Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - My 600K

Where to begin???

That was the most gruelling 600K route I have ever ridden!!! I shall have to speak with the route designer about that!! I don't know what she was thinking!

Somehow I managed to gather all the hills in central Alberta together ... and put them on this 600K route. Then I chose some very long (and hilly, of course) roads with no tree coverage ... bare and wide open so the wind could howl. And then I somehow managed to find every single chipcrete road in the area, and put it on the route. I am going to have to rethink the whole thing. There's tough, and there's ridiculous!

I'll write up the whole story ... it was an adventure!! But I finished it in 39 hours and 30 minutes. There were many moments when I didn't think I was going to finish in time, but I was absolutely determined to finish because there was no way I wanted to do this again in 2 weeks!!

Oddly ... aside from the fact that I'm quite sore all over ... I feel remarkably good. I felt remarkably good the whole way through. My quads have pretty much packed in, but I didn't experience the usual nausea and really horrible feelings I get about halfway through the 600K.

So ... that's the good news ... I finished the toughest 600K I've ever done! :)


The bad news ...

At 3:45 am, last night, a truck pulled up beside my car, one male youth hopped out, jumped onto the hood, and bashed the windshield in. I just don't get it ... why would anyone bash in the windshield of an unknown vehicle??? My only consolation is that I would have likely had to replace the windshield in soon anyway. Still ... it's disturbing!! :mad:

Congrats on the 600k, Machka! I just finished my second 300k... will be doing the 400k next weekend and the 600k two weeks after that.

The 300k went pretty smooth, my best brevet yet, even if it was a bit slow. I'll post a complete write-up tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your car... hope they get the person that did it. :mad:

Congrats! Does it mean you're qualified for PBP? See you in Paris, because I just qualified yesterday!!!

I've never understood the mentality that goes with random vandalism.

Glad your were able to overcome the poorly designed route without any upsets.:D

So I guess this means you have recovered from Vancouver Island?

Well done Machka
I have just done my hardest 600km this weekend the Hailsham 600 in South East England, quite a hilly route but mostly appaling weather it rained for most of it and got really cold on the Sunday, allthough my riding speed was slower than normal it was my fastest 600 at 39h 55m because I didn't hang around at controls
OK I have had a play on Memory Map and calculated the climbing;
Stage 1 Hailsham to Cowfold 71km -- 781m of ascent = 11m per km

Stage 2 Cowfold to Brightling 62km -- 951m of ascent = 15.3m per km

Stage 3 Brightling to Dungeness 54km -- 372m of ascent = 6.8m per km

Stage 4 Dungeness to World of Water -- 50km -- 340m of ascent = 6.8m per km

Stage 5 World of Water to Lewes - 70km -- 928m of ascent = 13.2m per km

Stage 6 Lewes to Pease Pottage - 39km -- 541m of ascent = 13.8m per km

Stage 7 Pease Pottage to Halfway Bridge - 42km -- 408m = 9.7m per km

Stage 8 Halfway Bridge to Sutton Scotney - 65km -- 754m of ascent = 11.6m per km

Stage 9 Sutton Scotney to Halfway Bridge - 68km -- 835m of ascent = 12.2m per km

Stage 10 Halfway Bridge to Pyecombe - 46km -- 599m of ascent = 8.8m per km

Stage 11 Pyecombe to Hailsham - 39km -- 376m of ascent = 9.6m per km

Total climb = 6885m in 609km = 11.3m per km
full ride report here; ACF Audax pages (http://bikereader.com/forum/index.php?topic=32931.90)
ACF Audax pages on new site (http://www.anothercyclingforum.com/index.php?topic=32931.90)
The only downside is one rider Barry was pushed off his bike by some thugs in a passing van and had to pack due to his injuries infact another rider with him packed at the same time just from witnessing it.
It seems cyclists are fair game in the UK at the moment

Wow....

Congrads!! That is a LOT of riding....

Congradulations! I bet it will make PBP seem all the easier huh?

I just mapped my 600K route on Bikely, and according to that, there was ~9460 ft of climbing. That's not bad.

So ... that's the good news ... I finished the toughest 600K I've ever done! :)


600K!!! Ok, forget Spiderman... you are my hero now! :)

With all respect, that is truly an accomplishment. Maybe some day I can ride those distances.

The windshield guy is a jerk; I hope he gets his due someday. Good thing you weren't harmed. Stay safe.

