each side of the narrow road gave me the sense of riding through a thicket. It was very quiet here with few cars… just the sound of the birds and my machine. The route then headed north through Leamington and here, my progress really slowed down due to construction along the main road. And traffic lights. And lots of activity. Pulling out of the city and heading towards Kingsville, there was a detour set up around Colasanti’s greenhouses (if you have never been here before, you must try their broasted chicken and home-made donuts!). Fortunately, the detour didn’t affect the route, so I carried on into next control in Kingsville where I stopped for lunch.

The route from Kingsville to Amherstberg followed the Heritage trail, and here the industry changed again to vineyards. I also rain into some showers at this point but nothing too drastic and the wind continued to be a non-factor. This is very pretty countryside, full of vineyards and orchards and BnBs. Traffic had picked up a bit, especially as I approached Amherstberg and the next control.

After a Timmies, I got back on the road and from here to the end of the route, I had heavy industry and lots of traffic and construction. But I also had a tailwind as I shifted north towards the border crossing. The view of Detroit from the Canadian side is quite remarkable, and the industrial complexes associated with the auto industry were massive. The route carried me through Little Italy in Windsor and then I headed west again towards the end control. I did notice the truck traffic at a complete standstill on the Ambassador bridge which I understand is quite normal.

I finished the ride in 10:33 and felt quite strong at the end. I had been expecting a lot more wind but it didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would…bonus!

All in all, this is a really well-thought out route. It covers all of the main industries of Essex county from the farming to fishing, wine-making, heavy industry, birding and tourism. I look forward to riding this again. It has quickly become one of my favourite routes.

Some stories from Paris-Brest-Paris 2015

From Martin Cooper:

I am writing this on the train from Carhaix to Paris after having abandoned PBP despite amazing weather, no major physical issues and what was for me up to that point a pretty good ride with considerable time in the bank. After having returned to Carhaix from Brest I had my card stamped at the control and then headed to the hotel for a shower and some much needed rest. I had only had 3 hours of sleep since starting out two days before. I arrived at the hotel at 8:00 PM and decided to play it safe so I didn’t shower and went straight for a 1 hour power nap, as if there was such a thing. I set my phone alarm for the wake up. I think I was dreaming of PBP when I woke in a daze and looked at the time. It was 3:05 AM. I immediately got dressed and decided I would go for it even though this was around the closing time of the control in Ludeac which was over 80 km away, involving probably, 4-5 hours of night time riding. I tried phoning the control in Ludeac to see if they would be sympathetic or even open when I got there. All I got was a voice mail so I left a message. I hurried down stairs to the lobby. It was dark and the front door was locked. My bike was in an adjacent garage. I ran out of the hotel to retrieve my bike but as I suspected the door was locked. I went back into the hotel. In an attempt to get the key I jumped over the service counter setting off the alarm. I decided it would be best to get out of there so I walked 2 km to the Carhaix control. It had already been taken down but there were still exhausted riders sleeping on the floor and about 30 bicycles in the rack outside, which I considered borrowing but I figured that in France it would be treated similar to horse theft. It was 4:30 AM, I was dehydrated and hungry. There was no food but there were all the usual control beverages, including a bottle of rosé and a couple dozen beers. I decided to crack open a Kronenberg, resigning myself to the fact that PBP 2015 wasn’t in the cards for me. I hung out at the control welcoming and consoling a steady stream of late arriving cyclists. At 6:30 AM I walked back to the hotel and returned to my room to take a shower. I stared at the unmade bed as if it was a crime scene. Opted instead for a hot bath thinking about the Ontario cyclists I had the distinct pleasure to ride with during PBP: Dave Thompson, Kathy Brouse, Peter Grant, Dick Felton, and Vytas Janusauskas, as they were wending their way towards Paris and who provided their sage advice on PBP and other long distance events.

After an excellent breakfast, which I didn’t realize was included with the room, I retrieved my bike and rode over to the train station where I bought a ticket to Paris. The station was filled with fellow cyclists who had abandoned for various reasons, the majority of which appear to have been gastrointestinal issues, although there were a few who had crashed. I believe that I was the only one that slept in. Many countries were represented among the walking wounded: USA ,Spain, China, Japan and Brazil

Despite the DNF, PBP is an amazing experience. Over 6,000 Randonneurs, long distance cyclists from all over the world with 55 counties represented, including about 100 Canadians.

All kinds and vintages of bicycles are involved. I rode into Brest with a man in his late 70s riding a 1950s Alex Singer rando bike. I was impressed by the vintage of both until he decided to drop me on one of the many hills characteristic of that stage.

The friendliness and generosity of Bretons is remarkable. You see multi generational families come out to cheer on the cyclists and offer encouragement of Bon courage and allez. I recall while riding through the second sleep deprived night at about 3:30 in the morning a family with tables set up outside of their farmhouse, serving coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. This helped get me through the rest of the early morning hours. What was really amazing was that I noticed cyclists coming out of their house. When I looked inside to see what was going on, there were about half a dozen exhausted cyclists lying on cots and sprawled across the floor.

The scenery is also spectacular as the hilly route winds its way through small villages with castles and medieval and Renaissance buildings that are still lived in. There is mile upon mile of scenic Breton farmland and on the way to Brest rugged landscape reminiscent of the Canadian Shield.

It is a feeling of immense accomplishment when you see the Atlantic Ocean while arriving in Best. Despite the DNF it was an amazing experience to be part of this historic and beautiful cycling event.

Complaints: don’t use Claus from Kansas City’s drop bag service. I wasted considerable time at controls looking for my drop bags which never showed up depriving me of clean kit, chamois cream and energy bars resulting in a lack of nutrition and the development of a nasty saddle/sore boil I imagine similar to the one Karl Marx developed in the British Museum while researching Das Kapital which made him remark that “the bourgeois will pay for this”. The lesson here is not to rely on third party support unless they are blood relatives.

Also, bring a back up alarm.

Regrets? Only one – that I have to wait Four years for the next PBP.

Regards,

Marty

Reflections on PBP 2015 from Kathy Brouse:

This was my first experience at Paris Brest Paris 1200. I could have gone last time in 2011, I did the qualifying rides, but I have always been nervous as I imagined the inherent difficulties of sharing the road with so many other riders; jockeying for a safe and comfortable piece of the road; not getting too close to someone in front of me, watching to the side and back to make sure riders aren’t getting too close, being on the alert for sleep deprived individuals who are not exhibiting the best of bike skills (honestly, I saw a few guys cycling with their eyes closed!), line ups everywhere – for food at the controls, to use the washrooms, finding a comfortable spot to rest my exhausted body during the night, remembering where I placed my bike in the dark amidst hundreds of other bikes, etc. And while I found all of these reasons for not going to PBP to be true – it was a constant fight for space and a constant line up for food and washrooms and always an exercise in self advocacy to get the very busy and overwhelmed person behind the cafe bar to make eye contact and take my order next for a coffee or baguette – there was also so much more to the whole PBP experience that made it profound and rewarding. Thank you to Dave Thompson and Arthur for convincing me to register and pushing me to have the unique experience that is PBP.

I was in the last group of riders to leave the Velodrome at 8pm on Sunday night. I left with Dave T and Jerry and had every intention of riding PBP with them, but I got ahead after 50 km and never saw them again on the ride. I rode the rest of PBP on my own, or as alone as you can be when you are sharing the road with close to 6000 other cyclists. Nothing terribly exciting happened to me over the course of three and a half days. I didn’t break any bones (Dick), nor damage an Achilles tendon (Jerry) nor oversleep at the hotel because they forgot to put in the wake up call (Marty), nor did I experience the sleep disorientation that so many others experienced by the third and fourth day. For me it was the usual mixture of intense suffering and pleasure that occur on a 1200 km ride. However, the pleasing stuff on this ride was new to me and specific to riding in France: the intoxicating smell of the horses and manure as we rode through all those rural villages and farms in the heat of the day, the smell of bread being baked before sunrise in the small villages and towns, the constant groups of French people beside the road clapping and shouting “Allez, allez, Madam, Courage!!”, French grandmothers in their French aprons stood shyly at the end of the driveway or at an open window smiling and waving to cyclists, small bars and taverns that were staying open during the night to provide coffee and hot chocolate. And I will always remember the thrill of feeling like a rock star as I rode into a control – Tenteniac, Villaines-la-Juhel, Loudeac and the bystanders cheering and clapping for me shouting “Bravo Madam, Bravo”. In particular, the control at Villaines-la-Juhel on the return stretch to Paris, was amazing, hundreds of people lining the streets clapping and shouting, music playing, bells ringing, even the local beauty queen was there to celebrate our arrival at the Villaines control!

I will always smile when I remember my experience in the medical tent at Villaines where I entered only to ask for something to ease the throbbing arthritic pain in my big toe and received not only the magic cream on my toe but also in that nether area where the saddle makes everything so very very sore, “No, no Madam, don’t mind, this is my job”. This treatment was finished off with a leg massage that was so delightful:-) I floated back to my bike.

