Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - BMB ride report

My BMB ride report is posted to http://www.dcrand.org/articles/BMB_n-bull.pdf

It was great riding with some of the denizens of this forum. Hope to meet more of you sometime.

Nick

Thanks for the nice report. Congratulations on the ride.

GREAT ride report. Thanks for sharing. I especailly enjoyed the analysis. And your writing syle, which made me feel like I was there with you, willing you on to beat those controle closing times. Great job!!!

Great report. Thanks for posting it. Are you going to ride PBP in 2007? If so I'd be interested in hearing your pre-ride analysis thoughts.

Congrats on a finishing a tough ride.

Great report. Thanks for posting it. Are you going to ride PBP in 2007? If so I'd be interested in hearing your pre-ride analysis thoughts.

Congrats on a finishing a tough ride.

Hoping to do PBP. Has anyone got a route profile available? Or measures of climbing per leg?

My take on PBP is that the terrain will be a fair amount easier, but that one may get slowed down by all the other riders, particularly at controls. Plus, the time change between here and there puts you behind the 8 ball, somewhat. Also, drop bags may be more of an issue, so I may be carrying more of my own food, or relying more on local (unfamiliar) food. No aerobars, so I'm going to have to get used to not having that extra, convenient position to rest in (and to get out of the wind with). I'm going to take them off before the next brevet. I'm going to try to brush up on my high school French. So those are the things I'm thinking about at the moment.

Nick

Hoping to do PBP. Has anyone got a route profile available? Or measures of climbing per leg?

I found a PDF with some charts based on data from PBP 2003. PBP 2007 will not be exactly the same route, but this should give you a good idea of what the profile looks like.

http://www.seattlerandonneur.org/info/PBPElevationProfiles.pdf

It looks like there are very few climbs that are over 3% and more than 1 km long.

I found a PDF with some charts based on data from PBP 2003. PBP 2007 will not be exactly the same route, but this should give you a good idea of what the profile looks like.

http://www.seattlerandonneur.org/info/PBPElevationProfiles.pdf

It looks like there are very few climbs that are over 3% and more than 1 km long.
Thanks, even if the route changes, this still gives me a good idea of what to anticipate.

On PBP, I noted on my cue sheet any "noteworthy" climbs, i.e., those that were more than 400 feet. Since my GPS has an altimiter, I find it helpful in the psychological battle to know that I only have X hundred feet to go.

So by that standard, I would note the following climbs:
before Villaines la Juhel at 210km, climb for 5km, 130m;
after Tinteniac at 457km, climb for 6km, 125m;
after Carhaix-Plouguer at 548km, climb for 18km, 250m;
after Brest at 634km, climb for 8km, 150m;
after Brest at 651km, climb for 18km, 250m;
after Fourgeres at 914km, climb for 10km, 150m;

So of a total of 30,000 feet of climbing shown on that PDF, only about 3500 feet are on these six noteworthy climbs.

By contrast, BMB has somewhere between 42,000 and 50,000 feet of climbing, of which about 15,101 feet are on the 21 noteworthy climbs.

That said, even terrain with no noteworthy climbs can really beat you up, particularly toward the end of a long ride.

That said, even terrain with no noteworthy climbs can really beat you up, particularly toward the end of a long ride.
Last Chance in Colorado/Kansas for example...

I sang quite loudly and I'd like to take the opportunity here to apologize to the good citizens of Vermont, who I hope will never read this account.

ahhhhh, so THAT'S who that was!!! :eek:

ahhhhh, so THAT'S who that was!!! :eek:

you heard it too? :D