GreenAnvil

Here's the story ....... yeah, it's long ... the ride was 600 kms!! :D

My 600K began two days before the official start time when I was doing a pre-ride check of my bicycle and gear. I had been hearing a "clunk" when I pedaled, so I thought I'd take a quick look and see if anything was loose. My cassette appeared loose, so my father tried tightening it to no avail. We took it to the local shop and discovered that my freehub was failing. This is the second freehub failure I've had in 4 years! :eek:

I was extremely relieved that we had taken the wheel to the shop, rather than just ignoring it, because a complete freehub failure basically means that the ride is over. I bought a new wheel, and while the technician was putting my tire onto the new wheel, he discovered a hole in my tire. We changed the tire too.

At 5:00 am on Saturday, May 26, I set off with my new wheel and tire on a brand new 600K route, which I designed over the winter. I named the route Red Deer River 600K because it crosses the Red Deer River 10 times.

It was a lovely morning … +5C, sunny, with barely any wind, and a hint of fog. I made it to the first control, 83 kms down the road, an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. The only bit of excitement in that stretch was my second crossing of the Red Deer river. The entire valley was thick with fog and I was a bit concerned about visibility as I went through, but there wasn’t much traffic and everything was OK.

Not long after the first control I began heading south, along a beautiful, hilly, road (decent shoulder, good pavement, no traffic) into a headwind … with no trees to block the view or obstruct the wind. Still, I made it to next control in decent time. My second control was Big Valley, an interesting little "old west" town. http://www.villagebigvalley.ca/

It was warming up, which was lovely, and the sky was a clear blue. This was one of my warmest rides this year … the temperature reached 20 degrees both days!

The next leg of the journey traveled through the big valley next to Big Valley, another Red Deer River crossing. I've driven this route, but have never cycled it, and I forgot one thing … at the bottom of the 9% grade decent is a one-lane wooden bridge!! That made for a hair-raising moment or two! The climb out of the valley was quite something too. I just about kept pace with a heavily loaded semi who was crawling up the hill with his 4-way flashers on. I nearly blew a gasket on that climb … I was way overdressed so I was overheating badly, and I was absolutely covered in mosquitoes, which had me flailing around trying to get them off.

Mosquitoes continued to be a problem for the rest of the ride, and I rode with my base layer zipped to my throat, and my entire body liberally coated in OFF. Still, I was surrounded by a cloud of them for most of the ride.

This valley, and the next two on the route, are all very similar to the Drumheller area. If you aren't familiar with Drumheller, think dinosaurs and Flintstones. Dry Island Buffalo Jump is in the same area. http://raysweb.net/dryisland/ It's fascinating and quite beautiful. You almost expect to see a pterodactyl fly over or a triceratops to come round a corner.

I wanted to make a longer stop at my next control but a group of loud, bored teenagers, boasting about smoking joints, parked themselves on a picnic table near me and my bicycle, so I decided it was time to move on. As I left the town, I heard something behind me. I glanced back and discovered I was being followed by a cyclist! A cyclist … way out in the middle of nowhere!!

Another big valley with a stiff climb out, another barren southward stretch of road into a headwind, and the third big valley. I was now getting very tired of the big climbs, but thankfully they were finished. There were, however, many, many, many smaller climbs to come.

Darkness fell in Three Hills, and my father and I got ready to head into the night. He had arrived in his van shortly before Three Hills and would drive near me, leap-frog me, for the rest of the night. He and I both feel uncomfortable with me cycling alone at night. You just never know.

I have to say that while I am rethinking much of the route because of the quantity of hills, wind, and rough roads, I actually enjoyed the night portion of the route. The road was very good, with almost no traffic. It also seemed quite bright out there … I had a good moon, and the quantity of farms and oil derricks provided areas of light here and there.

I was worried about the dog situation because it seems that Albertans tend to let their dogs (usually border collies who want to herd me) out at night, but I had only one dog encounter … a very friendly, yet large, German Shepherd pup. It wasn't aggressive, it just wanted to play. My father distracted it with a hamburger and I made my get-away. While playing with the pup, we could hear coyotes howling in the distance … and so could the pup. If you've never heard coyotes howling, it almost sounds a bit like laughter.

