Shenandoah 2009 - Part I - June 11th, 2009

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

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…

The Midnight Ride of the Sinister Nuts

The 3-man Fixed Gear Fleche Team of last year returns this year with a full complement of 5 riders. Since it will be ridden on the 234th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride which left Boston on April 18th, 1775 the team name was chosen to commemorate Paul Revere's ride, with the obligatory modification required of all fleche team names (one if by land, two if by fixie?)

Last years route was modified to keep the best parts, and those that weren't well received were deleted. It was interesting that the first editing of the course came out with "just the right mileage" to make it approvable by the RBA just as it was submitted. Changes included deleting the route along the Raritan Bay and the Jersey Shore down Sea Girt, proceeding directly from the Cranbury Controle over to Sea Girt, and adding on additional mileage on Route 9 continuing along the shore to Tuckerton (vs. Barnegat last year) before making a "bee line" back to Frenchtown via Route 539.

An added benefit of this new route is that it is "fixie friendly" which means to say, we're all fairly seasoned randonneurs that are all friends (you couldn't ask for a MORE FRIENDLY group of riders) and we'll all be riding fixies - running the gammet of a "vintage" Paramount track bike from the 60's, a Whitcomb from the 70's, a Bob Jackson from the 80's, and two more recent vintages, a Rivendell Quickbeam and a Surly Crosscheck.

Although we all are experienced riders, some are in better shape than others at this point of the season so as one can see from the attached elevations, the rout pretty much starts in the New Jersey Highlands, goes down hill to the mid-central plane before proceeding to the coast. There is a very slight ride as one passes through the Pine Barrons, and then it is pretty flat as the ride follows up the Delaware from Washington's Crossing up to Frenchtown for the penultimate (22 hour) controle. There is a necessary climb up to the Weisel Youth Hostel finish in Quakertown but rigorous scouting has located the "easiest" routing back up to the hostel, even if it means that there will need to be an additional mile or tow added on to make it without needing to resort to "geezer gearing" (the 17-21 Surly Dingle one rider has or the "flip-flop" - both fixed, no single speed coasties allowed) let alone the obligatory "24-inch" gearing that all riders will be keeping in reserve.

The group will depart at 9:00AM on Saturday morning with a completion anticipated for 24 hours later at the Weisel Hostel. At this time, the weather is calling for sunny and temps in the 30's at the start with highs in the 60's Saturday and lows in the 40's in the night with the temps returning to the 60's on Sunday. No word on the wind but it SHOULD be a tailwind all the way. I'll post this now, and provide an update on Sunday after we complete the ride.

The Season's Officially Begun - The Eastern PA 200K April 4th, 2009

Note: Sometime I'll figure out how to properly post pictures in their right order. As it is, these are the ones I took of Wind Gap from about 5 miles away, the stone house, the whitecaps crossing the Delaware at Milford, and my "mudflap of the ride" - Rat Fink.

I saw in the paper today that with today's Paris-Roubaix, the cycling season is "officially" begun. The season for me, however, officially began last Saturday, April 4th, with my completing the Eastern PA ACP 200K. While the winter roads of PA and NJ were a little broken up from the winter, they were a far cry from the pave of northern France, but in turn, we were fortunate to be able to experience the spring winds that are normally found in the Midwest - a steady wind of 25 to 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph through out the day (although listening to the NOAA weather on the way home the recorded peak gust was only 49 mph.) As far as temperatures went, the forecast was for the low 50's. It was 49 degrees when I arrived at the Hostel at 5:05AM so as far as dressing for the conditions, it didn't appear that there would be a warming trend over the day's ride.

How time flies ... when I realize that I had last ridden this course in May of 2005 when it was still part of the NJ Randonneurs series, and although it was a great course the first time I rode it, Tom has made some improvements to the course, claiming "This edition of the PA200k combines the best of the Spring and Fall editions held in 2007." I'd have to agree with this as he made a great ride EVEN better. Those looking to get their legs back (including yours truly) were relieved to see that he didn't take out any of the "gratuitous" climbs including Lower Saucon Road Fox Gap, and Lommason's Glen (after which riders are rewarded with equally magnificent downhill runs) but Tom also managed to reroute the brevet in between the climbs to take in some of the beautiful vistas that a brevet up and down, along the Delaware River has to offer.

