Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - "Winter" brevets???

Two questions:

1. Is your local Randonneuring/Audax club planning any brevets between now and the end of March? If so where (links to details, etc.).

2. Will they be qualifiers for the PBP?


Up here in Canada, the Prairie Randonneurs in Saskatchewan have a 200K brevet scheduled for this coming Saturday (November 4th). It's still a bit up in the air if the brevet will run because of the rather nasty turn in the weather, but nevertheless, if it ran, it would be a PBP qualifier. Canada has been allowed a special provision where any brevets held after November 1st in the year preceding the PBP can be PBP qualifiers.

I'm not sure if the US is allowed the same thing.

Australian brevets qualify for PBP from 1st November (check the online calendar). Most countries are 1st January.

It is actually rather silly to qualify too early IMHO. People tend to lose their long-distance fitness prior to the big one.

It is actually rather silly to qualify too early IMHO. People tend to lose their long-distance fitness prior to the big one.

You have to finish up by the middle of June anyway which leaves two months to lose your fitness before the PBP anyway.

In 2003, I made my own plan to fill the time between my last qualifier and the PBP. One weekend I planned just a simple century, two weekends later I did back to back centuries, two weekends later I did a double century, etc. ....... all solo of course because in Manitoba there was no one interested in riding such long distances.

This time it might be a bit easier because the Alberta Randonneurs have events scheduled right through the summer so I could either opt to do them, or do some on my own ... and that's whether I qualify early or not.

My main concern is the same as it was in 2003. The Alberta Randonneur (and Manitoba Randonneur) seasons start right at the end of April. We've got to cram all our events into the space between the last weekend of April till the middle of June ... since the 600K is usually done a few days before the deadline, there's no chance of doing another one if that one doesn't work out for some reason. There's a lot of stress and pressure!! If I could do some of the events early, I would be thrilled!! I'd get them out of the way ... and then if I wanted to do the Alberta Randonneur events, I could do them as training rides without all the pressure.

Well lets see, a 200k the first Saturday of 2007, a 300k the first Saturday in Feb, and the 400 in March and the 600 in April. So I guess 3/4 or our series is in Winter Technically. Now, that being said some rides are actually amazingly winterish. The 400k last year featured me riding in 50 mph gusts down a hill with the snowline following me down and hard rain. A rider managed to get hypothermic on the way back on that trip and I would have too if I had stopped but he had friends with him helping and I kept going(most of the route was within 500 feet of the snowline that night and the turnaround ended up getting snow after we left it).

Incidentally you know you were cold when you stop at a restop on the way home for a snooze (lelaving the car heater on), and wake up a few hours later with Gatorade that is too hot to drink and a very toasty feeling inside but not as toasty as the 60 oz of gatorade and there is steam coming out of your clothes.

Machka,

The US ACP brevet schedule is set and can be searched at www.rusa.org. You can select whatever parameters you like and get a listing of brevets. There should be plenty of opportunities to get you PBP qualifications so long as you can travel to the location.

In Texas, we have four 600K brevets (2 in Dallas, 2 in Houston) prior to June 1st with plenty of the shorter distances as well. We have out first 200K ACP brevet on New Years Day! It's a long way from Manitoba, but the weather is a lot warmer!

Last brevet was fall flatlander 200 on Sept 24
Next brevet is April 14

But then again, its so cold here in Vancouver we need to have a shorter season than the rest of canada :)

You have to finish up by the middle of June anyway which leaves two months to lose your fitness before the PBP anyway.
True but, last PBP, some Australians had qualified well before the end of January...

DC Randonneurs has 5 RUSA-sanctioned (non-PBP-qualifying) brevets between now and the end of February -- four 200K's and a 240K. We already have nearly a dozen pre-registered riders (including me).

The PBP qualifying series starts in March with two 200K's, a fleche, another 200K, three 300K's, two 400K's, and the 600K). For details, see the "Calendar of Events" links for 2006 and 2007 at www.dcrand.org.

