Beyond Hope to New Hope 200K - February 12, 2011

The previous years' February R-12 brevet had been postponed for the entire month due to adverse winter weather conditions so the previous course of the same name was modified to traverses primary roads that were chosen mainly due to their southern exposure. Even with this, it was necessary to postpone to original February 5th starting date by a week to February 12th.

Starting from Belvidere, the route headed north through Hope, and "beyond," to the Johnsonburg controle, which marks the northern extent of the course. At this point it heads south back through Hope and then southern points beyond along the Rt 519 corridor passing through Stewartsville, and then over to the Delaware River to Milford and on to New Hope via Rt 29 and 32. This marks the southern extent of the course with the route retrace the original path back to the Belvidere finish. It is available to be ridden as a Permanent.

The following post was also included on the PA Randonneur's blogsite:

Fourteen Riders started February 5th PA R-12 Brevet Beyond Hope to New Hope delayed until Saturday February 12th due to the ice storm the week before and all fourteen finished for a 100% completion rate. Due to the problems trying to schedule the February R-12 last year, Tom Rosenbauer, the PA RBA totally re-routed the previous Beyond Hope route to make it a relatively flat course on State and County roads with wide, paved shoulders that would be relatively free of any ice from the recent ice storms. The first section of the out-and-back course followed the Beaver Brook valley from Belvidere to Johnsonburg with the second section being an out-and-back route to New Hope along the Musconetcong and Delaware rivers. Prior to the ride, Tom was apologetic about the course being both an out-and-back (vs. the usual looped route) and relatively flat (vs. the routes all have come to expect from Tom.) Comments from the riders concluded that this revised route was a "success" and one that we might want to consider keeping "in the back pocket" for future year's winter brevets. The roads, although well traveled, had wide paved shoulders that considering the recent weather, were in excellent shape. There could be no complaints about the scenery since the route along the Delaware is classified as a "National Scenic Route," and although the route along the Musky is not "classified" it is equally, if not even more scenic than the Delaware. There didn't appear to be any complaints about the less than usual amount of climbing, and most figured that this was the FIRST and probably LAST time they'd see a route as flat as this from Tom. :-)With the gentle rollers on the first leg, and the relatively light breeze, the group pretty much stayed together reaching the first controle as a group. After Johnsonburg, John Fuoco and George Metzler pulled out ahead leaving a second group of Jon Levitt, Shane Beake, Bill Fischer, Doug Haluza, Joel Flood, and Bill Olsen to work together against the headwinds that were starting to build. A little further back was Guy Harris on his fixie, first time brevet rider, John Capriotti, and Robert Dye, with Nigel Greene making up for lost time due to a late start. The second group managed to arrive at the Stewartsville controle just as the John and George were getting ready to leave so Jon chose to ride with them. The temperature had warmed up to around 25 deg, F from the starting temperature of 18 deg. and Jon wanted to ride a little faster to stay warmer than he would riding at the pace of the second group.Although the gaps between the groups opened up slightly as the day wore on, the heavy winds from the West (25-30mph with gusts to 40mph) kept the first two groups together. The weather forecast of temperatures reaching the mid 30's was finally reached around 1PM when the sun finally came out but by then the winds were at their full force. The river valley blocked most of the wind and once could hear the wind roaring in the trees at the top of the river valley. The wind shifted as it wound down the valleys to find its course and the majority of the tailwinds were felt on the route to New Hope. The return route was into the headwind but with the protection of the valley and the benefit of the being able to share the work of fighting the wind, the first two groups managed to finish the course in 8 to 9 hours. All riders managed to complete the ride in under 11 hours. Several riders commented that they might have preferred a couple of hills to the headwinds but they reserved offering this as an option to Tom knowing that he could have just as easily provided BOTH hills and headwinds. A highlight of the ride was the last 12 miles when the route headed directly north and what had been headwinds and quartering headwinds for the previous 35 miles were now quartering tailwinds. What a way to wrap up a beautiful, albeit somewhat cold and windy, February brevet. Thanks Tom for pulling together such a nice route and also thanks to Don Jagel who pre=rode the course the previous Sunday and volunteered to sweep the course. The goodies he had at the Milford controle really hit the spot.Thanks also to all of the businesses that served as controles along the way and especially the folks at the Belvidere diner who allowed us to park at their lot during the ride and also had such great menu offerings (and ample sized servings) at the pre-ride breakfast and post ride dinner. Hopefully we can continue to use this facility as a controle for future brevets.-Bill OlsenEastern PA Organizer