The brevet started out of the Weisel Youth Hostel on Richlandtown Road in Quakertown, PA promptly, for some, at 6:00AM and 5 minutes later for the rest of us that, due to the weather forecast, were realistic about not making it ins under 10 hours. Although the group might not have required splitting into two groups, in this case it was probably prudent of Tom to due so, as there weren't any major climbs to "naturally" split up the groups for a couple of miles and seeing how the wind gusts really blew some of (the lighter) riders around the road, it was good to not have everyone bunched together.

The gravel driveway out of the hostel also helps to break up the the riders, yes there was a flat on this section, and on my 28mm's I was leading out the second group of rider. It was probably good I had made some distance initially as about a block down the road, an opossum crossed into my path, requiring me to do a "quick turn" that would have made my LCI instructor proud - and it was good to not have to take down the rest of the group with this deft little maneuver.

Rick and Juan were riding in the second group and at this point of the ride, I managed to ride along with them and mentioned to Rick that although Juan was anxiously waiting to see what my "mudflap of the ride" was for this brevet, I could tell that he was not to impressed with my selection of Rat Fink for this ride - see photo of the mudflap (as a follow-up to last month's "What, Me Worry?" Alfred E Neuman.) Since Juan had NO IDEA of who Rat Fink or Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, or Kustom Kulture is, I guess this pretty much dates Rick and me.

We initially heading out north into the rustic farmland of the Saucon Valley. Following the first real climb up Lower Saucon Road (a 30X34 works well if one remembers to keep pedaling) I was getting prepared to do the second leg up Lower Saucon Road and its steep climb right after the nice downhill run where the last time I mistakenly put my bike into the 52X11 for the down hill) when I looked down at the cue sheet and saw that we were going cross country to connect with Buttermilk Road - another steep climb Tom reserves for the end of brevets that finish in Easton. (For the record, with as much climbing as there is on Lower Saucon Road, it NEVER becomes Upper Saucon Road.)

I was please to see that this detour actually made the route much more pleasant. The connection over to Buttermilk only included one climb and joined Buttermilk near the crest where the route wasn't so steep. Since I wasn't out of breath from this less strenuous route up out of the Saucon Valley, I actually had time to enjoy the view before I joined back onto Lower Saucon and rode the downhill into Easton directly into the wind. There was no coasting on this section and on the way down I thought of the NOAA weather alert I'd heard on the morning regarding the high winds, indicating that when approaching these high wind areas "high profile" vehicles should use particular caution - I guess a 68cm bike would meet the definition of "high profile."

Crossing over the canal on onto Lehigh Drive, I was rewarded with a tailwind all the way into Easton. Tom made some modifications to the route coming up out of Easton via College Avenue, as opposed to the previous routes circuitous path up to Cattell Street. Although a little steeper, it is nice to have the simpler, more direct, routing.

The next section was the familiar, and also pleasant ride up to the Wind Gap controle via Lower Mud Run, Upper Mud Run, and Pen Argyl Roads. I was pretty much riding on my own between two groups and it was nice to see another rider catching up to me - especially when I was able to ascertain that I was holding my own on the headwind sections (at this time the mist could be felt as freezing rain/sleet) and only when I was taking it easy savoring the tailwinds did they make up distance on me. As the rider got closer I recognized him as Guy so we rode along together for a short bit - until the first climbing section where I let him go ahead, knowing what was ahead for a headwind as we would soon be approaching Wind Gap.

Although I've ridden through Wind Gap many times, and seeing that it is the only "gap" in this Appalachian ridge line, I never really gave it too much thought until I approached it fighting a 35 mph headwind. From a distance, it didn't look too bad but remembering my college chemistry and the examples used to demonstrate the Bernoulli effect, I quickly did some calculations to figure that I'd be experiencing those forecasted 40 to 50 mph wind gusts. I also took a lot of photos of the Gap on this ride but in looking at them later, they really didn't look all that much different from the other days.

Following a short stop at the Petro Mart controle where I enjoyed a breakfast sandwich from the microwave. Since at this point I realized that the sun wouldn't be coming out very soon, and my wool socks with my sandals were getting wet from the constant mist, I also put on a second pair of socks under my heavier outer wool socks. Apparently I wasn't the only one that was getting cold toes at this point since later on when I ran into Tom he mentioned that the Petro Mart owner had called him to complain that one of the riders had been seen putting their socks into the microwave and was wondering if we had seen it. Based upon the time that the owner provided regarding when it was done, it appeared that it was about a half hour before the time I arrived to use that SAME microwave to heat up my breakfast sandwich - no wonder it tasted so good that morning. I thought it was just that I was so cold and hungry.