The brevets typically cover terrain in the north-western portions of Virginia (e.g., Warrenton or Middletown) the eastern portions of West Virginia (e.g. Wolf Gap or Shepherdstown) the central portion of Maryland (e.g. Frederick or Catoctin), and southern Pennsylvania (e.g. Gettysburg). The brevets include a combination of gently rolling and mountainous terrain, usually rollicking around the foothills of the Appalachians and often going over the main ridge, all intended to match conditions at PBP or BMB. My altimiter shows average climbing of about 7,300 feet of climbing per 100 miles traveled, which is a tad more than on BMB. But the worst, extended climbs on our rides are not quite as tough as the worst, extended climbs on BMB.

We'll have other as-yet-unscheduled brevets continuing on up to PBP, so there won't be a chance to get out of shape (if you ride them).

True but, last PBP, some Australians had qualified well before the end of January...
Yep, around 24 January for me.

How do you get in condition for these early date rides? Here in Montana January and February are dominated by sub-zero temperatures and generally icy roads. How much ride time are you northernnites getting prior to your start of the brevet series?

How do you get in condition for these early date rides? Here in Montana January and February are dominated by sub-zero temperatures and generally icy roads. How much ride time are you northernnites getting prior to your start of the brevet series?


Most months, since January 2003, I've been riding at least one century every month. I started doing that when I lived in Manitoba, and I've continued it here in Alberta. Since January 2003, I've missed January 2004, November 2004, and December 2004 ..... funny thing though ... I was in Australia during November and December 2004 on an extended bicycle tour!! So I didn't miss doing a century those months because of the weather!!

In addition to doing a century each month throughout the winter, no matter what the weather is like, I try to ride outside as much as possible on shorter rides, I ride my trainer as much as possible, I get back into weightlifting again, and I try to remain active through winter sports. Last year I even broke down and started jogging!!

Then in late February/early March, as soon as the temperature starts to come up a bit and roads get a bit better, I'm out there as much as I possibly can be.

I'll have to check my logs for an accurate answer to this, but by the time I do my first brevet I've probably done somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 kms between outside and inside riding (and that's mostly outside riding) ... that's from January to the end of April.

I'll have to check my logs for an accurate answer to this, but by the time I do my first brevet I've probably done somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 kms between outside and inside riding (and that's mostly outside riding) ... that's from January to the end of April.

I just checked and here are my numbers from January 1st to the end of April for all the years I've been randonneuring:

2001 - 1194.39 miles (1922.18 kms)
2002 - 1490.94 miles (2399.43 kms)
2003 - 1417.64 miles (2281.46 kms)
2004 - 1564.25 miles (2517.42 kms)
2005 - 1750.62 miles (2817.35 kms)
2006 - 1158.51 miles (1864.45 kms)

Two questions:

1. Is your local Randonneuring/Audax club planning any brevets between now and the end of March? If so where (links to details, etc.).

2. Will they be qualifiers for the PBP?

In Israel you could do the qualifying brevets at a (relatively) nice weather.

200: 2/Feb
300: 22/Feb
400: 23/Mar
600: 20/Apr

Tal.

NJ Randonneurs season is done as of the NYC 200 in October (which I and some friends rode). I'm not sure when the season starts again.

Edit: but I know there's a full series including a 600 schedule just in time for PBP qualification.

Nothing here (Boston) seems to be scheduled for before April 7th: Boston Brevets (http://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/eventsearch_PF.pl).
But if you do a search on the RUSA site, you will see a lot of events scheduled from Jan to March in some southern sates http://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/eventsearch_PF.pl and can get the answer to your questions from the contact names.

First Brevet for the Washington DC group is January 6th

http://www.dcrand.org/calendars/curevents_07.html

Vancouver Island has an amazing build-up in April I seem to recall: "Eau De Hell" week. "Tour of the Cowichan Valley:"

April 7 - 200
April 8 - 300
April 10 - 400
April 12 - 600

Check out WWW.dcrand.org/