Shenandoah 2009 - June 11 - 14, 2009 Ride Report – Part I
Day 1 – Thursday, June 11th, 2009
The alarms and wake-up calls were all set for 3:00AM but at 2:45AM, both Mark and I could no longer sleep so we woke up to prepare for the 4:00AM start, following our usual regimen. Mark got the shower first while I used this time to awaken from my groggy stupor. When I’m in the shower, Mark begins the breakfast preparations, in this case, the “usual” large can of Dinty Moor beef stew. Mark prefers his on a couple of micro-waved potatoes, while for this ride I had “snagged” a couple of bagels from home and for a change, chose to substitute them for the usual potatoes.
When I stepped out to check on what the rest of the riders were doing and to fill my camelback with ice, I noticed that at 3:15AM, it appeared that most of the riders had been up for quite some time and were finished eating and were in the process of completing their final preparations. I took this as a note to “shake a leg” and get myself going or I’d be leaving after everyone one had departed. The time flew by and after eating breakfast, completing the last minute packing, dropping off my two drop bags, and taking everything not required for the ride to the car, in returning to the room found that my watch read 3:57AM. Mark was already out of the room, and hopefully at the starting point in front of the hotel, so I stuffed everything in my jersey pockets, put on my wind/rain jacket – unzipped but at least it was on as it was sprinkling out when I had been out to the car to drop off the things, slipped my camelback onto my shoulders – who worries about the chest strap at times such as these, put my unbuckled helmet on my head, grabbed my gloves, and quickly made a bee-line down the stairs to the start. I missed Matt’s pre-ride send-off speech but at least the riders hadn’t all left yet so I managed to zip up my windbreaker, snap the chest strap on the camelback, and the chinstrap on my helmets before everyone left. The pace at the start was slow enough that I was able to place my gloves on while slowly starting out with the group. Whew, I thought it would have been the “usual” way that Mark and I start out randonnees, a couple minutes after everyone has all left.
It was great to ride with the group at the start, for some reason, the pace appeared to be a little more relaxed that the previous year so I was able to ride with Branson, Andy, and the others. No one chose to make a mad break, which I was glad to see as I didn’t want to see Juan feel a need to set a course record this early in the ride.
As an aside, Juan, who had ridden his first brevet in November with the PA group, was a little nervous as to what to expect on a 1200K, and planning a ride strategy. He forwarded me a copy of his “conservative” and “not-so-conservative” ride plans and asked me for my opinion as to each and if I had any recommendations on how to improve these two plans. Needless to say, his “conservative” plan was something that I could only anticipate riding “in my WILDEST dreams” and his “not-so-conservative plan would have had him RAAM qualified on this event. My suggestion was for him to work on refining the conservative plan to ensure that he was able to get sufficient sleep at the controles, especially on the first and second days, and that there wasn’t anything wrong in riding THIS 1200K with all of it’s climbing in a little over 80 hours. I myself, personally would be looking to “best” my last year’s time of 87: hours (and by that I mean shoot for a finish time EVEN closer, without being too close to the allowable 90 hours.) This is the beauty of randonneuring, we can all ride it our own separate ways and still have a great time doing so.
As we rode together I made a note to see what others had chosen to wear in the warm, but rainy/misty/foggy conditions. In comparison with the others, it appeared that I'd made the right choice to forego socks and legwarmers – I'd keep them "in reserve" dry in a plastic bag in my back jersey pocket in case it got really cold later that night climbing into Harrisonburg – but it appeared that I was one of the few that were wearing anything over my jersey, and I could tell that, with the humid conditions, it might have been a conservative choice as I was getting a little warm as the rain stopped and the mist cleared.
I thought of Matt's comment regarding last year's ride conditions: "Unfortunately we were betrayed by Mother Nature, a challenging, rolling course was turned into a brutal slog by record heat, high humidity and headwinds that sapped the riders strength, but more importantly destroyed their desire as they traveled up the valley. It was not the severity of the course but the weather conditions that caused the unusually high DNF rate."
So far we didn't have the heat or the headwinds, but the humidity and temperatures were remarkably similar to what we had at the start of last year's ride.