Surprisingly, Wind Gap wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. We were in the "dead zone" as we approached the summit, and at the top, it appeared that, due to what I remembered from my Transport Phenomenon course in college, boundary conditions, the wind wasn't all that bad either but...as I rode the descent Cherry Valley Road, I had the wind full in my face. My "high profile" vehicle was subject to some turbulence, the buffeting was minimized doe to my extra mass.

The calm of Cherry Valley Road was pleasant, as always, and pretty much out of the wind. I was looking for the tailwind boost up Fox Gap but I guess when one is riding up the hill at 4mph, one really isn't going to get much of a boost from the wind. I could tell that there was a tailwind as, at that point, I was getting pretty warm, even with my windbreaker and wool jersey unzipped, and the fog from my breath was heading away from me up the hill.

The informational controle at the top of Fox Gap was one of the drawings one is required to send in as part of the application to the "Minneapolis Institute of Art" correspondence school. Needless to say, I guess I'll keep my day job. Following this, we took Tom's new "favorite" routing down to Portland along Lake Minsi and the Million Dollar Highway, before stopping at the Portland Diner for the "lunch stop" controle. I managed to snap a couple of photos of the stone "castle" as I rode by and chuckled to think that the Million Dollar Highway must be REAL OLD, for if it wasn't and if it were build today, they'd need to call it the Billion Dollar Highway.

I wasn't really all that hungry for diner food, especially knowing that at Belvidere Deli I could get a good 12" tuna sub so I made this a quick stop and was able to join up with a group of riders including Guy, Rick, Bill, Juan, Jack, and John Dennis as they were just leaving. John must have also recognized Rat Fink on my mudflap as in his ride report he "pegged" (incorrectly, I might add) that I was "a 60-something rider." (Note, for the NEXT Brevet be sure use Hanna Montana for the mudflap!!!)

The pace at this point was great, at least for me, as the rest of the group was "taking it easy" as they worked off their lunch from the Portland Diner. However, this merry group's time together was limited as Bill flatted. He offered that he was fine and that everyone should go on without him but only Guy, John and I took him up on his offer with the remaining riders, who had been riding with him all day, choosing to stay with him. I was happy to push onto Belvidere where that tuna sub sandwich really hit the spot. I managed to almost get it down by the time that Bill and the group who stayed with him passed by. I quickly wolfed down the rest of the sandwich and caught up with then but this time it was my turn to hang back and take it easy as I climbed up Lommason's Glen as meanders up the same ridge that could be done in half the distance by going up Fiddlers Elbow (with it's 28 deg. climb) instead.

One really knows one is at the TOP of the climb when you see all the cell phone and microwave transmission towers as one does just before taking the turn off Harmony Brass Castle onto Montana, and then seeing that one can't go any higher, knowing one has a 2 mile downhill into the next valley.

As much as I KNOW Tom likes the descent down Sweet Hollow Road (in its entirety), perhaps the highlight as far as vistas go was his choice to delete the Asbury loop and pass through Stewartsville, heading directly to Bloomsbury and up Jug Town mountain the steep way, straight up Milford and Staats Road. The reward for the climb was one of the best views of Pennsylvania, and not having the vegetation on the trees allowed one to see Easton and Bethlehem all the way to Allentown and beyond. Additionally one knew that the next section descended back down to Milford via Sweet Hollow.

Crossing the Delaware at Milford back into Pennsylvania it was one time that it was actually GOOD to have to walk one's bike across the bridge. The wind was blowing directly down the river at this point, making for some pretty impressive white caps on the water. I took several photos but they aren't as impressive as actually being there. Again, my mass, as well as that of my bike helped to keep me on firm ground but some had difficulty with the wind. The Homestead General Store controle was a welcome break at this point as I was total dry and I managed to make short work of a gallon of water. Resuming the ride, the course went down the Delaware and with the tailwind, I lost track of distance and missed the turn up Red Hill Rd that came 1.5 miles down the road (gosh, it seemed to be only a half mile.) Since I was so rested, the extra mileage wasn't all that bad and I got to catch up and ride the rest of the brevet back with all those who arrived at the controle just as I was leaving before.

