Ride Report by Liz Overduin:

Do you remember the first time? The excitement, anticipation and fears? Ahhh, the joys of the first ever 200 km brevet (what did you think I was talking about!)

This past Saturday my brother Nick did his first ever 200 km brevet. Nick was the first person to ever mention Randonneuring to me. He said “you should check it out Liz, they go long distances, up to 1200 km in one go – I bet you would like it.” But I did not look it up at the time because I thought Randonneur cyclists must be extremely athletic cyclists. A few years later I met some of you at the bike show in 2009……and the rest is history.

Nick has always been supportive of me in this sport and it has been a dream of mine to do a 200 km brevet with him. He was hesitant and he said “I don’t think I am ready for this”.
“You won’t be the first one to do a 200 km brevet without being ready” I said.
“Let’s do it” he said.

The first control was at 55 km. At the 50 km point he told me that he had never ridden that far without stopping……Oh, that’s what he meant about not being ready. Do you remember your first 200 and how important the breaks were?

The next control was at km 99. For Nick, km 99 was not to be rounded off to km 100. Ninety-nine it is, and we would stop for lunch. When we got there, the guy at the control passed a message on to us that everyone had gone into the next town for lunch instead and we should meet them.
“How much farther is it?” asked Nick.
“7 or 8 kilometers”.
Nick said “ok” but his eyes said “oh no”. Turned out that the guy should have said 7 or 8 miles, not kilometers – big difference! My brother was sure glad to get to the cafe for lunch, and everyone there encouraged him with the fact he now had 115 km done, only 85 to go.

Remember the first brevet you did, and the horror when you found out that a 200 km brevet could actually be more than 200 km. It was 202.9, almost 203. Yeah, that was not lost on Nick and while he was counting down the last 15 k, it was actually 18 – I didn’t know how to tell him.

There’s no denying it was a great ride. Great scenery, perfect weather, and forever memorable to do this ride with my brother. I will have to wait for Randonesia to set in for him because he said it is unlikely that he will ever do that again! He was very glad that he was able to do it and he said he did enjoy it.

Thanks for the cheers from those at the Comfort Inn when we came in, 12 hours and 36 minutes after heading out.
Well done Nick!

All the best to those participating in Devil Week – you will be enjoying some amazing scenery and great riding!