I enjoyed the route out of town and recognized a lot of it from last year, including where the trees and powerlines were down and we needed to walk through. It was different this year, although for some reason I had no trouble keeping with the group. However, as I rounded the curve coming through a small village on Milltown Road, I recalled the long, but not too steep grade ahead, and mentioned something to another rider that here comes the hills – it was at this point where the group pulled ahead on the climb, and I lost contact …exactly the same point as last year – so I shifted to "plan B" and began riding my own pace. It didn't take long until I saw some lights in my mirror, and found that, as I recovered from the previous faster pace, Dick and Carey were catching up to me. I rode along with them, and shortly after on Lovettsville Road, Paul caught up … again EXACTLY at the same point he did last year, as well.
It was gradually getting light and by the time I reached Spruce Run Road, I was pretty much riding by myself. The terrain was quite scenic, and Spruce Run enhances the view with a fairly steep section of climbing. I remembered it from last year as on one of the steeper slopes, I lost traction on the wet pavement. The pavement was a little dryer this rime around and I looked forward to the flat section that would follow the climb.
How soon one forgets! It turns out that what I remembered as being a fairly gradual climb was actually a 3 mile climb to the top of Catoctin Mountain, the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which runs northeast/southwest for about 50 miles from Leesburg to Emmitsburg, Maryland, forming the eastern rampart of the Loudoun and Middletown valleys. We had been gradually climbing all the way from Leesburg – no wonder I was so tired, but in reaching Highway 77, I knew that I'd be at near its highest elevation of 1,900 feet with the cue sheet indicating a 5.7 mile down hill run into Thurmont, to pass Cunningham Falls State Park.
By this point I wasn't being passed by any other riders, and even managed to pass a couple as they put their rain gear on at the top of the pass. It was a steady drizzle at the higher elevations, but most likely it was the result of the cloud level being so low that we were riding in the moisture of the clouds – sure was smart of me to have worn that wind/rain jacket today!
At Thurmont, I realized that I was doing well enough that I stopped off at a local bakery for a roll – I recommend the cherry cream Danish. I knew that Mark was ahead of me and assumed that he wouldn't worry about me and would probably continue to ride with group until Harrisonburg where he'd take in a couple of extra hours of sleep before riding with me the next morning.
The ride from Thurmont to the PA border was on US15, a 4-lane divide highway. Last year it was starting to get hot but fortunately this year was overcast, and with the road being recently resurface, the shoulder wasn't all that bad to ride on – the road debris had yet to build-up. In crossing over into PA, it was a straight shot to the Gettysburg Controle. Mark was there waiting for me and having been there for an hour, was about to give up on me and go on ahead when I arrived shortly before 9:00AM. My stop in Thurmont allowed me to get going fairly quickly so Mark and I continued on together from here.
I've included the update that Tom posted on the NJ Rando website below:
Update #1by Tom Rosenbauer » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:36 am
According the S1200k live update ...
Riders have started at 4AM, Thursday
Juan and Andy are in the first group, arriving at the 1st controle stop in Gettysburg at 8AM -- they are really flying, covering the first 68 miles at 17.0 MPH. Bill Olsen is towards the back of the field, getting in at 9AM with an average of 13.6 MPH. Surprisingly, Bill's brother Mark is up with the first group -- I suspect that he'll eventually drop back to join Bill.
Looks like they had plenty of fog and high humidity at the start ... they probably missed the overnight rain, but there are warnings for severe storms and flooding for today and tonight -- hope they have their foul weather gear!
He really called that one correctly.
The ride to the next controle in Sharpsburg was on roads that I've ridden with the DC Randonneurs. We made the green light on the covered bride before Jacks Mountain and the ascent up Jacks Mountain was as steep as I remembered, but then so was the descent. Mark agreed that the ride up to this point was definitely a PLUS, and a "worthy showplace" of the local scenery … and we hadn't even gotten to through Maryland!
The routing through the Antietam Battlefield was a great follow-up to the previous ride down Confederate Avenue and Wheatfield Road in Gettysburg.
