Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Places I have slept

Randonneuring does extraordinary things to one's judgment. I mean, who would curl up on the side of a road and go to sleep, with traffic buzzing past about two metres away?

Yes, I have.

That was on a Giro Tasmania 1000 several years ago. My regular ride partner, Tim, had gone to sleep just off a bridge back up the road; I tried then to sleep, but couldn't. I rode on for another five kilometres or so, then felt the urge to nap. I laid the bike down on the verge and stretched out next to it. I must have looked a bit of a sight to people driving by.

On that same event, I found out that those little mylar space blankets that fold up into a tiny package, can unwrap into a good-sized piece... good enough to keep the rain off if it weren't for the incessant tapping noise as droplets hit silver surface.

On PBP2003, I reclined against a stone wall with full sunshine on me and eyes closed, and napped as other riders glided past me, again, just metres away. It was one of the most pleasurable randonnee sleeps I've had. Later, I napped at the bottom a hill and was checked by one of the motorcycle outriders, just to make sure I was OK and knew that I didn't have far to go to the fnish. Yes, damn you, I was just dreaming about the finish!!!!

After Machka and I withdrew from PBP2007, we found some solace under a tiny railway shelter. We tried to sleep and almost made it, unitl first a fast freight train, then a fast passenger train went past us, again only metres away.

The coldest nap was on the Stone the Crows 400 in Southern New South Wales. I pulled off into a small clearing and napped for about five minutes before my shivering woke me, and I set forth again... with frost on the grass.

On the Last Chance, Machka and I tried to get shelter from the cold night wind tucked into the alcove at a church. We didn't do particularly well there. But we also stopped on several occasions to sleep on the side of the road.

In fact, on one occasion, we chose a gravel road off to the side and I slept gloriously for about 15 minutes. On another occasion, the spot we chose was also the meeting place for a guy and his girlfriend on a Harley Davidson to stop and do something -- we aren't sure what, but the bike's exhaust sure made sleeping difficult. Machka lay there with her hands crossed on her chest, while I was wide awake... for all the world, with our bikes on the ground and her in a death pose, it looked like a fatal accident scene!!

I once rode from home to the start of a 200km to Wilsons Promintory and return. The ride there was around 170km. I rode overnight after work. I slept for an hour on the front porch of the information centre at Inverloch (sleeping bag and mat included). I left my gear in someone's car, rode the 200 (including another nap on the grass outside the park entrance station at Wilsons Prom) then collapsed into a bunk in a cabin kindly offered to me by the ride organiser.

What about some of your experiences? Weird, wonderful or woeful...

When I was young I slept in vacant apartments. The worst place was jail. All free BTW!

When I was young I slept in vacant apartments. The worst place was jail. All free BTW!

These experiences were during long distance rides?

These experiences were during long distance rides?



Yes.

Before I started randonneuring, I did a local tour of eastern Massachusetts that basically involved me riding from one friend's house to another's over the course of the entire weekend as I rode 250km around the length of I-495, an orbital highway that encloses the suburbs just outside Boston metro. That was kind of a nice tour and a good excuse to see old chums.

During my first 600k, a local member in our group volunteered his vacation home in Vermont as sleep stop, which came with a very nice swimming pool, but required a fairly steep, technical ascent on a gravel road. That's always been 'memorable'.

When I rode that 600k route again, the vacation home was not on offer, and we had to sleep in a motel further down the way outside Brattleboro, VT. Before getting there, I was suffering from some serious sleep deprivation and opted, instead, for a fifteen minute power nap on a field cot in a gas station parking lot on top of the Green Mountains.

I DNF'ed a fleche a few years ago due to lingering after effects of the flu. My team left me behind at a gas station near Mt. Monadnock in southern New Hampshire. They had talked me out of the idea of riding home, and instead called one of their wives to pick me up. While I waited for her to arrive, I slept for about thirty minutes on a pair of milk crates just inside the vestibule of that gas station. When I got up, I felt pretty good and had to talk myself out of going out and chasing down my comrades.

On PBP, I slept in a van that had been rented by a friend as a support vehicle and was available to us if we arrived at the same time that he did. I also slept in the lobby of a church, and standing, braced on my bike by the side of the road just outside Carhaix.

On the VanIsle 1000k, I slept in a motel in Woss, where I arrived at 2 in the morning and my key was left for me in an envelope outside the manager's door, and I 'checked out' by slipping the key back underneath the door at 6. And as far as I know, the staff were just faceless ghosts on the Internet. I also slept in a motel in Sayward Junction where the owner greeted my friend and as we knocked on her door. She looked at us, dressed head to toe in reflective bike gear, on her doorstep at just past midnight and just straight up said, "oh, I suppose (you're one of those guys who comes by here every year or so and) you've got one of those French cards that I have to sign."

My friend and I also napped in a series of Tim Horton's shops on the final stretch in Victoria.

Oh, and I also napped on a beach in Hawaii while doing a 102 mile circumnavigation of Oahu while being stuck out there for work. That was nice.

I obviously haven't been at this long enough, since the only time that I've slept on a ride other than at Controls was on the concrete step of a library with a fellow rider who just couldn't go any further at 3am. I figured that there was no way that I was going to get to sleep but actually managed a power nap.

My most memorable occurred when I was working. I traveled with a client to a little town south of Halifax NS and since our flight was late, the motel was closed. No problem, he said, and took me home and I slept on his couch in the basement. When I got up in the a.m. and went upstairs his kids took one look at me and ran away screaming ! Whoops -- no one else knew that I was there !