Another memory unique to PBP is the assortment of bodies lying in fields and alongside the road on the 3rd and 4th day. Only randonneurs can sleep with such reckless abandon. I even saw a rider, sound asleep, whose body was on the grass while his head was resting on the road. He must have planted himself there in the dark and was not able to see the actual road, or he was beyond caring.

There was only one time on this ride where I felt I was truly riding alone and I was briefly terrified. It was after the control in Carhaix enroute to Brest, around 3am on the Tuesday morning. As I left the control I met up with and passed a group of riders but when I started climbing I was on my own and it was dark, black dark, no villages, no towns, no lights, no moon. It was the sort of dark that can feel oppressive when you wish you had the SPOT device on the bike so someone on the planet will know exactly where you were when the aliens descended and swooped you up in the spaceship. As I climbed I looked back occasionally searching for bike lights behind me, was I on the right road, was anyone else out there. The only company I experienced for about two hours was the occasional group of riders on the other side of the road zipping past headed towards Paris. And then, as the dawn broke, I saw an interesting spectacle. Dozens of riders rising off the grass and climbing onto their bikes, having been resting or sleeping beside the road. It was a strange phenomenon to me at the time, remember I had cycled through the night and was very tired, because it seemed as though these guys were rising inexplicably out of the earth, which they sort of were, in a way. And then in the full light of day I crossed the bridge amidst the mist and clouds and headed into the Brest control.

When I arrived back in Loudeac around 9pm on the Tues night I ate a simple sausage with mustard wrapped in a crepe which was sooooo delicious and headed to my hotel for a shower and a rest. In the early hours of the morning I said hi to an exhausted Vaune who pulled in as I was heading out and exchanged greetings with Dick who was eating breakfast at the time. I arrived in Mortagne au Perche just after 10pm and rested, homeless style, in the alcove of a building in the town square, knowing I would be cycling through the night and needed to get some sleep. The route out of Mortagne was through a forest and very dark and hilly. At the bottom of one of these hills I encountered a rider using a light to make the international sign of “help, I need some assistance”. I pulled over and the man asked me in French, “Do you speak French?” to which I shrugged and said “no”. He waved me on and kept making the sign with his light for other riders to stop. Turns out that Guy, who speaks French, stopped to assist this man who was totally disoriented and did not know where he was and why people were riding so many bikes on the road. It took Guy two hours to get the people from the Mortagne control to come out and collect this man who had somehow left his bike, perhaps at the control, and wandered how many kilometres in the dark up and down the hills in the forest. Kudos to Guy who has a kind and generous heart.

I arrived in Dreux, the second to last control at 5:50am and said hello to Henk who was also purchasing coffee and croissant. I greeted some friends whom I met this summer from Asheville, North Carolina and headed out for the last stage of the journey to Paris. What I had thought would be a measly 64 km, no problem, seemed to go on forever and ever, my bike was creaking and groaning and the gears were not shifting smoothly. I caught up to Marj from Saskatoon who had also cycled the route alone receiving support from her husband John at controls. It rained heavily the last two hours and I pulled into the Paris Velodrome before 9am, soaking wet and so glad the ride was over. Then it was another 8 km back to the hotel, to a delicious breakfast, hot shower and a very comfy bed. The ON Randonneur dinner celebration that night was fun and great to celebrate the ride, the highs and the lows with randonneur friends and family.

Thanks to my fellow randonneur friends at the Novotel, my constant breakfast and dinner companions – Vytas, Guy, David, Peter G, Marj and John, Dave T and Sandy, Marty, Carey and Donna and Dick. The unique camaraderie with fellow randonneur crazies is also a special memory and part of the PBP 2015 package. My last PBP mention is for Dick Felton, whom as most of you will know by now, finished the ride with two broken ribs and two broken bones in his hands. Because Dick obviously has a very high pain threshold and an indomitable will that motivates him to dig deep and deeper, he was able to meet his goal of finishing PBP. And, he even stood up and hosted the ON Rando dinner on Thurs evening, I swear if there had been music the man would have danced! I shared a taxi with him to the airport and he still wasn’t complaining. You’re something Dick, I salute you!

From Dick Felton:

Well I spent most of the day at the hospital finding out what I did to myself when I crashed into the ditch during PBP ride. I have a couple of cracked ribs, a broken little finger left hand, a broken thumb on my right hand, a concussion (but no cranial bleeding thank goodness) and a slightly deviated nose.

Following is my PBP ride report on how I got to this point!

My PBP 2015 #3

SO… here we are again 2007 (rain and my first 1200) – 2011 = nicer weather and better informed about 1200’s – so I really enjoyed it.

NOW….. 2015 and excited to be going back to France to ride the most prestigious amateur cycling event in the world – Paris Brest Paris.

I started cycling seriously in 2005, with my first 200 Brevet, and my first super randoneuring series = 200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets. I was hooked. Love riding long distance!

This year I was serious about doing a good finishing time at PBP – it was my focus of training. I did a 1200 in Israel in October of 2014 (unique experience). I had trouble with my bike before this event and actually rode my single speed Surley – probably the hardest 1200 I have ever ridden. I followed this up with the Sunshine 1200 (with a steep curve of training) – Sunshine was also a unique experience because of the route and the excellent logistics laid out by David Thompson. I also did Devil’s Week out of Markham (probably the hardest routes I have ridden consecutively – Thanks Stephen Jones). Also during discussions of training for PBP, I had asked the board and Peter Grant to insert some really tough climbing rides on the last week end of July before PBP instead of the traditional 1000 km ride. It was great training – thanks Peter Grant for all your help and effort.

I arrived in France on the 14th of August (perhaps a little late to acclimatize) to get ready to ride for 7:45 PM on the 16th. My bike had been completely rebuilt and trialed during the Bancroft weekend, so I was pretty confident that all would be good with my mechanics (new tires, new chain , new 12 / 30 cassette, complete with new cables and housings for brakes and shifters. Andrea and Stephen Jones flew over on the same flight as I did with Air Transat and we shared a ride to the hotel – it was an early morning arrival so lots of time to put the bike together and check everything out = 35 km around the area just nice and easy to see where everything was, plus picked up some CO2 cartridges, just in case I needed them. That night a good sleep and a GREAT breakfast the next morning.

Saturday AM was package pick up and it was great to see so many cyclists from all over with whom I had met at all different events. Carey and I ate lunch in the middle of the town square close to the Velodrome – after lunch – 2:30 PM – the Canadian pictures were take – exciting stuff to ramp up the fever to the start of PBP 2015. By the way – pick up included a new shirt design with a full zipper , 2015 water bottle, a super randonneur medal and I bought a new 2015 T shirt. Dinner Saturday night with Carey’ Donna, Erika and her Friend was great

A good sleep Saturday night and leisure day Sunday was OK but sleep during the day did not come to help me be rested for my 7:45 PM start. I decided to go to the Velodrome early to take some pictures of the riders leaving. Every 15 minutes about 100+ riders left – exciting stuff – AND – now I am getting nervous. I go to line up (bathroom first) and then into S corral to start this adventure. Will I make it? Can I make it to the finish???

I am a coach and I tell everyone starting any race to take it easy to begin with and during most cycling events, I do start slower, however I felt good and started way too fast. I pedalled all night, without problems – strong and confident. Early morning brought mist and fog plus it brought on my fatigue. Kathy Brouse and Peter Grant were the first to catch up with me (they started 15 minutes behind me) and then as I approached 350 – 400 KM, Dave Thompson, and Jerry Christison caught up. I was planning to ride through to Brest at around 620 Km before stopping, but David told me that perhaps it was better to stop and rest in Loudeac, since Jerry had a double room with only him in it – so I took his advice and decided to regenerate since I was down to a crawl on the bike and really needed the rest!

I got to the Hotel du France before Jerry, so I asked for his room key. The proprietor told me that it was only a single room = really small = one bed and a bathroom. I waited for Jerry to make a decision and we decided that I could sleep on the floor between the bed and the door – how small do you ask – well when Jerry was leaving on the last morning in Loudeac, I had to get up so that he could open the door to get out – however I did get some much needed sleep and you could tell how much better I was pedalling the next morning

Loudeac to Brest and back – lots of climbing and lots of sunshine. I started out strong again and it was good to get to the half way point in Brest. Still pretty confident but not making a lot of headway in the time department.

BTW – the French have a new fitness test. They get you to ride your bike over 600 KM and then have you go down a set of stairs to use the bathroom – where with cycling shoes and cleats on, you hold a full squat for as long as necessary! Oh Yeah – the cleats and shoes are resting on porcelain!!!!! Quite the act – good thing the door was closed

Leaving Brest, the group of us stopped at a bakery / take out restaurant. We had 3 chickens cut into quarters, plus salad, bread etc., and then we pushed upward and onward back to Loudeac.