A 12" tuna sub sandwich at the Battlefield Market Control, really hit the spot, although I was a little slow starting out with a full stomach. We rolled on at a good pace and as I prepared Mark to be on the look-out for the unmarked turn onto Box Factory Road, I found that my worries were for naught as they had replaced the missing sign from last year. I particularly remembered the next section as being quite miserable last year, due to the heat, but it was quite pleasant this time around. I still had some problems with hydration but managed to get a couple of Enduralytes down and we made our way on to the Harrisonburg control a couple of hours ahead of where I was last year.
While on Cedar Creek Grade, I thought we had come upon a secret controle but realized it wasn't but must have been the home of someone who knew Matt, as they had a cooler by the side of their driveway filled with a couple of bags. The sign said "For the Shenandoah 1200K Riders." Whoever this was who left it, THANKS!!! At this point we were riding "hopscotch" with Dave Rudy from Kentucky so we decided to pretty much ride together for awhile.
Shortly after we took the right hand turn onto Back Road, a familiar routing from here onto Harrisonburg from last year's ROMA brevet series. We still had close to 40 miles to ride but I knew it like the back of my hand and the miles would pass by quickly as we passed familiar ground. I pointed out Matt's house as we rode by. As we rode along Back Road, we discussed how it might have gotten its name. I had always figured it was because it was the "back way" from Strasburg to Harrisonburg, but in thinking about it, we realized that the road follows a small ridge between the two main ridges, and perhaps this ridge might be considered a back of the main valley. I'll need to follow-up on this one.
While many riders chose to stop at the small store on Back Road, I offered that there was a better stop if we proceeded down the road a piece to Columbia Furnace, a controle for some of the other ROMA brevets. This was a good spot to don our reflective gear before proceeding in the 28 miles into Harrisonburg, via VA42. At this point we met up with Dave Goodwin who had ridden the Shenandoah last year, as well so we continued on with the four of us. While I needed to stop several times along this stretch last year it was nice to have Mark to ride with on this section. The rollers, and subsequent climbs after the nice downhill runs eventually got to me, so for the last couple of miles into Harrisonburg, Mark rode in with me while the two Daves pressed on ahead.
Most of the early riders had gone onto the Deerfield controle, and those that had "overnighted" at Harrisonburg where just still sleeping or just getting up when we arrived. Mark and I planned our departure to coincide with the 4:16AM controle closing time which allowed us an hour to eat and shower, and 4 hours to sleep. We informed the others of our plans, but most thought they'd best cut back on their sleep to allow more cushion for the next day's climbing on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
End of Part I (June 11th)Part II (June 12th) to follow
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Shenandoah 2009: June 11 - 14, 2009 - Part 0 - Preparations for the Ride
Shenandoah 2009 - June 11 - 14, 2009 Ride Report
Since I’ve still not gotten my website up and running, I made it a resolution this Spring to to be much more timely with my ride reports and photo postings. As you can see, I’m a little behind, and although I’ve pretty much got most of them in order ready to post, I’ll go with this report first, as it is probably of more interest to those than our fixed-gear fleche or my “arriere du peloton” reports of the Eastern PA brevet series.
Additionally since most of you know from Tom’s “blow-by-blow” live action reporting of the event that Andy, Juan, and I all successfully completed the ride, I’ll be posting this report on an “installment basis” each day, as if I had the capability to report on-the-road. This first installment is the introduction including the preparation leading up to the event, the drive to the Leesburg start, and the Wednesday evening check-in on June 10th. The subsequent four postings will be each day of the ride (How’s that for encouraging readership. Up to this point, I believe that the only “hits” to this blog are my brother, Mark, or my wife and mother looking to catch up on what I’m doing.)
Again, since you ALL know that I’ve finished and are looking for the photographs, I’ve included a link to them as a slide show…a caveat – you’d had better like looking at the photos of my brother, Mark, as if there is an “action shot” with a bike rider in it, it will probably be Mark, as we rode together most of the way, and since he was dragging me along most of the way, most of the shots are of his back side – probably not his best side – I’ll leave that to you to decide, but in his draft I was just tickled to have this view for most the ride.
I thought I was able to post the slide show directly but if not, I've attached the link below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/randonnerd/Shenandoah2009
Shenandoah 2009 - June 11 - 14, 2009 Ride Report
Day 0 - Preparations up to and including Check-in on June 10th.
