groovestew

Thanks FunkyStickman. I'm certainly not ashamed of my time, it's actually pretty good for me. I should mention, however, that it was a pretty flat route. I don't have an altimeter, but I'm guessing less than 1000' of climbing. Nonetheless, the break times do add up, and it's a goal of mine to shorten them up a bit.

Best of luck!

RichardGlover

Me, too. Did my first Imperial Century last weekend. Almost exactly 7 hours of pedal time, with another 3 hours (!) of lolly-gagging. I need to stop chatting up the c-store clerks along the way and ordering the 2nd espresso at the halfway point.

groovestew

I finished my second 200 km brevet of 2011 yesterday. This ended up being a tough one. I had two goals starting out: shorten my breaks, and finish in under 8 hours total time. I failed at both. The wind got progressively stronger throughout the day, and most of the second half was against the wind. You know you've got a good headwind when you're trying to coast downhill and you're slowing down! Due to the winds, I couldn't keep up a pace that would get me under 8 hours pedal time, and my breaks became longer and more frequent. 9 hours and 10 minutes was the final total time; I don't have a computer on the bike I rode that day, so I don't know the total amount of saddle time, but I'm guessing it was a little over 8 hours.

IbisTouche

In this our first really season with brevet riding Dorte and I have done 3 200 km, 1 of 300 and 400 km - next is 600 km on saturday if we solve some mechanical noise on our Ibis Touche tandem. We try to use another wheell with the old chain and that might be the problem - but I don´t have a tool to break the chain with. Also we have just received our new CoMotion Speedster Copilot, but we won´t use it on the long brevet before we have riden it in.

groovestew

Completed my first 300 km brevet for 2011. This was a rather windy and somewhat hilly 300, and ended up being a tough slog for me. Thankfully I had company the whole ride, and we helped each other out when possible.

Some nice scenery on the route, if you're into prairie landscapes. Being that it's still very early spring here (there's still snow in some of the sheltered areas), the farmland is still all stubble from the fall, and no leaves on the trees yet. Here's a couple of shots:

skiffrun

400 "in the bag" as of 0438 EDT Sunday.

200 was "bagged" four weeks ago.
300 was two weeks ago.

600 in two weeks. I DEFINITELY hope I don't encounter the same problem that lead me to DNF last year. (I am more than hoping -- I am also better planned, better informed and will be better prepared.)
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I could have pre-registered for a certain ride as early as yesterday, but I have no interest.

downtube42

600k done, with the Louisville cycling club. I had the honor of being the Lanterne Rouge. One crash, one flat, and a bit too long of a sleep, but I squeaked under the wire by 30 minutes. Maybe 12 bonus miles thrown in for good measure.

cheg

Finished my PBP qualifiers in April, now I'm working on finishing an R5000 in one year. Here are some pictures from the last 3 brevets. I love living in the Pacific Northwest

Ride report from the Wenatchee 600k Brevet

Wenatchee 400k on Flickr

Baker Lake 400k on Flickr

thompsw

I'm pretty much obsessed with the sport at this point -- did two SR series in Florida then the TX 1200; will start another series, which I hope to finish, north of Toronto this coming weekend (those rides will be spread out, not doing the so-called Devil Week); planning on the Shenandoah 1200 on June 9th; planning on Toronto=>Ottawa=>Toronto (1000) on July 30 and then PBP.

Dave.

LWaB

Finished the Texas Rando Stampede 1200 a fortnight ago and the Raymond Poulidor 400 Audax (UAF, not ACP) from Paris last weekend. Both very good brevets but quite different experiences. Variety is the spice of life, they say.

StephenH

Cool, two Stampeders checking in there, I did the 1200k Stampede as well. Good to have y'all out for the ride!

groovestew

Finished my first ever 400 km brevet yesterday. Light but cold rain, sleet, and snow (yes, snow in June) soaked me for the first 4 hours or so, but the wind cooperated and I managed to beat my goal of 20 hours by quite a bit - total time was 18:12, with 15:44 in the saddle.

Couple of shots:


Plenty of valleys on this route.