Tom, one of the group who we were at lunch with stayed back to ride with me – I had been a little slow because of the bathroom. He would climb faster than me and then wait from me to catch up. I pulled up beside him (a rider I thought was him) and ask “So what do you do for a living” This guy looks at me says “What?) Oh sorry I say, I thought you were my riding buddy. Well the guy tells me “If you’re interested, I will tell you. Sure, I say. This guy was from Ireland but previously had lived in Toronto where he worked for Litton Systems. He knew Mike Barry and asked if I knew another old timer named Jeff. He had ridden PBP once in the 90’s and was back for his second PBP at age 65. His name was Michael Maroney (if anyone knows him, please let me know) He belonged to Randonneur organization at the time – how is that for a coincidence.

I met up with Vytas J on the way into Loudeac (cannot remember exactly where) and we rode in together. We agreed when we parted that we would meet at the exit to the control at 4 AM. I went to the Hotel and decided to eat before going up to bed since that would also give Jerry some more sleep time without me disturbing him. Kathy Brouse came down at 2 AM and efficiently hand something to eat and filled her water bottles and left – let me tell you – this girl was on fire – she was worried about her ride before starting nut the confidence was evident in her approach. So I finally go up to the room and lay down to sleep for 50 minutes before I needed to get up to meet Vytas. Jerry got up and woke me so that he could get out the door and I must have laid back down – I awoke with a start at 4:50 AM!!!! I got out the door and went to where I was supposed to meet Vytas who was gone = thank goodness. I started to pedal (really really) hard to make up for the late start. There was a sleep / food stop at Quedillac where I had a sausage and took one last look around to see if Vytas was there – found him just going to lay down to have a short sleep – he said “thanks a lot” for leaving him waiting – I did apologize profusely. The next stop, Tinteniac was a control so card signed , something to eat, and off again to Fougeres.

How quickly something can change, because about 5 KM along the way to Fougeres, my eyes closed momentarily and I was going head first into a clay ditch. I hit hard on the right side of my head and ending up with the handle bars going into my ribs and grass and dirt in the shifters and my helmet. Luckily there were course officials right behind me tending to some guy who went down and broke his arm. I asked the official to lift the bike off me and he was helping me up when a nurse / medic came along. I said I was OK but she told me Fougeres NO. She actually took my card but I quickly got it back. Satisfied that I would lay down, as instructed, they took me back to a private house and the couple owning the house laid a blanket on the ground for me to lie down. You have got to know how bad I was because I did not even check my bike – they wheeled it back to the house for me and leaned it against the fence. I laid down and slept for over an hour. When I pulled myself out of the ditch, I had a bloody nose and was sure my bell was rung in some way. When I awoke and tried to get up, I knew how hard I must have gone into the ditch – BUT – I did not come all the way to France to quit – so – clearing the grass out of the shifter and putting them back into position, I started pedalling down the road, amazed at how good the bike actually survived. Not more than 5 minutes after restarting Dave Thompson pulled up beside me and asked me how I was doing. He was very kind to stay just behind me to make sure I was OK and advised me to take off some heavy clothes, since I still had my overnight garb on and the sun was heating things up – good advice for sure. The worst part of everything that happened was the handle bars had dug into my ribs and I really know that when I tried to stand – no go. Breathing deep was even a problem. I made it to Fougeres and figured, perhaps a visit to the Doctor was in order (yes I was hurting that bad)

The Doctor told me that I might have a couple or 3 cracked or bruised ribs and that my little finger, on the left hand was probably fractured. I asked him to tape my ribs (hoping that it would allow me to stand) but his interest was in my hands stating that perhaps an x-ray was in order. I put my hands behind my back and said “what hands” he got the idea and said to me – you are going ride aren’t you – I told him yes and after I promised to stop if anything got worse and to get the hand looked at after the ride – he went and found some tape and tapped my ribs and actually put some tape on my hands to stabilize any fracture, if there.

Back out on the road, I met up with Vytas again and we rode together again. Vytas is a nice guy – easy to be with and he has a really dry sense of humour. He would be out in front sometimes and at other times, I would be. We seemed to find each other instinctively when ready to leave a control. We rode into Villaines La Juhel where we had a great meal and then left for Mortagne Au Perche – this seemed like a long stretch with lots of climbing, especially with tired legs and a broken body.

Vytas got ahead of me since I had slowed down considerably but I passed him lying in the ditch sleeping ( along with many other riders – especially Asian riders) Vytas said that he figured that the Japanese had done a study to get the right ration of riding to sleeping in the ditch for efficiency purposes

I got a sleep spot in Mortagne because I did not want to fall asleep again but the hardest part, now with my ribs aching and body stiffening up was getting down on the floor. They showed me to my spot and I stood there trying to figure out how to get down without going into full spasm. Finally just dropped everything in my hands on the floor and basically collapsed onto a blanket and mat. Turns out it was the wrong spot because when my wake up came they could not find me – luckily I was awake and trying to get up by then. I walked outside and told them to mark me as gone and I walked towards my bike – guess who was 20 metres away getting ready to leave – my new riding partner Vytas

So now, you must know that the riding slow etc. is taking its toll on out time and we were leaving Mortagne 1.5 hours after the control closed – so we have to hustle – and I do mean hustle. I pulled climbing out of Mortagne probably riding harder than I ever have before. Both Vytas and I missed the cut off in Dreux however I checked with officials and they said No Problem – just go and if you finish before 90 hours you will be fine – however we did not leave right away – we ate – I got my bike fixed (shifters seemed extra hard but found out after that it was just my left hand getting sore and weaker!) Vytas put air in his back tire.

One and a half hours again in deficit and since I pulled so hard leaving Mortagne, I had nothing left – 14 km/h was not going to do it. I told Vytas to latch onto someone else and finish on time – I would simply finish = no matter what the time. I spend the next hour pedalling along trying to convince myself that one bad 1200 out of 13 of them was not bad and I could handle the disappointment of a lost PBP. The more I pedalled I started to pick up speed (recovery I guess). Calculating again, I figured I could make this happen and what better time to rush than now rather than just before the finishing stretch. I saw support cars changing bikes for riders (lighter bike for a fast finish) and they were giving support – actually made me angry = a good thing. I started some real hustle on the way in. I was climbing some of the last hills at 16 – 22 km/h and over 36 km/h on some flats – I can do this, I thought – I do NOT have to settle for using my fall as an excuse for not finishing on time!

I have to tell you that it is one good feeling to grab back my finish from defeat. I am one lucky guy and for more reasons that you might think:

A momentary lapse of attention (actually sleep but lets not go there) put me in an accident – really lucky it was the ditch and not into traffic – – should not have let myself get to that point -DUMB on my part.

My bike was basically not affected by the crash – almost a miracle considering the force at which I landed – guess you could call that lucky

Luckily I did not look at my helmet at the time, or it would have scared me since it is cracked right through on the right side – there are lots of arguments, especially from the Brits that statistics say helmets are not necessary. Me, without a helmet in this case would mean that you would not be readying this write up since I would have been toast either for the rest of my life or actually gone.

I am also lucky that my decision to continue turned out not to be the “DUMBER” part of the equation. Some people have said to me that my actions were so great as a Randonneur however, I do not feel that way – it was a personal decision, it could have just as easily turned out ugly (glad it didn’t).

My training for this event allowed me to hang on and actually step it up in the end AND I just had a 70th birthday on July 31st – I am so blessed to be able to do what I do.

Someone asked me at the ACP meeting that I went to on Friday about how many more PBPs I felt I have in me – interesting question:

One more for sure (2019), two more (2023) if I stay healthy and lucky and maybe even a 6th PBP (2027) at 82 years old – with support.

My wife Nuala asked me why I keep going back to France to do this ride. My answer is that PBP is a BIG deal – in sheer numbers for sure but even more so in what it means to people. Vytas saw a gentleman check in after finishing who was told that he was over time at 92 hours – he broke down. Many other people go to very dark places because of a DNF, especially at PBP.

That’s my story. PBP2015 will stand out in my mind for sure. I now know specific thing I need to conquer before the next one. I can only hope that I can be in as good of shape and by some stretch, I need to address the sleep issue, perhaps being there a couple of days sooner and actually getting extra sleep before the ride (even if by chemical means)

Oh yes – one other mention – I usually take NO DRUGS however because I took off the taping, and had no support, I was constantly in spasm. Kathy Brouse was kind enough to give me some of her ALEAVE -they have allowed me to travel at least without winching at every turn. Kathy will enjoy this – our driver this AM dropped us at terminal 2A – and it was my fault for not checking my paperwork but Air Transat was in terminal 3 – let me tell you long walk plus up and down sometimes dragging the bike box.

From Sam Ehlers (Manitoba Randonneurs):

PBP Sam_s Story 2015

From Mark Beaver (Nova Scotia Randonneurs):

PBP 15 mb

Ride report from Dave Thompson:

SR600k – what is it anyway ?