Oh Shenandoah,
I long to hear you,
Away you rolling river,
Oh Shenandoah,
I long to hear you,
Away, I'm bound away
'Cross the wide Missouri.
This was the song that beckoned 42 riders to this years’ Shenandoah 1200K held on June 11 through June 14th, 2009. Although some came from the neighboring area and had ridden many of the routes either as part of the ROMA SR brevet series, or as brevets and Permanents with the DC Randonneurs, others had heard the call for the Shenandoah from Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Washington (the State), Ontario, Minnesota, Iowa, and British Columbia, actually crossing “the wide Missouri” to get to the event. (Sorry if I didn’t include all of the states, in deference you’ll note I intentionally left off New Jersey.)
Some had heard of the previous year’s event and were looking to do the ride for the first time, either to experience the beauty that the Shenandoah Valley, the ride up to Gettysburg up over the Catoctin Mountains, or the Blue Ridge Mountains as the route crossed over to North Carolina, had to offer on this late-Spring ride, or to push themselves to complete a randonnee that offered a great deal in the amount of “relentless climbs, both long and short, as it traversed the numerous river valleys of central Virginia.
Others were returnees from last years inaugural event looking to erase a “DNF” of the previous years event which, with record temperatures took a toll on the riders, or perhaps returning because for the challenge and beauty that the ride has to offer, (or like me, looking to prove that last years’ successful finish wasn’t just a lucky fluke.)
A digression: The provenance of the song, Oh Shenandoh is unclear but most interpretations, at least those in the Shenandoah River Valley, believe that the song tells of a pioneer's nostalgia for the Shenandoah River, and for a time in early 2006, it appeared that "Shenandoah" would become the "interim state song" for Virginia. While the authorizing legislation passed the Virginia Senate, the measure died in committee in the House of Delagates. It was a problematic choice because the song never specifically mentions Virginia and, in many versions of the song, the name "Shenandoah" refers to an Indian chief, not the Shenandoah Valley or Shenandoah River.
Those riders from the Midwest might consider a “reunion brevet” of as one version of the history of the song has it originating out of Iowa as a Union soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home to the west of the Missouri river, in Shenandoah, Iowa (though the town lies some 50 miles east of the Missouri river).
The song is also associated with escaped slaves. They were said to sing the song in gratitude because the river allowed their scent to be lost.
I’d believe that for most of the riders finishing up the ride on Sunday, they’d go with this third association, as the Shenandoah river valleys (both the North and South) forks offered welcome downhills into the valleys with “gentile” rollers as the route followed the rivers through central Virginia.
From Matt’s ride description, the Shenandoah 1200K, as conceived, was intended to showcase the beauty and magnificence of the incomparable Shenandoah Valley. The Valley is not flat, but the buzz about the inaugural 2008 ride should have been about the great scenery, hospitality of the staff and the locals, and the great food – NOT the fact that 26 of the 56 riders were forced to abandon.
Matt learned from his and the riders’ experiences last year and promised that the second Shenandoah would be a much more enjoyable randonee. Having THOROUGHLY enjoyed last years ride, and KNOWING that Matt is not one to make idle promises, I couldn’t imagine what this meant but I figured I’d go along with him and see what he meant by this. Additionally, I had “bragged-up” this ride to my brother, Mark and had gotten him to commit that this would be one of this year’s “bike vacation tours” that we’d be riding together. Some of Matt’s promises were based on the weather surely be more hospitable (with last year’s record heat wave, he probably couldn’t go wrong in promising this!) and changes to the course will allow for more flexibility as to sleep and eating options outside the controls. The various changes to the route though extensive were not intended to alter the character of the ride. The Maury River and Goshen Pass replace Douthat State Park and the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway from Mount Airy will be just as memorable as Rich Patch and Jamison Mountian Rd was for the inaugural riders.
I was happy to see the addition of the Maury River (downstream, no less!!) as it is one of my favorite sections of road in all of Virginia, except Dry Mill Road at mile 761 and the turn onto Prosperity Drive at mile 766.9 on this ride. I enjoyed the ride through Douthat State Park – a long gentle descent through tree-covered back roads – but trusted that Matt knew what he was doing in cutting out this extra mileage here to allow the route to extend into the NC Randonneurs “locals” territory with the addition of the Mt. Airy controle.