The remaining ride pretty much routed back to the Hostel through Tinicum County on a route that was new to this 200K, but were familiar from previous 200Ks ridden since Fall on the PA R-12 series, crossing a couple of the covered bridges as we rode to mail Post Cards at Point Pleasant and get in the required mileage to make it a 200K by the time we meandered our way back to the south shore of Lake Nokamixon and the Hostel

Although we could have probably made better time, this last section was pretty much ridden directly into the wind and the only good thing about having to pedal DOWN the rolling hills was knowing that somewhere on the way down, one would get out of the wind hand have a period of calm, which was welcome even as one rode back up out of the valley back into the wind. All-in-all it was a great ride, and we did manage to beat the 12 hour mark, even if only by a couple of minutes. Some of the early arrivals had already left but there were enough riders still there, and still out on the course arriving over the next hour, to have enough company present to swap stories as we enjoyed the PA birch beer, grilled beef and chicken that Tom had waiting for us.

Of the 42 registered riders, there were 37 starters and 30 who finished within the allowable 13.5 hours. For more information see: http://users.rcn.com/trosenbauer/PA200K.html

The next ride is the Midnight Ride of the Sinister Nuts - a fleche team made up of 5 riders, all on fixies of various vintage. I'll post more on this soon.

Spring is Sprung???

What a difference a week makes! Last Thursday I began my morning commute to work over ice covered roads from Monday/Tuesday's blizzard and a temperature of 2 deg. F. This Thursday, it was still below freezing (25 deg.F) but the weekend temperature of 75 on Saturday and Sunday pretty much made light work of the foot of snow and the light rain from the previous day had ended around 8:ooPM with a setting full moon to greet me as I wheeled the bike out of the garage at 5:00AM. The roads looked dry and the forecast for the rest of the week looked good so I brought out my second set of wheels with my late/fall-early spring Armadillos and swapped this set out for my winter 35mm Nokians. The extra 5-minutes it took to make this wheel swap was easily made up with the lighter/faster Armadillos (this is relative as many would regard the Armadillos as "unridable" due to their weight, steel beads, and stiff casings.) Without the constant "din" of the 106 studs on the pavement I could "actually" hear the early morning birds, as well as the tires of the cars as they overtook me, and as I approached the various intersection. In the morning this isn't a problem as it is still dark, but now that it is light out, it is nice to have another sense to draw upon for safety. With the switch to daylight savings time, it is nice to now be able to see the views along the roads in the portion of the commute that is in the more rural areas of NJ.

The weather looks to be good through the weekend and into Monday but since they're forcasting rain for Monday afternoon that is expected to change over to sleet, freezing rain, and possibly snow, I'll keep the Nokians in the garage next to my bike so that I'm ready. Winter isn't yet over, and in previous years, we've had blizzards in late March and I've run into ice as late as April 16th.

The One Month Anniversary

Today marks the one month anniversary of my little fall. Since my wife (and mother) possibly read this drivel, I was a little vague in describing the full extent of my injuries. One month later I'm almost fully recovered so I'll "fess up." As I went down, my back pack struck the ground, along with my head/helmet, and the force of the impact, resulted in the back pack strap ripping out a 1 1/2 section of my collar bone. Fortunately it was a good break so when it was reset, the sections healed so well that I can't even feel where the bone had come out. When I mentioned that there was some internal bleeding, as the bone broke, the blood drained into my pectoral area and although I didn't suffer any damage to these muscles, the draining blood made it appear as if I had really bruised myself. The doctor suggested that he aspirate the pooled blood but I chose to see what happened if we just left things alone. Fortunately the blood was all re-absorbed.

I probably could not have injured myself at a more fortunate time as I had completed the requirements for my second R-12 award the Saturday before and didn't have another brevet until this last Saturday. We're still a couple of months away from out ACP Brevet Series and the Fleche.

As I recovered, I still managed to continue my bike commute to and from work (didn't miss a day although with my arm banded to immobilize my collarbone, it wasn't to pleasant to bike the 30 mile round trip commute) but my day was pretty much, get up, (slowly) get dressed, (slowly and CAREFULY) ride into work, put in a full day's work (attempting to find an excuse to sit at my desk as much as possible - even if it was still painful to type on the computer), (slowly) bike back home, eat and lay down with a hot pad on my shoulder. For the first two weekends, I eliminated the commute into work and just stayed in bed with the hot pad.