SR600k rides are defined as minimum 600k rides with minimum 10,000 meters of climbing.  They have a couple of other organizational quirks — they are directly administered by ACP in France and they are also certified as Permanents from a RUSA point of view.  One other key thing is that no support is allowed, not even at Control points.  Because of the amount of climbing necessary, almost by definition you will be in remote areas without 24/7 service, so the Controls are mostly photo controls to show proof of passage.  Time stamps at intermediate controls are not relevant, only start and finish.  At start and finish you get a store receipt.

I need a plan

Planning for this ride was, in some ways, similar to planning for my first 1200k.  With the amount of climbing, well spread out over the event, figuring out where I would  be at any point in time was hit and miss.  Given that most of the replenishment spots are not 24/7, I needed to know whether I’d be able to get food and water.  I also planned for a sleep stop but needed to know if I was going to get there before checkout time!

Where and when I would hit various points along the ride would allow me to think about how much food and water I needed to carry and with some targets in place, know how I was doing during the ride.

So … I notionally figured out where a 10 mph average speed would put me along the course.  I didn’t want to make this too complicated, so I didn’t allow any time at Controls other than the sleep Control, where I assumed 3 hours.  With the course being 375 miles, that meant 37.5 hours + 3 hours = 40.5 hours vs the 50 hour limit.  Knowing as I rode that I had a 10 hour cushion built into the times written onto my cue sheet for arrival at Control points would allow me to see if I was on track to finish in time.  Trying to figure out anything more precise would be a waste of time, in my opinion.

The following is from ridewithgps, plotting the route and showing the profile.  That profile shows climbing of 37,380 feet but I know that this tool overestimates climbing, compared to, say, my Garmin results.  However, my Garmin results show 35,294, so that’s actually not as far off as I’d thought !  This was a lot of climbing !

So what do I carry with me ?

Which bike to I bring ?  What do I carry with me ?

Do I bring the new one with S&S couplers, front and back racks, front and back bags, etc. etc. or, in other words, handicap myself to the max ?  The alternative is to bring the old Litespeed, rear rack only, bring the minimum to make the climbing easier.  I did some weighing, figured out what else I’d be carrying (food, water, clothing) and yes, I could easily save 5 pounds or save even more if I went with minimum clothing and food on board, but to what end ?  An extra 5 pounds of bike wasn’t going to make or break me, I didn’t think.  A saved 5 pounds (notionally) in gear could very well cause a DNF due to major bonk or, more likely, hypothermia.

The weather predictions that I could see for the area led me to believe that I’d be dealing with high 80’s / low 90’s, temperature-wise.  It seemed silly to carry a lot of clothing.  Even the night-time temperatures weren’t dropping much below mid 60’s.  However, I’ve been riding in that area and had the heat turn to hail almost in a heartbeat, and I knew that at best I’d be miserable, at worst, in trouble.  I opted for light jersey, wool arm warmers, leg warmers (really thought that was silly, but they don’t take much space), skull cap, nothing in the way of rain pants or shoe covers.

It’s time to roll

This ride was tied into a trip to Reading PA, bringing our 7-year-old grand daughter home.  We arrived in Reading on Tuesday; I drove to Front Royal VA on Wednesday, got my bike organized, planning for a 4am or thereabouts, start.  I was up before 3am, had some food and coffee in the room, stashed my stuff in the car, as I’d be returning a couple of days hence, and set off.  It was a comfortable low 60’s; I was also wearing my PBP reflective vest.  Had it been a level ride, I’d have also put on my arm warmers but I knew that very shortly I’d have a long climb ahead of me.

I loaded up the ridewithgps course on my Garmin 705 but it didn’t appear on the map.  Rats.  It looked like it was loading properly but didn’t.  There was nothing that I could do at that point; my cue sheet was in front of me anyway.  We’ve done some investigation on the file and found two things — one is the sheer number of points, which I guess is because of all the twists and turns in the route — second is that it’s an invalid XML file.  I will do some more on this, with Peter Grant’s help, so that we can let Gary Dean (route owner) know for future riders.

Not wanting to take a chance on using my iPhone for pictures and running out of power, I’d decided to purchase a small point-and-shoot to carry with me.  For a little more than $100, I bought the Nikon Coolpix S33, which is waterproof to 30 feet, and a spare battery.  I haven’t done much with it yet to see how it compares, in terms of picture quality, with smartphone pictures, but it did the job on this ride.

I filled my water bottles at the 7-eleven, got my receipt, took my picture and started rolling.  My receipt showed 4:09 a.m.; I was rolling at 4:15, my official start time.  The notional times written onto the cue sheet were based on a 4am start, so that was close enough.

Upward, ever upward

The ride profile shows a good bit of climbing at the beginning without any descending.  Yup, that’s the case.  Up, up, up from Front Royal on Skyline Drive.  At the beginning of the Drive is a booth for collecting fees, as this is Shenandoah National Park.  Needless to say, there was simply a sign saying “go ahead”, as the booth isn’t staffed at that time of day.  In that first hour, I saw one car, clearly not enough traffic for them to pay for a staff.

The thing about the climbing on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, is that the grades are manageable.  They rarely top 9% and more typically in the 6-7% range.  The climbs tend to be long, so you can settle in, which has it’s pluses and minuses.  It does mean more time in the saddle, for me, as my style is usually standing up to handle rollers.  It also means that I can end up grinding alone ever so slowly, after a time.

The other thing about grades like this is that they eventually give you the impression that there is more descending than ascending.  Why ?  Well, because 4-5% starts to feel like flat and 2-3% feels like downhill!

The extra time in the saddle also means something else — saddle sores.  Yes, for the first time in my randonneuring, I finished a ride with an actual sore.  I can often end up with tender spots at my sit bones but this time, first time, skin removed.  I believe that this happened late in the ride, with my shorts wet from rain, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’d notionally expected to get to the first Control, Elkwallow Wayside, by 6:30, based on the distance of 24.3 miles.  Adding 15 minutes to that for the later start would make it 6:45; I got there around 7am.  So far so good.  As expected, it wasn’t open so I stopped, rested for a minute, took my photo control picture, and rolled on.  One down.

That first stage was beautiful.  The sky lightened; the vistas of the mountains were beautiful; that one car that had passed me was stopped, occupant out with his camera and tripod, clearly setup to take pictures of the sunrise over the mountains.  I too stopped and took a picture, wishing that I had a good camera with me but not wishing that I was carrying the extra pounds !

and the day goes on

The day carried on much the same, staying within an hour of the notional times, losing a little bit but not much until later in the day as I spent more time at Controls.  My average rolling speed for the entire ride was about 10.5 mph, so not much different than predicted.  Stopped time accumulated as I spent more time at Controls than I normally would but I knew that (or it seemed that) I had lots of cushion and took advantage of that.

Control # 3 at Big Meadows was well stocked and had sit-down food.  I grabbed some cheese sticks, coffee and something else, I forget, which satisfied my hunger at that point.

Control # 4 didn’t have as much, as I recall, in convenience-store type items, but it also had burgers etc. All I wanted at that point was a big diet pepsi, feeling the need for some cold caffeine.  The day was getting warmer but no where near as warm as I had expected.  I’d hit this Control at 12:25 p.m.

From Control # 4 to # 5 there’s a significant descent and you then move off Skyline Drive and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Humpback Rocks Visitor Center is Control # 5 and it too was advertised as having food on the cue sheet but it’s more snacks than food; a selection of chocolate bars, little else.  I was ok, had lots of food on board — almonds, cheese, filling stuff — restocked my water bottles and headed on.  Where I had been about an hour behind plan at #4, I was now only 15 minutes behind plan on arrival.  The extra descending accounts for that speed-up.  111.6 miles now in the bag, I’m getting close to being 1/3 of the way through the ride and rolling for almost 12 hours.

Control # 6 is in Buena Vista, having left the Parkway.  There’s a significant descent to get there as its elevation is much lower.  The roughly 70F riding on the Drive and the Parkway now shows what the elevation has done for the temperature as it’s like a furnace in Buena Vista.  I’m ready for something more substantial to eat as it’s now 8pm against my plan of 7:30 (make that 7:45).  The Exxon/Burger King is good for the Control, replenishing bottles, but the Subway across the road calls to me and I have a chopped salad, which I’ve gotten fond of.  I probably spent 45 minutes or more at this Control.  It’s getting dark and I’m prepping myself physically and mentally for the night ahead.  I’m not in a hurry, no need.

The next stage to Glasgow VA is more typical riding, rolling, turns, some chipseal with loose gravel, traffic.  Refreshing after all the long ups and downs, it’s also short, less than 20 miles, and I arrive just under an hour behind schedule at 10:10 pm.  I knew that this would be the last Control with food & water before my night stop as everything from here to Raphine would be closed.

Control # 8 is next up, and it is up, back up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It’s only 11 miles but takes extra time; I arrive at 11:45 vs 10:15 adjusted plan.  It’s dark — yes, you’d expect that — no, it’s really dark.  There are no lights.  I find the sign where I’m supposed to take a picture but the camera doesn’t want to fire the flash or focus in total darkness.  I fiddle with the menus, not something that I’d expected to do in total darkness; bugs are attracted to my bike headlight and mini light on top of my helmet.  I probably could have used a flashlight at that point — I have a small single AAA flashlight that I’ve carried in a pocket before, but not this time.  I eventually get the camera firing the way that I want, get my picture and hit the road again.