Having become something of an “old hat” at preparing for randonnees, especially those that I drive to, and can just throw everything into the back of the car, my pre-ride preparations included managing to get a 200K brevet in on the Saturday before. (Tom was gracious in scheduling one of the more hillier PA 200K brevets for this day KNOWING that I’d be using this as a pre-ride warm-up – THANKS, TOM!!!) This was followed by my Sunday “penance” of getting all of the lawn mowed and performing all of the additional “honey-do” items to allow me to take my 5-day mini-vacation without the rest of the family.
Tuesday evening found me late at work getting through all of the things that couldn’t wait until my return so my ride packing began on Wednesday morning. Last year I had not taken Wednesday off so I needed to get up early to throw everything into the car, and after a full day’s work and the 4 ½ hour drive to Leesburg, I didn’t get to sleep until close to midnight for 3 hours of sleep before the ride. This year I took an extra vacation day Wednesday to allow me to “sleep in”, pack and get on the road by around 8 or 9, to arrive in Leesburg in the early afternoon. Things didn’t quite work out that well, and after cleaning up the bike from Saturday’s ride and packing everything up to depart, I had a last request to plant an additional 6 dalphinas before I left, and didn’t get out on the road until after noon.
On the way I made a quick stop at the local bike shop to pick up 8 extra spokes (4 for the drive and 4 of the non-drive) for the new rear wheel I’d be using for this year’s ride. – for those interested it is a 36 hole Campy Record 10-speed with a 12-25 cassette laced to a Mavic Open Pro CD using a 3X spoke pattern. I used to do a 4X but figured I go “modern,” 3X pattern, and this wheel was a replacement of the Orion rear wheel I was using with 28 spokes in a 2X pattern on the drive side and a radial pattern on the non-drive side, it would definitely be a more reliable option to what I had. (In a later posting I’ll describe why I went to this change but for now, I’ll admit that this change in wheel results in a net weight gain of 71 grams or 2.5 oz.). I also picked up a temporary “Fiber-fix” spoke to ensure that by having this and the spare spokes with me, I wouldn’t have any wheel problems. – If I didn’t have then, you can be sure that I’d have a spoke failure.
The drive to Leesburg was pretty uneventful – there were the usual 5 mile back-ups on I-78 as the PA highway department performed their annual bridge and road repairs, but fortunately traffic was fairly light. I took US15 south of Harrisonburg and enjoyed the section of road that was included on tomorrow’s ride from Thurmont to the PA border. Arriving at the Comfort Suites around 4:30, I quickly located Mark who had arrived the day before and had secured a great room on the second floor, just down the hall from the front stairway. After unloading, I met up with Juan who provided me with a copy of the cue sheet in the PA Randonneurs format. (Not that there is anything wrong with the format that Matt provided with was the “traditional” DC Randonneur/ROMA format that allows the sheet to be folded in four so that, including the front and back, allows for eight separate pages to be displayed on a single sheet of paper, but for longer brevets, I preferred having more information available than just the directions and cumulative and point-to-point mileage.) I don’t know if Juan learned it from me, or if he developed this preference on his own, but in addition to converting the cure sheet to the PA format with the cumulative, segment, and point-to-point mileage, Juan added double entries at all control points, placing page breaks between each so that each page of the cue sheet included the starting controle, all information on the segment, and the final control, with opening and closing time – it made my day to see what Juan provided me, as well as knowing that he developed this good cue sheet preparation habit from riding with the PA randonneurs. …now if ONLY Juan could have included the missing “T’s”, “SS”, and “TFL’s” (not the ones that those who know be believed this originally meant) I’d have been in heaven!
Before checking in, I had a chance to meet up with many who I hadn’t seen from last year’s randonnee “series” including Andy and Ron from last year’s RM1200, Henk, Dick, and Carey from Last Chance, and Phil and Dave from the Shenandoah.