On BMB, third day, four of us lay down to take a nap next to the road, halfway down a long hill somewhere thirty miles before Middlebury. Before lying down, I took a couple of caffeine pills, figuring they’d me wake up once digested. About a half hour later, I woke up, and woke the others, as we all got up four enormous, loud motorcycles came roaring up the hill and stopped across from us: Two middle-aged gals, looking somewhat concerned, and their middle-aged guys, looking somewhat disgusted. They all did a U-Turn, with some difficulty, and roared back down the hill. What was that all about? We think they had coming roaring down the hill (maybe waking us up, in the first place), and the gals had signaled to the guys to pull over because they were worried about whether we’d been in an accident or something. The guys probably said: “Nah, they’re OK, they’re just crazy bikers.” But the women prevailed, only to ride up the hill and see us all standing up. At which point the guys looked disgusted and said: “Told you so” and they all roared off.

On the Leesburg 400K last year, we had a very hard time of it with constant rain that was intermittently hard--we had to ford the Shenandoah River at a low-water bridge with rushing water up to mid-calf! All the rain slowed us down so much that we had to take several sleep stops, and we were still riding at dawn. The attached photo shows me sleeping outside the 7-11 about fifteen miles before the end of the ride. We made it in with just a few minutes to spare.

I normally try to find some sort of bed somewhere. I'm a bad sleeper at the best of times. Although during PBP07 on the return leg, at Loudeac the only place I could find to sleep was under a table in the cafeteria on the concrete floor. Maybe catching a sleep in a ditch somewhere (rain permitting) would have been softer.

A mate of mine who was catching a sleep on the side of the road between Gundagai and Albury (in Australia) was woken by the local police as they had received numerous calls from motorists that a cyclist was lying on the side of the road, dead or injured. Interesting that non of them stopped!

On the RM1200 I napped, sitting up with my head on my knees on the sidewalk outside a shop at Roger's Pass. There's a photo of me doing that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/1522028314/in/set-72157602332361993/

On the 2003 PBP, I found a lovely spot behind the secret control in the sun and accidentally slept 30 minutes there. It was only supposed to be a 10 minute nap but I was so comfortable and warm. Later I was cycling slowly along looking for a place in the ditch to sleep, but all the likely spots were taken. Then I spotted an empty spot and had to sprint over to claim it because several other cyclists had their eye on it as well. I also slept in the middle of a parking lot on that PBP but only for a little while because cars kept coming in and out. There's a photo of me lying in that parking lot. And I tried to catch a nap sitting on a stone wall. I figured if I fell into a really deep sleep, I'd fall off the wall and wake myself up. But one of the motorcycle "guards" came along to check up on me and wouldn't leave me alone until I got back on my bicycle again.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14302884@N04/1522081648/in/set-72157602327323190/

I tried to sleep in a corner of a convenience store on the Great Southern, but just couldn't get comfortable. But that has reminded me of my second 600K. I was so sick with about 150 km to go on that 600K and spent probably half an hour curled up in a corner of a convenience store, next to the toilets, before I could continue.

Rowan mentions the Last Chance ... I tried to nap for about 10 minutes right in the middle of a gravel road. The road looked so inviting, and I'd seen dead snakes periodically in that area on the main road so I didn't want to nap in the ditch. I figured I could catch a quick, quiet snooze there and be ready to go. But wouldn't you know it, the moment I got comfy a couple motorcycles stopped opposite that road to check something on their bikes (I think) and were revving away over there. I felt like getting up and yelling at them to go away ... "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?!?!" And when they finally did go away, a school bus came down that gravel road and wanted to be where I was lying to make the turn onto the main road. <<sigh>> They just couldn't leave me in peace there.

And that night's sleep on the 2007 PBP in the train shelter was quite something!! When the first train went by, I thought I was going to be sucked off the platform!! That train was so loud and fast. Rowan mentions two trains, but in my mind there were a lot more.

On my randonnees .... I've slept on the front lawns of churches, on the benches in booths of restaurants, on sidewalks, leaning up next to buildings, on gravel roads, in the ditch many times, in convenience stores, at controls, and in a whole variety of motels.

On randonnees I try to bat 1.000 with sleeping in a bed someplace nice and cozy, preferably after a good meal, a shower, and a fresh change of clothing.

I can only think of two exceptions. On last year's fleche, we had 80 minutes to kill before we could leave the 22-hour control so we caught a nap in a convenience store. Totally mundane.

Only slightly more noteworthy was at PBP in '07 I rolled past Loudeac outbound after a meal, shower and change of clothes because the idea of "sleeping" there was just silly -- the place was like a POW camp. So I left figuring that if I was going to be awake anyway or get crappy sleep at best, I might as well keep riding and press on to Carhaix. I started to feel tired just as I got to the secret control somewhere midway in between. The place was well lit with no sleeping accomodations, but still the floor was covered with randonneurs. There was a stage -- the place was some kind of auditorium -- so I went behind the curtain, which totally shut out all the light and sound, and curled up on the floor and had an immediate and very restful sleep.

Still I strive hard for the other end of the spectrum. My personal best is the 2009 Last Chance: 23.5 hours spent at the overnight controls, 96oz. of beer consumed, and all meals were overly long sit-down affairs.

Deep sleep 2 am nap on gas island in Dupree, SD. Hit a rain shower doing the Gutcheck 212 and the canopy over the island offered at least some shelter. Suprised how comfortable cement can be. Worst part was smelling the gas fumes.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n314/fluffypeanutcat/gutcheck/Dupree1.jpg