When I’d entered the Control, looking around for the correct sign for the picture, at one point I dropped the bike – not me, just the bike.  I was up against a curb and didn’t know it.  Drat.  Luckily no damage but it really went down hard, over the curb and down on the other side.  My front bag was open so a few things spilled out; luckily I retrieved and repacked.

Onward.  The next Control would be my sleep stop at Raphine, 44 miles away.  2/3 of that is riding the Parkway, no traffic, quiet, then a very steep descent / hairpin turns down to Raphine.  I wouldn’t know how steep that road is until the morning, when I’d climb back up !  I pulled into the 24/7 Pilot in Raphine at the intersection with I81, bought some food and drinks, piled those on the front of the bike and headed to my motel, just up the road.  Having arrived at the Control at 5am vs my plan of 3:15, I’m still expecting to make it a three hour stop. I clean up, eat and drink, check email and facebook, sleep for an hour, take my time getting organized and having some breakfast, hitting the road a little before 8am, about one hour behind plan, but that’s ok.

Riding Day 2

Raphine is at mile 227.2, I now have 150 miles to go.  I’m more than half-way finished as I start out again, roughly 28 hours on the elapsed time clock, a few hours less on the rolling clock.

On the way into Raphine, there had been a few drops of rain and I mentally had crossed my fingers, hoping to finish the “day” dry. I was successful, but I saw that it had rained overnight and The Weather Channel in the breakfast area at the Comfort Suites was showing lots of rain.  Oh well, I’m prepared.

Getting back up to the BRP was going to be some work, I knew, from the descent the night before.  Retracing my route, there’s a 4 mile climb.  I didn’t realize until I hit it going up, that some of the up hits 20%.  There’s no way that I could sustain that for so long without completely wiping out my legs.  My bike, including water, gear, food, tops 40 pounds.  That’s almost 1/3 of my body weight !  Furthermore, any climbing at that grade wasn’t much faster than walking.  I admit it, I did some walking.

The other factor for that section was safety.  Traffic was going up and coming down those hairpin turns.

Did I mention that it started to rain ?  No, I didn’t.  The heavens opened; dumping is a more appropriate description.  It rained so hard that water was coming down the road in waves.  It was basically timed such that it came down that way for the entire 4 miles.  It was slow going, but, as I said, not much faster than riding.

Back on the BRP, I’m now retracing my route from the day before, except that the route diverts to Wintergreen.   A one-mile, 15% grade downwards (yes, I was thinking about the trip up), it was lightly raining.  Then there is a 2.4 mile climb at 15+ %, but it varies, so I’m walking and riding.  It’s raining and there’s significant, albeit polite, traffic.

I had no idea that Wintergreen was a ski resort, well, year round resort.  It’s a beautiful spot.  The climbing (ugh) and the location (neat) and the food at The Market (Control) remind me of Whistler BC only on a much smaller scale.  It looks pretty exclusive.  http://www.wintergreenresort.com/

A fellow in a delivery truck recognized me from the road from Raphine to here.  He comments he knows a lot of “younger guys” who wouldn’t attempt this.  I say yes, I’m older and stupid :).

The Market is well stocked; typical resort stuff, not convenience store.  I stocked up, sat down and ate something.  I’d arrived at 11:20, about 1.5 hours behind my tracking time.  I’m in pretty good shape.

Once back on the BRP, I’m retracing steps and photo controls back to ride’s end.  I get to Loft Mountain, # 11, mile 295, about 2.5 hours behind tracking, at 4:35 pm.   I’ve been taking my time. I’m expecting this to be my last opportunity to get food before the end of the ride.  I order some “chicken tenders”, relax, spend more than 1/2 hour.

Big Meadows / Harry F Byrd, is at 323.8.  I get there a little under 3 hours behind at 8:05 pm.  Since my plan has a built-in 7 hour cushion, I’m in great shape.  BM is now closed, but water is available.  I stock up.

The last few hours on Skyline Drive has been like riding through an immense, spread out, herd of deer.  They’re mostly tame, don’t mind me stopping and taking pictures even if I’m only 50 feet away.  I can see why the bag limit for deer hunting in VA is 7, but of course they are protected here in the Park.

On one descent, a doe and three fawns run across in front of me.  The last fawn stops, unsure what to do.  I skid to a stop, barely one foot away.  He/she decides to follow its mother.  Whew.  Hitting a deer of any size could certainly do me in !

Somewhere along here I have also seen my second bobcat running across the road.  There’s really been little else in terms of wildlife — birds, deer being the majority.

The next Control, Elkwallow, is at mile 351.  I’m almost finished.  I’m about 2:45 behind schedule and expect to make up some of that time on the last leg, in fact, I expect to make up an hour on the last leg, with that long descent it will be a fast 24 miles.  That was not to be …

I pull into Elkwallow and don’t recognize anything.  In fact, I don’t see anything.  Nothing.  Of course I’d arrived here after dawn the day before so perhaps it’s completely dark ?  No, that cannot be … I ride back out to the road and realize that I’ve pulled into Elkwallow Campground, not the Wayside, which is just up the road.

Into the Wayside, I take my picture.  It starts raining lightly, so I put on my rain jacket, wishing that I’d instead brought my light jacket.  Wrong.  I hit the road again.

Where the heck am I anyway ?

About a mile out of that Control, now about 23 miles to the end, it starts raining heavily.  I’m climbing and I run into fog.  No, this isn’t fog, this is cloud.  I’m in the clouds.  It’s so dense that when in the middle of the road, I can’t see the sides.  From one dash on the center line, I can’t see the next.  I’m riding in a 6′ diameter pool of light.  I have to point my light downwards more so that it shows the road and doesn’t just create a blinding white fog patch.

It cools off.  I’m starting to get cold.  There’s nowhere to stop and even if there were, I couldn’t see it.  I’ve been riding the center line to stay on track.  I’m forced to take off my jacket and put on my arm warmers.  I also balance the bike while putting on my leg warmers.  I’ve had the skull cap on for a while.  I’m now wearing all my clothes, my only backup being an exposure sheet !

I stand up and ride, even though I’m going slowly.  I generate more heat that way.

My Garmin loses the satellite, the cloud cover and tree cover (at times) are so dense.  I have no idea what speed I’m riding, just know that it’s slow, riding the yellow line.  I mentally think ok, 5 mph tops, this could take another 4-5 hours; I’m still ok but pushing it.

I start falling asleep, focused on that oh-so-little patch of road.  I’m wandering all over, but I’m only crawling anyway.  I’m going so slowly that the internal battery on the light has no chance to charge.  The light goes off immediately if I stop, which I have to do occasionally.  One time I stop, then start up not realizing that I’m riding across the road.  The light comes on 1 second later and I almost ride off the road (it’s all downhill from there !).

This goes on and on.  I haven’t seen any traffic since Big Meadows, 5 hours earlier.  This could be someone’s definition of hell, endless.  I’m ok.  I stop a couple of times along the road, eat some cheese and almonds out of my bag; food can be such a comfort ! The stop breaks the monotony, keeps me alert.

I start descending.  Soon I can see the sides of the road.  I speed up, a little, not too much because vis isn’t all that great.  I realize that I’m finally, finally on the big descent.  I’ve got a few miles to go but the end is “in sight”, so to speak.  The only thing accurate on the Garmin at that point is the time. Speed is back on; distance is wrong.  Elevation is probably correct, but accumulated ascent is wrong.  That will self-correct when I load the history file, but that doesn’t help me here.  That doesn’t matter, I’m almost finished.

I roll into the 7-eleven and get coffee.  I’m cold but more than that, I need a receipt.  I stand in line.  Who goes to 7-eleven at this time of night ? Only randonneurs know for sure.  My receipt says 2:01 a.m., which puts my time for the ride at 45:46 against the 50 hour limit.  I did not make up any time on that last, endless, completely surreal experience of the last stage.  Every ride has it’s memories, and that one will surely stick with me, one of the strangest experiences that I’ve ever had on the bike.

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway are so pleasant to ride on.  There is very little traffic, no trash, great roads for riding with a friend as you have an opportunity to ride side-by-side and chat.  The roads are in good shape, easy on the tires and body.  There are enough services, if you plan it out, especially on Skyline Drive.  BRP is another matter — if you don’t leave the Parkway, there’s nothing.

Skyline Drive is by far the prettier of the two.  There are innumerable outlook points, named vistas.  BRP, on the other hand, is mostly treed in with only a few places where you can see over the trees.

Most of the time you are sheltered, so wind isn’t an issue.  There were only a couple of times where you are exposed to the wind, and it was getting windy by the evening of the second day — I got a taste of that at Big Meadows.

I loved the ride.  I would do it again.  I highly recommend it.  Randonnesia has set in already !