In particular, it was great to see Branson again. He’s a strong, fast rider, and a real gentleman, and on days that he is either taking it easy, or I’m feeling good – without many steep hills, or possibly it was the good drafts to suck along into, I’ve had the pleasure of riding several 200Ks with him as we met up on the DC brevets. The last time I saw him he was volunteering at the Fancy Gap Control on last year’s Shenandoah, as part of the NC contingent – flying the NC flag on “foreign” soil. We both recalled that I was one of the few who took them up on the offer of a beer as the beverage of choice at the controle. At 3 in the morning after the strenuous climb, that was probably the ONE beer that I can recall tasting the best for 2008 – and I hate to admit it was a Budweiser! – so much for those fancy craft beers. :-) Branson offered that since it was such a hit last year, he assured me that the NC group manning the Mount Airy controle would be SURE to have a cold one waiting for me when I arrived early Saturday morning – something to look forward to as I did that last climb up the second climb over the Skyline Drive.
Mark and I then did our last minute packing while I participated in a mandatory teleconference call (it is amazing how one can “multi-task” with the speaker phone on mute!), followed by a hearty meal at the local Wendy’s with a last round of “carbo-topping off” nightcap of a local malt and barley beverage. We stopped by the lobby to say goodnight to the few souls that were still up and managed to get to sleep by a little after 10:30PM. It would have been great to have gotten more sleep but with the anticipation of the following day’s ride, we managed top get in a good four hours sleep before needing to get up at 3:00AM.
Part I (June 11th) to follow…
Since I’ve still not gotten my website up and running, I made it a resolution this Spring to to be much more timely with my ride reports and photo postings. As you can see, I’m a little behind, and although I’ve pretty much got most of them in order ready to post, I’ll go with this report first, as it is probably of more interest to those than our fixed-gear fleche or my “arriere du peloton” reports of the Eastern PA brevet series.
Additionally since most of you know from Tom’s “blow-by-blow” live action reporting of the event that Andy, Juan, and I all successfully completed the ride, I’ll be posting this report on an “installment basis” each day, as if I had the capability to report on-the-road. This first installment is the introduction including the preparation leading up to the event, the drive to the Leesburg start, and the Wednesday evening check-in on June 10th. The subsequent four postings will be each day of the ride (How’s that for encouraging readership. Up to this point, I believe that the only “hits” to this blog are my brother, Mark, or my wife and mother looking to catch up on what I’m doing.)
Again, since you ALL know that I’ve finished and are looking for the photographs, I’ve included a link to them as a slide show…a caveat – you’d had better like looking at the photos of my brother, Mark, as if there is an “action shot” with a bike rider in it, it will probably be Mark, as we rode together most of the way, and since he was dragging me along most of the way, most of the shots are of his back side – probably not his best side – I’ll leave that to you to decide, but in his draft I was just tickled to have this view for most the ride.
I thought I was able to post the slide show directly but if not, I've attached the link below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/randonnerd/Shenandoah2009
Shenandoah 2009 - June 11 - 14, 2009 Ride Report
Day 0 - Preparations up to and including Check-in on June 10th.
Oh Shenandoah,
I long to hear you,
Away you rolling river,
Oh Shenandoah,
I long to hear you,
Away, I'm bound away
'Cross the wide Missouri.
This was the song that beckoned 42 riders to this years’ Shenandoah 1200K held on June 11 through June 14th, 2009. Although some came from the neighboring area and had ridden many of the routes either as part of the ROMA SR brevet series, or as brevets and Permanents with the DC Randonneurs, others had heard the call for the Shenandoah from Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Washington (the State), Ontario, Minnesota, Iowa, and British Columbia, actually crossing “the wide Missouri” to get to the event. (Sorry if I didn’t include all of the states, in deference you’ll note I intentionally left off New Jersey.)
Some had heard of the previous year’s event and were looking to do the ride for the first time, either to experience the beauty that the Shenandoah Valley, the ride up to Gettysburg up over the Catoctin Mountains, or the Blue Ridge Mountains as the route crossed over to North Carolina, had to offer on this late-Spring ride, or to push themselves to complete a randonnee that offered a great deal in the amount of “relentless climbs, both long and short, as it traversed the numerous river valleys of central Virginia.
Others were returnees from last years inaugural event looking to erase a “DNF” of the previous years event which, with record temperatures took a toll on the riders, or perhaps returning because for the challenge and beauty that the ride has to offer, (or like me, looking to prove that last years’ successful finish wasn’t just a lucky fluke.)
