The Octopus 

Y'all--

It's been an eternity since I posted here (though I am looking forward to putting some thoughts up on Rowan's recent thread on organizing events...), but I wanted to pop in and let you know about an excellent 1200 we're hosting down here in Central Florida this upcoming Fall. All the details are now up on the website -- direct link here. Registration opens on February 13.

The short of it is that this is a clover-leaf style 1200K. You'll come back to the start/finish at the end of each loop, which are in the traditional 400/300/300/200 format for a 1200K. No drop bags: you'll be back to the start three times on the event to eat, get cleaned up, and hopefully get some rest.

The route is gorgeous and rural. You'll see forest, beaches, rolling hills, cattle country, orange groves, horse farms, and of course the obligatory swamp or two. Check out the website for lots more details.

There are no "easy" 1200Ks... but this one aims to make the experience as civilized as possible and is aimed squarely at those who might be attempting that distance for the first time.

See you in the Swamp,
Paul Rozelle
RBA, Central Florida Randonneurs

thebulls

Hi, Mr Octopus, long time no see.

Looks like a fun adventure. The loop format sure keeps the RBA/volunteer workload under control--we did a sort of modified loop format for the Appalachian Adventure 1000km (the second day was a loop that came back to the first night's overnight hotel). It does make it a little tempting for riders to decide to just stay in your hotel room and DNF. There are some events I am pretty-sure I only finished because I didn't know how else I was going to get back to the start except by riding!

Anyway, wondering if you have a super-preliminary route available, e.g. in RWGPS?

Nick

The Octopus 

It's not on RWGPS, but you can expect the ride to be loosely based on a 1000K that we did in 2014; a draft of the routes for that is up on MapMyRide. They're all open to the public, and can be found searching under my name -- Paul Rozelle. Here's a sample of one of them: Eustis-Gainesville (outbound) in Tavares, FL, United States | MapMyRide (the out-bound leg of the 400K/first day).

That 1000K was the genesis of this ride; I figured I'd run a 1000K first and see how it went, ... what riders thought about it. We had 34 riders from 15 states attend and the response to the route and the hub-and-spoke/cloverleaf design was very positive. Hence, the 1200K.

The differences between the two will be some tweaking on the route to turn some of the out-and-backs into loops to get riders on even more excellent roads and, of course, the 4th day/200K, which will be totally new. That "day" will head to Ocala through the horse country of Marion County and some great rolling hills and turn around at a drag racing museum.

We will put up an "official" RWGPS file for the ride, but that won't happen until after the route has been preridden and completely finalized.

Hope to see you there,
Paul

Bassmanbob

This is something I've dreamed about since I started cycling two years ago. I'm currently training for my first century this April. Maybe I'll see you in 2019!

ThermionicScott 

Good to see you around, man!

Just out of curiosity, have you considered a ride consisting of eight 150km legs?