Ride report from Terry Payne:

Last week we rode the Much Ado About … brevet starting in London. Nine riders started out at 7:00 for a nice ride on a beautiful morning. Carey Chappelle and I had tickets in hand for The Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Taming of the Shrew in Stratford at 2:00. On the way out of town Carey had a flat tire which put us a little behind since we had to cover the first 140 km to Stratford in 7 hrs. Easily enough done but the intention was to do it at a leisurely pace and not be any more sweaty and smelly than we had to be when arriving in our finest theatre going apparel.  i.e., cycling clothes. We rode at a steady pace and eventually caught up to Cori Dean who was riding comfortably along and enjoying the day outside of Sebringville. I later found out that she broke a spoke and wobbled into Stratford and had it repaired for free along with topping up the air and some minor adjustments at Totally Spoke’d bike shop in Stratford.

Carey and I stopped in Milverton to pick up a sandwich to eat along the way but the restaurant was too busy. We knew that Annie May’s bakery which is the first control in Milbank would be crazy busy so we wanted to save time. A Mexican Mennonite grocery in Newton didn’t pan out either. Annie May’s was busy with a busload of seniors so we each picked up some cookies and date squares to go. Outside waiting were John Cumming, Michel Hebert, Fred Krawiecki,  first timer Dave Mott and Steve Wright. Fred plodded on ahead. Carey, Steve, John and I headed to Stratford where we settled into the Boars Head Pub control with 48 minutes before showtime. This gave us enough time to get a hot meal and two pints of beer before riding back to the theatre where we entered in all our glory with a minute to spare. The beer in my water bottle was a classy touch I thought. Had to drink it quickly since it foamed up when I pored it in and my camelback bottle was making farting noises as it released the pressure. Can dress him up …   Just before we left the pub Dave Pearson checked in and continued on ahead.

The play was excellent. It took about ten minutes to get attuned to the olde English and be able to follow along easily. We had joked about possibly cramping up during the play and sure enough my left hamstring went nuts during the second act and all I could do was straighten it out and do a silent scream. After a minute or two of heavy breathing it settled down. It was good thing that there were four empty seats around us so it enabled us to spread out and get comfortable. No armrest wrestling required. Even our musk was covered up by all of the perfume around us. At the intermission we had a glass of red wine with cheese and crackers while having our picture taken posing by the grand piano in the lobby. The play was well done and provided lots of laughs while probably making any feminists in the crowd seethe over the breaking of Katherina  (the shrew) to her new husbands demands. Enough said about that. In whole it was a great experience and our seats were excellent. Actually there’s not a bad seat in the house.

We left the theatre after another picture, made our way to Tim’s to fill up our bottles and left town at 5:15. The last 65 km went by easily and we arrived at the Tim’s to finish in 12:51. Fred Krawiecki was driving by after returning from dinner and stopped in for a coffee and a chat about the ride. All in all it was a great day. Everyone finished and enjoyed the day.

From Luc Fournier:

This brevet has been on my calendar for a few months, I rode it last year and I though it was a good course, in particular for a velomobile with only 2000m of climbing.

Start is at the other end of the city so I had to get up early to get to the start on time.  The air is cold, 9C but comfortable and the sky is clear.  When I arrived at destination, the wind has picked-up, I need to put on my jacket, I wish I had my sleeves but at least I have my warm-up legs.

My friend Alain from Montreal Randonneurs, the one from the Sunshine 1200, came with his Quest to ride the brevet.   Alain came with his camper the night before and parked at our point of departure, he probably had the best sleep and looked refreshed.  Maybe this is Glamdonneuring!  Participants are getting ready, I think we are 7 and noticed that many of them spoke French, we all say hello to one another.  I introduce Alain to the ride Vytas the organizer of the brevet; he said it was nice to meet you because I will not see you again, commenting on the speed of our velomobiles.  I told him well you never know, we may have issues and you will pass us.

I loaded the course on my but my GPS was not showing me the route. At 5AM Vytas gave the start signal but my route did not appear, ah, I forgot to change the colour of the trace so I did change it quickly and I can now see the route.  After the first few turns, I realize that the GPS appears to be giving the wrong directions and realized that while I downloaded the route to my computer last week, I loaded last years route on the GPS; I guess I was not thinking too much, they have two different names!  I figure that I’m still OK, the route is mostly the same but the beginning of the first section and the last segment are different and I let Alain lead as he had the right course on his GPS.  At least I had the right cue sheet so I reverted to the cues to start.  After a few minutes we joined the old route and everything was fine.

Alain and I were riding in front of the group and now that I had the right course, Alain let me lead and he would follow, as I knew the route.  It was the first time that I would ride in a brevet with another velomobile.   After a few minutes, I found myself way ahead, and while he is a stronger and more seasoned rider, he could not keep up with the speed of the DF and I waited for him.  The difference in speed is so noticeable, it is in the order of 5 to 7km/h on the flat.  Since he came from Montreal to ride with me, I wanted to remain with him so I would stop and let him catch-up.  Before we got to Lanark, we encountered a 5km long section of gravel as the road is undergoing repairs.  Riding on gravel is not much of an issue with a velomobile but it tends to dance on the road and going up hill may create traction issues.

At the Lanark control, I was half way through my cup of coffee when Alain showed-up.  I was at the Lanark control a couple of minutes after the opening but I was tracking to arrive before the opening of the first two controls.  At the Desert Lake control, I have time to refill my Camelback, and have my lunch before Alain shows up some 30 minutes behind me.  He had problems with the drivetrain and spent quite a few minutes looking for the source without much success.  I asked me to try his Quest to see if I could figure the issues but in the little parking lot, I could not push his velomobile to see the symptoms.  One thing I did notice was that even though I used to have the same Quest, compared to the DF, the Quest is huge!   By then, Gordon (I think) shows up 45 minutes after my arrival. Alain gives me the keys to his vehicle and said I don’t think I will make it back (we are the furthest part of the ride.  Now we are about to hit the hilly part and his Quest makes a terrible noise.

Alain leaves the control and I climbed on board.  As we started my GPS complained it was low on power so I plugged it into the DF USB port but it did not like it and after a couple of minutes, I connected it on my trusted USB battery and the GPS was happy.  I soon catch-up with him and I follow him on the short but twisty and steep hills up and down.  I can hear the thonk-thonk coming from the Quest drivetrain.

A couple of minutes later, all of a sudden I come around a very tight turn and my chain started making a terrible noise.  I quickly came to the conclusion that the chain had skipped the idler by the jumpy side motion.  Recumbents have idlers to guide the long chain from the crank to the cassette and back.  While it was making a lot of noise from the chain rubbing on the carbon fibre, I caught up to him and told him to stop, maybe I was in major trouble too and would not be able to rescue him.  I looked at the idler but everything is hidden behind carbon fibre, I have seen no instruction on how to remove the rear idler except for a comment that it can be done and it comes out the back.  Now I’m swearing because I can’t believe that such info is not published.  So I try my luck and remove the two blots holding the idler and I play with the chain, maybe I can back pedal and it will move itself out.  It does not work but the noise appears to be less.  I try to pedal back up the hill and the noise is less.  The idler is floating freely inside the shell or so I think.  It appears that there is less noise so I decide to reinstall the bolts and try my luck.  I’m able to re-align the bolt holes using a small hex key and reinstall the bolts.

I get back in the velomobile, and start pedalling but it still makes noise, maybe not as much so I try shifting gears, back pedalling and finally things start running smoothly again.  Alain had given me the keys to his vehicle so I could come and rescue him, he tell me to ride ahead and finish then come back to pick him up, he would limp to safety.  Another rider catches-up to us and continues on his ride.   I said to Alain that I would get back to him when I reach the next control.  A velomobile can be hard to pedal up the hills, but I find myself right behind the Jean Pierre and I pass him on a descent and soon I put a bit of distance between us.  Soon I find my way to Syndenam and on a main road on my way to Athens (Ontario, not Greece).

There are still numerous hills on the road of Athens and the roads also became very busy in the early afternoon.  This year, the 400km brevet coincides with the Rideau Lakes Tour, probably the largest annual cycling event in Ottawa. The Ottawa Bike Club organizes this supported ride where thousands of cyclists are riding from Ottawa to Kingston and back the next day cyclists use are several different routes based on their category.  At the same time 500 – 800 motorcycles participating in the Motorcycle Ride for Dad out of Kingston were using several of the same roads.

I first encountered the Rideau Lake Tour riders on highway 15 where I passed a few dozen of them before a short climb.  This being average cyclists, I was able to pass a few up the hill, only one strong rider passed me in order to find a spot to take my picture.  I soon turned off that road and for several minutes met cyclists going in the opposite direction towards highway 15.