A digression: The provenance of the song, Oh Shenandoh is unclear but most interpretations, at least those in the Shenandoah River Valley, believe that the song tells of a pioneer's nostalgia for the Shenandoah River, and for a time in early 2006, it appeared that "Shenandoah" would become the "interim state song" for Virginia. While the authorizing legislation passed the Virginia Senate, the measure died in committee in the House of Delagates. It was a problematic choice because the song never specifically mentions Virginia and, in many versions of the song, the name "Shenandoah" refers to an Indian chief, not the Shenandoah Valley or Shenandoah River.
Those riders from the Midwest might consider a “reunion brevet” of as one version of the history of the song has it originating out of Iowa as a Union soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home to the west of the Missouri river, in Shenandoah, Iowa (though the town lies some 50 miles east of the Missouri river).
The song is also associated with escaped slaves. They were said to sing the song in gratitude because the river allowed their scent to be lost.
I’d believe that for most of the riders finishing up the ride on Sunday, they’d go with this third association, as the Shenandoah river valleys (both the North and South) forks offered welcome downhills into the valleys with “gentile” rollers as the route followed the rivers through central Virginia.
From Matt’s ride description, the Shenandoah 1200K, as conceived, was intended to showcase the beauty and magnificence of the incomparable Shenandoah Valley. The Valley is not flat, but the buzz about the inaugural 2008 ride should have been about the great scenery, hospitality of the staff and the locals, and the great food – NOT the fact that 26 of the 56 riders were forced to abandon.
Matt learned from his and the riders’ experiences last year and promised that the second Shenandoah would be a much more enjoyable randonee. Having THOROUGHLY enjoyed last years ride, and KNOWING that Matt is not one to make idle promises, I couldn’t imagine what this meant but I figured I’d go along with him and see what he meant by this. Additionally, I had “bragged-up” this ride to my brother, Mark and had gotten him to commit that this would be one of this year’s “bike vacation tours” that we’d be riding together. Some of Matt’s promises were based on the weather surely be more hospitable (with last year’s record heat wave, he probably couldn’t go wrong in promising this!) and changes to the course will allow for more flexibility as to sleep and eating options outside the controls. The various changes to the route though extensive were not intended to alter the character of the ride. The Maury River and Goshen Pass replace Douthat State Park and the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway from Mount Airy will be just as memorable as Rich Patch and Jamison Mountian Rd was for the inaugural riders.
I was happy to see the addition of the Maury River (downstream, no less!!) as it is one of my favorite sections of road in all of Virginia, except Dry Mill Road at mile 761 and the turn onto Prosperity Drive at mile 766.9 on this ride. I enjoyed the ride through Douthat State Park – a long gentle descent through tree-covered back roads – but trusted that Matt knew what he was doing in cutting out this extra mileage here to allow the route to extend into the NC Randonneurs “locals” territory with the addition of the Mt. Airy controle.
Having become something of an “old hat” at preparing for randonnees, especially those that I drive to, and can just throw everything into the back of the car, my pre-ride preparations included managing to get a 200K brevet in on the Saturday before. (Tom was gracious in scheduling one of the more hillier PA 200K brevets for this day KNOWING that I’d be using this as a pre-ride warm-up – THANKS, TOM!!!) This was followed by my Sunday “penance” of getting all of the lawn mowed and performing all of the additional “honey-do” items to allow me to take my 5-day mini-vacation without the rest of the family.
Tuesday evening found me late at work getting through all of the things that couldn’t wait until my return so my ride packing began on Wednesday morning. Last year I had not taken Wednesday off so I needed to get up early to throw everything into the car, and after a full day’s work and the 4 ½ hour drive to Leesburg, I didn’t get to sleep until close to midnight for 3 hours of sleep before the ride. This year I took an extra vacation day Wednesday to allow me to “sleep in”, pack and get on the road by around 8 or 9, to arrive in Leesburg in the early afternoon. Things didn’t quite work out that well, and after cleaning up the bike from Saturday’s ride and packing everything up to depart, I had a last request to plant an additional 6 dalphinas before I left, and didn’t get out on the road until after noon.