Snow in June!

cheg

Another great brevet in the Pacific Northwest: the Tahuya Hills 600K. No rain for a change!

FunkyStickman

Beautiful shots... wish I could ride out there!

My first 200K in coming up next weekend, looking forward to it! It's supposed to rain the whole time. I will do what I can to post up a respectable ride report with non-soggy pics.

FunkyStickman

Ride report from my first 200K:

My First Rando Report (NOTE: Original is back up!)

drmweaver2

Nice ride report Stickman.

FunkyStickman

Thanks, now I know what this rando stuff is about... at least I made it! I don't think I will try that again until I get a better saddle.

groovestew

Congratulations, Funky! Welcome to the club. Some of your report reminded me of my first couple of randonneuring experiences - the digestion and rear-end pain particularly (not the heat though...I have yet to ride a brevet where I could de-layer down to shorts). Keep at it! It gets better, or at least, you learn what to expect.

Worped

I joined my local rando club and completed my first brevets this year. I did a 200km back in mid-May (10.5 hours total, 9 in the saddle) and 400km at the beginning of June (just under 23 hours total, about 18.5 in the saddle). I was hoping to get a full SR series in this year, but life got in the way. Going from 200 right to 400 was an.... interesting... challenge. Despite that, I think I'm addicted already.

groovestew

Completed another 200 km today, a fairly easy, fairly flat route, but with the usual head and cross winds to deal with.

There seems to be a competition among rural towns around here to have the world's largest something or other.

Here's my bike next to the world's largest kielbasa:


And here it is next to the world's largest Mallard duck:

cheg

Olympic/St. Helens 1000k, a Figure 8 route held on 6/18-6/21 2011. 20000 ft of climbing.
Finished with 2 friends at 71:18. My first Lantern Rouge. We knew we had lots of time on the last 200k so we took some of it.

cheg

Local 200k called the Alps. 10000 feet of climbing with a max elevation of 1100 feet. Strange attractor.

leaping_gnome

I hope some PBP reports start rolling in. I had not seen this thread previously so I am checking in with mostly history. After riding my first 200-300-400k Brevets in 2010, in November we rode a couple of 200k brevets, one I remember with augustgarage. I also got my son to ride his first 200k along the Malibu coastline, which was glorious. I finished my first SR series by June this year, mostly with riders that were prepping for PBP. The 600k, in particular, was a 1/2 PBP in terms of climbing, at about 16k ft. We also recently completed a 200k Dart, riding from Disneyland to Moorpark.

Although not a Randonnee, I also completed my first California Triple Crown (at least 3 double centuries in a year) and plan to complete my 5th this year in the fall.

Next weekend, Sept 4th, I am going to rando down over the San Gabriel mountains and ride with the Velo-Retro folks starting at the Rose Bowl and then rando back over the mountains to finish a 138 mile, 10k ft day. Should be fun!

downtube42

PBP was everything I had heard it was, and more. It was as difficult as I feared, as beautiful as I hoped, and for me 30 kilometers longer than planned. Overall we lucked out with the weather, and personally I was very lucky that a sleep stop coincided with the one storm that crossed my path. The people along the route are what make this ride magic. A whole town out at the control cheering, two adolescent boys on the edge of town handing out fruit, a group of retirees in the middle of nowhere refilling water bottles, a couple of teenage girls sitting in a doorway wrapped in a blanket at midnight clapping as I rode by, a voice yelling "bon route" out of an upstairs window at 3:00 am in some Brittany town. Multiply that by 100 and you have an idea of PBP. It wasn't all roses. The lorries where sometimes frightening, traffic in Brest was unfriendly, one tampered sign led me to an extra 30 km, thick fog limited visibility at times to just a few meters, and a drunk on the run-in to Paris got a little close with his high-five. I won't go into details, but I did have my share of medical issues consistent with a 1200k ride. Luck was with me though, as I had no flats or other mechanical issues.

With 30 km to go, I was thinking "never again". Amazing how much can change after a couple good nights of sleep

leaping_gnome

Awesome downtube42! Congratulations!