I soon met motorcycle riders on the road, many of them waving at me.  There were several section of open road with good pavement where I could motor along at 50+km/h.  At one point, I was riding above 55km/h and the lead motorcyclist was following me about 10ft behind and a bit to the side then moved right next to me.  The long bearded guy with a companion on the back of the motorcycle ask me “Hey, how are you doing man?”  I did not want to keep my eye off the road for too long, the road was twisty and there could be potholes, I quickly turned my head, I said fine and I waved then he passed me along with about half of the group but by then the road had a small slope so I was picking up speed riding now at 70km/h right in the middle of the group.  All of a sudden I notice they have patches on their jackets they are members of the Outlaws motorcycle… ahem Club.  This went on for a few km until a small hill slowed me down and the rest passed me.  I don’t know too many Randonneurs or cyclist for that matter who can say they have ridden with the Outlaws!

I was in Athens at 4PM and Alain told me he made it to the next town and his idler was broken, he could not repair it so he would try to find a ride back or I would have to pick him up after the ride.  At the control I ask them to sign my  card and asked if any other rider had stopped, they told me none had so maybe I passed him with the Rideau Lakes crowd or when he stopped somewhere and did not notice.  I had a quick Pizza dinner while entertaining the local people who peppered me with dozens of questions.  It also gave me time to nurse my feet that were getting numb.  When it was time to leave there were probably some 25 people who came out to see me leave.

The ride to Merrickville was uneventful but I was not going as fast as I would have liked, legs tired some wind maybe or the rough roads in places may have contributed to this.  I arrived in Merrickville at the control and immediately, people came to see me.  This being a touristy town, there are many people walking the streets.  I went in to get my card signed, purchase a beverage, the clerk jokingly offered sell me cigarettes. Then I returned to the velomobile.  I answered questions, while I changed socks and the tourists took pictures of the velomobile and then I left.

From that point, I now had to disregard the GPS because of the change in the route.  I was lucky because it was before sunset and I could still read the street signs.  My odometer was a bit off from the cue sheet so I had to be careful.  In a few places, I had to stop to ensure I was going the right way.  I only overshot once because GPS gave me a different name than on the cue sheet but I quickly turned around.

The new route takes you on some pretty damaged roads.  Depending on the pavement, on the same road my speed varied significantly from less than 25 to more than 40 km/h. For close to 8km on Shea Rd, I felt I was riding on a rumble strip and had to slow right down to ensure I would not lose the fillings in my teeth or any part of my velomobile.  Soon I reached the maze of suburbia, it was a real navigation exercise but I make it back. I finished at 8:20PM.

I improved my time over last year but not as much as I could have.   Of course, the time spent waiting for the problems of my friend slowed me down so taking this into account I would certainly have shaved another hour to my time.  The weather conditions were ideal, it was cool sunny but a bit windy.

After I arrived, I called Alain, he could not get a lift on his own so I drove to Syndenam to pick him up.  I arrived after 10:30PM he was in his velomobile shivering in the cold night, I gave him my polar vest and we loaded the Quest for the trip back.  We returned to Stittsville after 12AM.  We packed everything and Xavier from Toronto arrived atfter12:30AM.  I arrived home at 1:45AM, did not unpack and went straight to bed.

From Dave Thompson:

An amazing experience has to have highs and lows, right? This definitely qualifies!

It was epic, an extremely tiring but gratifying ride. How tiring – well, can you imagine a beer in front of her and Liz going to bed instead?

First and foremost, the eight of us started and finished together. That in itself is unusual. Michael, Martin, Arthur, Peter, Dave, Vaune, Kathy, Liz – great riding company.

The route was amazing – I put that in the past tense because it will probably be reconstituted if/when we run this again. The major hang-up is getting from South River to Highway 522 towards Loring. Unless the recent changes to the Highway Traffic Act will let us ride on Highway 11, our only option at this point is Rye Road with its 16km of gravel. I had checked that section out just one week earlier and while rough going in spots, it was do-able. Well, we did it, but in between my checkout drive and our ride, someone had seen fit to do some road maintenance and filled quite a few spots with what we call pit-run gravel aka soft sand. Perhaps it will pack eventually, but that was brutal. Spinning wheels, a couple of tip-overs … you get the idea.

The rest of the route explored as much of cottage country as possible, hitting parallel roads to Highways 11 and 69. Southwood Road delighted everyone, as it had on the 400k the prior week.

The weather could always have been worse but the north wind as we headed north and the very strong south wind as we headed south, then capped off by heavy rain from Orillia almost to the end … well, that just about did us in time-wise as we finished in 39:22.

Other than that wind, we were cold coming into my place close to 1am – yes, that’s 19 hours to do the first 340k. The temperature was in the single digits and we’d had a long day. Everyone enjoyed a hot shower at that point. In Orillia on the return, temperature dropping and in heavy rain, we donned all our clothing for the final stretch. In Vaune’s case, that included a large trash bag, arm-holes cut … yes, we were quite the motley crew!

Nature tried to stop us once more at a road closure. It seems that water had taken out a culvert. Now I think of a culvert as one of those corrugated pipes across the end of my driveway … this one was those large concrete jobs that you can almost walk through, connecting two parts of a lake right on our way east towards Bala. As soon as we topped the hill and saw the huge crane down below and all the trucks, I knew that we were in trouble. There aren’t many east-west routes through this area. This wasn’t going to be eight of us tip-toeing through the water. However … just as Vaune was approaching the workmen to see if they’d let us move our bikes across the piles of gravel that were accumulating on the concrete culvert sections as they repaired the road, someone discovered that there was a walk-around with a little foot-bridge. I’m pretty sure that adding perhaps 40 km to our ride at that point would have sealed the deal, but we lucked out. Back-tracking to 141 then north and east … ugh

The mosquitoes were epic. I’ve never seen them like this. You only had to stop for a second and there were clouds. On Rye Road we couldn’t outrun them, hard as we tried and they bit on exposed skin and through cycling shorts. It was too slow going to stay ahead of the critters. Vaune set a new record for a flat-tire-change in the midst of those Rye Road mosquitoes.

Speaking of flats, the last group rolled into my place and we’d lost Peter. It seems that he’d had a flat 3 km back at the entrance to our cottage road, Osprey. I went out with the car to track him down and he was not too far behind.   Kathy had two flats – one at the house and another early on while on one of our short highway 69 stretches.

We never had much time in the bank on day two. We’d left my place about 1/2 hour negative and were rather pressed to make Parry Sound, 100+ km further on. With only 10 minutes in the bank, we rolled out of Parry Sound and got to Bala with about an hour, used up most of that fortifying ourselves with cappuccino and such (have to have some fun, right?), and used up a bunch more in Orillia as we got reorganized to roll to the finish in the heavy rain. 39:22 is certainly a new 600k record for me. That was one full-value ride!

Special mention must be made of Michael and Martin as they did way more than their fair share of pulling. Michael, in particular, could have finished hours earlier, but elected to stay with the group. At times the group was spread out but we always reconstituted at stops.

Last but not least, thanks to my wife Sandy who organized food and drink for dinner and breakfast and sleeping arrangements. Our washer & dryer have been going full time today as all those towels and bedding are washed.   For me it was a two-snooze drive home. Usually I’m so wired that I don’t need to stop on a 2.5 hour drive, even after a big ride … but not this time!

From Kathy Brouse:

OK, time to add my two cents. There are a few details Dave did not mention. Aside from the fact that it was a long, hard and challenging ride (but no one expects these 600 to be a breeze) it was a huge adventure. We were riding in cottage country, remote cottage country – granite shield and Algonquin Park, that type of cottage country. Riding to Dave’s house along this deserted rode close to midnight the sky was bright and full of stars. In the morning as we headed out along the road towards the highway I was upfront with Peter and we came across a moose on the road and further on Michael, Marty, Peter and I spotted a bear on the side of the road!! At the end of the second day, as we rode along Ridge Rd. in the dark towards Barrie the side of the fields were lit up by fireflies, it was magic.

Thank you to Dave for organizing this adventure and to Sandy for staying up after midnight to dish out lasagna to a motley group of cold and hungry randonneurs. How often on one of these long challenging rides do you get to sleep in a comfy bed and eat yummy food without handing over a credit card:-) A heartfelt thanks to the both of you for such a pleasant stopover.

Other memories – strawberry ice cream in Bala, coming off my bike (again) on a cushion of sand, drafting behind Michael T who pulled us north and then south, watching Dave take off into the distance cause I didn’t know he could rock the bike like that, Vaune all agitated and dressed in a garbage bag, Peter Grant and such chivalry as he took charge of the changing of the flats (got to be some perks in this sport for us ladies:-)

A great time, thank you Dave and Liz, Vaune, Arthur, Peter, Michael and Marty for sharing it with me. Now all my qualifying rides are done for PBP, yippee!!

From Liz Overduin:

Thanks Dave and Kathy for taking the time to write reports – I love reading ride reports – even when I was on the ride.

I have decided that I love the 600 km distance – but I would rather do it in 72 hours as opposed to 40 hours! Today I did not go to work – it was unthinkable to even try to weld something! So I had 3 days off anyway!