On the way I made a quick stop at the local bike shop to pick up 8 extra spokes (4 for the drive and 4 of the non-drive) for the new rear wheel I’d be using for this year’s ride. – for those interested it is a 36 hole Campy Record 10-speed with a 12-25 cassette laced to a Mavic Open Pro CD using a 3X spoke pattern. I used to do a 4X but figured I go “modern,” 3X pattern, and this wheel was a replacement of the Orion rear wheel I was using with 28 spokes in a 2X pattern on the drive side and a radial pattern on the non-drive side, it would definitely be a more reliable option to what I had. (In a later posting I’ll describe why I went to this change but for now, I’ll admit that this change in wheel results in a net weight gain of 71 grams or 2.5 oz.). I also picked up a temporary “Fiber-fix” spoke to ensure that by having this and the spare spokes with me, I wouldn’t have any wheel problems. – If I didn’t have then, you can be sure that I’d have a spoke failure.
The drive to Leesburg was pretty uneventful – there were the usual 5 mile back-ups on I-78 as the PA highway department performed their annual bridge and road repairs, but fortunately traffic was fairly light. I took US15 south of Harrisonburg and enjoyed the section of road that was included on tomorrow’s ride from Thurmont to the PA border. Arriving at the Comfort Suites around 4:30, I quickly located Mark who had arrived the day before and had secured a great room on the second floor, just down the hall from the front stairway. After unloading, I met up with Juan who provided me with a copy of the cue sheet in the PA Randonneurs format. (Not that there is anything wrong with the format that Matt provided with was the “traditional” DC Randonneur/ROMA format that allows the sheet to be folded in four so that, including the front and back, allows for eight separate pages to be displayed on a single sheet of paper, but for longer brevets, I preferred having more information available than just the directions and cumulative and point-to-point mileage.) I don’t know if Juan learned it from me, or if he developed this preference on his own, but in addition to converting the cure sheet to the PA format with the cumulative, segment, and point-to-point mileage, Juan added double entries at all control points, placing page breaks between each so that each page of the cue sheet included the starting controle, all information on the segment, and the final control, with opening and closing time – it made my day to see what Juan provided me, as well as knowing that he developed this good cue sheet preparation habit from riding with the PA randonneurs. …now if ONLY Juan could have included the missing “T’s”, “SS”, and “TFL’s” (not the ones that those who know be believed this originally meant) I’d have been in heaven!
Before checking in, I had a chance to meet up with many who I hadn’t seen from last year’s randonnee “series” including Andy and Ron from last year’s RM1200, Henk, Dick, and Carey from Last Chance, and Phil and Dave from the Shenandoah.
In particular, it was great to see Branson again. He’s a strong, fast rider, and a real gentleman, and on days that he is either taking it easy, or I’m feeling good – without many steep hills, or possibly it was the good drafts to suck along into, I’ve had the pleasure of riding several 200Ks with him as we met up on the DC brevets. The last time I saw him he was volunteering at the Fancy Gap Control on last year’s Shenandoah, as part of the NC contingent – flying the NC flag on “foreign” soil. We both recalled that I was one of the few who took them up on the offer of a beer as the beverage of choice at the controle. At 3 in the morning after the strenuous climb, that was probably the ONE beer that I can recall tasting the best for 2008 – and I hate to admit it was a Budweiser! – so much for those fancy craft beers. :-) Branson offered that since it was such a hit last year, he assured me that the NC group manning the Mount Airy controle would be SURE to have a cold one waiting for me when I arrived early Saturday morning – something to look forward to as I did that last climb up the second climb over the Skyline Drive.
Mark and I then did our last minute packing while I participated in a mandatory teleconference call (it is amazing how one can “multi-task” with the speaker phone on mute!), followed by a hearty meal at the local Wendy’s with a last round of “carbo-topping off” nightcap of a local malt and barley beverage. We stopped by the lobby to say goodnight to the few souls that were still up and managed to get to sleep by a little after 10:30PM. It would have been great to have gotten more sleep but with the anticipation of the following day’s ride, we managed top get in a good four hours sleep before needing to get up at 3:00AM.
Part I (June 11th) to follow…
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