I was actually able to make some time after dark because I was heading north, and finally had a tailwind. It was a great relief after all the head and crosswinds I had dealt with during the day. I got into my 7th control at the 400 km point (home) at 4:30 am after cycling for 23.5 hours.

Unfortunately the first thing I was faced with was the news that some moron had smashed the windshield of my car with a baseball bat about 45 minutes earlier. GRRRRRRRR!! While I was getting things ready for the next leg of my journey, my parents were talking to the police. Not the most relaxing break I've had on a 600K. Nevertheless, I did get a couple hours sleep.

7:30 am I was on the road again for the last 200K of the ride. I had forgotten how hilly this section was. In fact, I thought it was basically flat. I was wrong!! I don't know how Alberta manages it, but they've got hills here that just make you want to curl up in a ball and die.

The hill starts gradually, and up ahead, you see the road get steeper ... and then there's the crest. So you cycle up the gradual part, put a bit more effort in to get over the steeper part, fully expecting a downhill, but as soon as you can see over the crest, you see that the hill continues with a gradual part at first and with a steep bit in the distance. OK fine. So you top that crest to see ... the hill continues with a gradual part with a steep bit in the distance.

This goes on and on and on ... at the top of every crest you think, there's got to be a downhill! But there isn't!! Once in a while there might be a downhill, but it is a mere dip in the road ... and then the uphills continue again.

The wind was still from the south, and of course, the first 40 kms of this final 200K loop was south, after that it was a crosswind. The roads in this final 200K loop were also predominantly chipcrete, slowing me down all the more. I could not seem to gain any time, and was crawling into the controls with only about half an hour to spare.

What was interesting, and a bit sad to see, were all the broken branches from the trees. We had a storm come through here in the middle of the week before this brevet that dumped nearly a foot of heavy, wet snow. It melted fairly quickly, thankfully, but left a lot of damage.

As the day was heating up I arrived in Dickson, a tiny Danish village restored to look much like it did back in about 1930. It's a cute little place, and I want to go back there again to spend more time.

Unfortunately, not long after Dickson, just as I was starting to make some time because I had a bit of a tailwind, I flatted. There is so much debris on the roads … too many people throwing beer bottles out of their vehicles!! I took quite a while changing the tire … it was my first real break in the 100 kms since I left my sleep control. However, I was now pushing the time limit!! And to make matters worse, the wind switched and grew stronger while I was changing my tire. I had a headwind again.

I had to work to get to the next two controls … my poor aching quads were faced with even more climbing including the Medicine Hills, a series of three good-sized climbs through some pretty scenery. Thankfully, the wind gradually shifted ever so slightly to become a crosswind, but just a bit from behind.

From Bentley, home of Bentley Cycle and Trading Post http://www.freewebs.com/bentleycycle/ a bicycle shop with very interesting array of rather unusual bicycle choices, all the way to Lacombe, I had a tailwind!! I pushed it, even though my quads were protesting, and was finally able to make up some time!!

I had some extra motivation though … right from the time I was changing the flat, the clouds were gathering in the west. When I got to the Medicine Hills, they had collected themselves and were producing quite a bit of rain off to the south, combined with flashes of lightening. As I rode out of Bentley, I started to hear the thunder. I was really hoping to be able to out run the storm, but as I reached Lacombe … the rain began. By Blackfalds it was pouring and I couldn't help but notice the occasional brilliant flash.

Totally soaked and very tired, I rolled into the finish area at 39 hours and 30 minutes.


-- For whatever it's worth, I mapped the route on Bikely and the total ascent on this route was about 9460 ft. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it is probably ball-park.

-- A big "thank you" to my father who supported me on a good portion of the ride. :) :)

-- And I have to say that I felt the best I've ever felt on a 600K, with the exception of my quads. I'm not sure what made the difference, but whatever it was, I'm pleased! :)

Great write up, Machka! Congrats again on your 600k. :D

I just mapped my 600K route on Bikely, and according to that, there was ~9460 ft of climbing. That's not bad.

At least I know what I'm in for... I'm hoping to be in shape to at least ride a couple of 200k's next year, and the local series is very hilly.

200k has 7800ft of climbing
300k has 12000ft
400k has 16400ft
The 600 is fairly flat (heads east, 200/300/400 head west)

Wow! I just biked a 52mi trip and I thought that I was up to somethin'... :D

Thanks for sharing the details of your trip; hopefully I can pick up a tip here an there.

GreenAnvil