Dave, it was a great route – the gravel was crazy, but for me, it was the mosquitoes! When we had to walk up those hills in the soft gravel, rather than spin out, the mosquitoes were in heaven! Eight cyclists in spandex! What were they doing before we came along? Within seconds I was surrounded by at least 200 mosquitoes – no exaggeration! I looked over at Peter Grant walking beside me and he also had a swarm around him. It was truly insane! And then Vaune gets a flat! And Peter stayed with her – is there a medal for that?

And, yes, I have let down the Huron Chapter by turning down a beer and lasagna – which was truly regrettable the 2nd day – consider it a lesson learned. All I could think about in that last hour up to your cabin was – I have got to close my eyes and stop moving any of my aching body parts! Nothing else mattered!   Huge thanks to Dave and Sandy for such a great welcome and comfortable place to stay. If we had 72 hours for a 600 we could have enjoyed it so much more!

We all finished – and together – what a great experience – thanks to everyone! Although I had my bear spray at the ready……I never had to use it (does bear spray repel mosquitoes?) If I had a repellent for headwind, that would have been supremely handy!

Congrats to everyone who is now qualified for PBP – you are going to Love it!

From Peter Grant:

Cottage 600 – a very enjoyable bike ride. Great scenery, quiet roads and most important – good company. Thank you Marty, Michael, Dave Kathy Arthur, Vaune and Liz. The 500km of headwinds were a bit of bad luck but overall we had had good weather and that 100km+ without headwinds. And such hospitality at Port Loring. A very special thank you to Sandy Thompson for being up at 1:00 AM with cold beer and hot lasagna for us.

Mosquitoes scare me and my weapon of choice in the spray category was a 37ml bottle of Natrepel which I got at MEC. When Vaune announced she had a flat on Rye Road I reached for it first and sprayed our helmets and probably a lot more. I just checked my helmet and the Natrepel did not melt anything or even make it sticky, maybe just a hint of lemon smell.

Until next time, thank you all for a great weekend!

From Terry Payne:

From Peter Grant:

From Dave Thompson:

Having just read Kathy’s ride report on the Oak Ridges Morraine, I’m spurred on to write mine.

Five brave souls headed out on the inaugural Parry Sound 400k on Saturday.  A new route, largely un-scouted, what would we encounter !?!  An ugly weather forecast faced us as well – warm and dry to start with a tail-wind, lots of rain, dropping temperatures and a head-wind for the trip back.  Remembering what the first day of the Rocky Mountain 1200k was like a couple of years ago, I warned everyone what to expect and told them what I’d be wearing.  They listened.  We were all heavily loaded down to start … we were wearing it all at the end.  Heavy jackets and rain pants were ready to shut out the elements.

Albert Koke, Henk Bouhuyzen, David Pearce, Martin Cooper and I were the brave souls.  We all finished although I’m sure that Albert was using a substitute bike with a motor for part of the ride as he finished about six hours ahead of the rest of us, who rolled in at 5:17 a.m., just beating the dawn and just shy of 24 hours.

The Route

First off, the route is fabulous.  I’d originally called it “cottage 400k” because that’s what it is, a sight-seeing tour through cottage country.  We saw more granite that day than we did on the entire Granite Anvil.    Cottages perched high above the water to deep cuts for the roadways to steep drops from roadside to water’s edge to expanses of flat, bare granite in the Torrance Barrens as we headed north towards Bala on Southwood Road  / District Road 13, 33.5 km of nature designed roller coaster.

From Barrie through Orillia to Bala we lucked out and stayed dry but we could feel the temperature dropping.  Three of us had a hot breakfast; Dave Pearson joined us having coffee; Albert was out there ahead.  North on 169 and Lake Joseph Road to Clear Lake Road was good riding, traffic somewhat busy at times.  It was shortly after Bala that Henk’s wheel problems started … more on that later.

Clear Lake Road … ahem … gravel … remember that none of this route had been pre-scouted.  I was by myself at that point, trailing the others.   It had rained but wasn’t raining at the time.  Thank goodness for fenders, which kept my drivetrain mostly clean. It was slow going and seemed to go on and on, mostly because I had no idea how much more gravel there would be before Parry Sound.   Hitting 141, which is paved, was heaven, but, we only ride 141 for a km or so.  I prayed that the next road would be paved … and it was … that made my day !

It was along Tally-Ho Swords Road that I caught up to Henk, now walking.

518, Hunter Drive and Oastler Park then take us into Parry Sound for lunch, not half the kilometres completed, but taking into account the gravel, probably half the riding.

The route back to Barrie shares some of the same roads except that we turn East on 141 after Tally-Ho Swords through Rosseau.  That too is worth the price of admission !  South on what becomes Manitoba St and to Gravenhurst, we run parallel to Highway 11, cycle restricted at that point because it is 4-lanes.  We then loop back towards Bala on 169 and take Southwood Road’s roller coaster, now back on familiar territory but not really, since it’s dark.  We bypass Orillia on the way south – that’s a part of the route that I will examine as it meant that we had 130kms from the Gravenhurst Control to the end.  Having now ridden the route, I can also pinpoint Controls.

The Weather

I do have to say that we lucked out with the weather.  It wasn’t as bad as predicted.  How’s that for Randonneur Logic ??

We got a fair amount of rain, but never torrential.  It didn’t rain while we were on the gravel road.  We had a SW cross tail-wind as we headed north, which had gradually turned into a NW wind by the time we hit Parry Sound which then helped us for the ride back.  Having the wind partly at our back also meant that we were a little warmer than we would have been with  a headwind.

That said, we were cold but functional.  Dave, Martin and I stopped at a restaurant about half-way between the Parry Sound and Gravenhurst Controls, an oasis of hot coffee.  It didn’t help physically for long, but did help mentally.  We were looking forward to something in the Orillia area but didn’t want to go off-route to find it.  By the end we were cold.  My hands weren’t working very well and it took a long time to get packed up and on the road.

Dave had checked the weather forecast when we were in Parry Sound and reported the wind prediction, which was accurate, and 30% chance of rain.  Well, that cloud followed us, lost us for a while when we stopped for coffee, picked us up again later but allowed us to roll back into Barrie and pack our cars being dry.

Henk

Randonneurs Ontario needs a new medal for sheer determination.  Henk would win it hands-down.  Having had a ride-busting problem with his rear hub the prior week, I think that he would have walked the entire route to finish if he’d had the time.  It started off easy … ping … a spoke gone on the front wheel.  Being a low spoke count wheel, it had too much of a side-to-side wobble to turn.  His torx spoke wrench turned out to be the wrong size.  I pulled out my little pliers but there’s so little leverage and so little grip, that I could barely turn the spoke nipples to make a correction.  Henk, however, is a better man than me, or at least has a better grip J.  He managed to loosen the two opposing spokes and slightly tightened others so that the wheel would turn with a slight wobble and a hop.  No one would notice the hop on these roads anyway !

Shortly afterwards, he noticed his rear hub occasionally not engaging.  Yes, that’s the hub that was repaired two days before.  It started out slow then he would have to stop and bang the wheel and finally, 20+ kms from Parry Sound, utter failure.  I’d been dawdling and caught up to him walking towards Parry Sound.  In actual fact he’d only have to walk half the distance because the other half would be downhill and he could ride.  I called my wife Sandy as we have a Parry Sound phone book and she found that there were two bike shops in PS.  Walking, however, would get him there after they closed.  I suggested that he hitch-hike or stop at a house and ask for a ride; he did the latter and passed me sometime as I rode to Parry Sound, trailing the others by a fair bit.  Albert also passed me at this point, but he was already on his way back to Barrie.

While I was helping Henk, all of a sudden my cranks wouldn’t turn.  What ?!?  I figured out that my cassette had loosened and was binding, clearly I need to keep on top of bike maintenance, not having checked that in months.  I tightened the lock-ring by hand, getting quite greasy and dirty in the process, but was rolling again.  Once into Parry Sound, I visited one of those bike shops and they graciously let me use their Shimano lock-ring tool.  I’d pictured myself re-tightening it in the dark and thought that this was the better approach.

Coming out of the bike shop, there was Henk at the convenience store across the street.  He had visited the other bike shop and not only fixed the rear wheel, they lent him a new Mavic Kysrium front wheel, which is what he was riding.  No charge.  He has to go back to Parry Sound to retrieve his wheel, of course, but that’s a small price to pay.  Determined to finish this ride, he set out back down the course to where he picked up the hitchhike ride, then rode to back Parry Sound, then back down the course.  40 kms behind us at that point if you count the back-and-forth, 20 if you only count the route, he would catch up to us before the end.  We saw him shortly after his turnaround point, heading back to Parry Sound.  Me ?  Bail ?  Not Henk !

Summary

A great route that I will put on the schedule again.  I will tweak it to break up that long stretch between Controls and see if there is something that can be done about the gravel section, but I doubt it.  There are very few roads in that area that actually go anywhere.  7.3 km of gravel is not too bad, considering the area, especially if you know that’s all the gravel and you won’t be hitting it again on the way south.

I rode my own pace, as usual, and my riding partners waited for me which wasn’t necessary but was much appreciated.

Thanks to Henk, Martin, Albert and Dave for a memorable ride.