It is amazing what a little time will do. Last week, I began to feel more stength in my arm, and I was even able to stand up on the bike. I threw all caution to the wind and even managed to get in a 200K Brevet last Saturday. My randonneur bike is a little more stretched out than my folding commuter bike which resulted in my collar bone hurting a little when I stood up (did I mention that the doctor told me that it would take 6-8 weeks for the collar bone to heal and the brevet was at 3 1/2 weeks?) Needless to say, I took all the hills in my 30X34 gear - it wasn't pretty but I DID manage to get around the course in 10:20 so I'm 1/12 the way into my third R-12. (I ride report will follow shortly.) One of those I rode with admitted that he had broken his collar bone 4 times (all bicycle incident related.) He said that the last time he saw his doctor, the doctor admitted that collar bone fractures pretty much took care of healing themselves. "All one need to do is make sure that the two broken ends were in the SAME room and they'd manage to find a way to get themselves connected back together."

As much as the collar bone appears to have no apparent funtion, I did manage to fine ONE activity where a fully functional collarbone is required. It is a fundamental part of the bowing motion. Monday was my first rehearsal since the accident. (I play the double bass.) We were sight reading the pieces for our upcoming Spring concert. One selection will be Haydn's Nelson Messe (Mass). I had a heck of a time playing all of the the sixteenth notes in the piece - especially those movements marked with a tempo of "Allegro" and "Vivace." We'll see what next week brings.

I missed the line and went down HARD

I've been a little out of action for a couple of days due to a little fall on my commute to work last Wednesday. We had a nice midwinter thaw over the weekend and it was around 34 deg. when I left for work at 5AM on February 11th, my birthday. As I came down the final 14% grade into High Bridge to catch the train I saw that I had a car WAY behind me so instead of slowing way down for the 10mph turn, I took it a little faster than normal and chose a beautiful line that gently swerved into the center of the lane before cutting into the shoulder to make the turn. What I failed to remember was that I was still on my Studded Nokians and as I banked over my fixie with the 12" clearance and 172.5 cranks, the I came off of the studds and the back end quickly fell out from under me. The last I remember was realizing I couldn't revover the bike and going down on my back. I vaguely recall the driver of the car that was behind me stopping to see if I was ok, and another driver from the other direction asking if they should call me an ablulance - to which my reply was "I think I'm ok and besides I DON'T need anyone to tell me why I hurt so much." I picked myself up and rode the last couple of blocks to the train where I folded up the bike and got on the train. It is amazing how nothing really hurt too much immediately after the fall. As I sat on the train for the hour ride to my next leg of bikeing I realized that I was bleeding a little from my cut on my hand (a superficial polyester burn from the inside of my gloves, and although my tights weren't ripped, I must of had a couple of "rug burns" on my knee, as well.



The ride from Westfield to Rahway was a little slower than usual and although my muscles hurt, I could still grip the handlebars so everything must have been ok - for the time being. The warm shower at work felt good, and I appeared to have full motion of my arm but it was beginning to hurt a lot to raise my arm and pulled it back. I noticed that I could still breath deeply so I figured the ribs must be ok, as well. However by mid afternoon, it was starting to hurt to breath deeply and it felt as if I must have pulled a lat muscle or something.



The commute home was slow and painful but I made it back ok on the bike/train/bike and even though it was my birthday, managed to get into bed with a hot pad on my shoulder as soon as I got home that evening at 7PM. I found that I could sleep ok on my back and by morning I was stiff, but still able to ride into work. It hurt more the second day than the first so I take it as a good sign that most of my injuries are to the muscles and not to the bones. Friday was also painful riding to work. I managed to straighten out some pieces of bone in my collarbone during the day and once I massaged the parts into place, it didn't hurt so much. (note to self, try to avoid moving arm to the poit that this pice pops back out.) I missed my weekend rides. The pain is more localized on Monday but the commute wasn't all that painful, as long as I didn't move too quickly. It still hurts, but hopefuly with time things will get better. The forecast doesn't call for too bad of weather for at least a week so I hope to make it through until I need to do some more technical riding. Fortuantly I got in my February Brevet the Saturday before so I'm also looking to see if I can continue my daily commute and be able to ride a 200K in scheduled for three weeks from now.

Now about the bike: Although I'll need to purchase a new helmet (the Giro Transit sacrificed itself to protect my noggin), the purple beast survived the laydown with hardly a scratch. One wouldn't know that either of us had the nasty fall if one didn't notice how slow I'm riding.