Del Puerto Canyon 200k ride report
So both Marie and I participated in a 200k Randonneuring event this last weekend.
It was a long day in the saddle, but enjoyable for most of it. There was 100+ riders who started this ride.
Marie and I tend to travel at two different paces. My hope was that we would both find riders of similar ability that we could both ride with. I figured I would wait for her to catch up at each check point and then we could take off again together.
Hopefully Marie will give some commentary on her ride, she had a more eventful trip than I did.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/765906 Del Puerto Canyon 200K
These rides are pretty interesting because they are unsupported. The idea is that you are supposed to be self sufficient and similate a touring ride not a century or race.
Many of the checkpoints consist of a gas station or 7-11 or something like that, and what you have to do is go inside and buy something, get a receipt and not the time on your Brevet card. This proves at least traveled the course. I suppose you could do it in your car if you were dishonest, but what fun would that be.
There were 3 riders who went down early on during this ride. They were part of a pack and the thought at this time was that a gust of wind may have contributed in pushing one rider into the path of another. It sent 2 of the 3 riders to the hospital, one with a punctured lung and a few broken ribs, and the other, I believe had a broken collar bone.
There were only two real hills in the whole ride, but they added up to almost
6,000 feet of climbing. There was a fairly decent head wind on a the second half of the ride when we were out in the valley. It was a little annoying, but not insurmountable especially if you could find a paceline to get into.
The first half of the ride was easy, and I was starting to wonder what the second half climb was going to be like. It had been too easy and I knew that wouldn't last.
At the approximately the half way point there was a roadside bar/quickie mart/gas station. I got myself a muscle milk and a few potato wedges. That turned out the be a big mistake.
I made it about 4 miles down the road and visions of finishing the ride without any socks started to flash through my head. Luckily I found an orchard that had a portapotty on the side of the road.
Unfortunately that unscheduled stop cost me my paceline group and I had to finish the next 20 miles by myself fighting that minor head wind. (Note: Bibb shorts are the bomb for comfort, but are a ***** to get off in a hurry)
Prior to the final course check in is where all the "fun" starts. It's about 30 miles of uphill and some of it was very steep. It had me wondering what it would cost to have a mountain bike gear setup installed on my bike. I have to admit to the walk of shame on a couple portions where I just knew I wasn't going any further. The only good thing about that climb is that what goes up, must go down. However in this case, this proved dangerous and not a lot of fun.
It was getting dark out so I switched on my lights, I had 2 headlights, one pointed right at the ground in front of me and one a few feet further ahead. This works pretty good, except for one thing. One of my lights decided that it was going to keep shutting itself off. I had spare batteries, so I swapped them out and the problem didn't resolve. The worst part of this was that it was my "better & brighter" light. So here I am out in the middle of nowhere with no ambient street lights and one headlight. Add to that the rain which had held off all day, decided that it was tired of waiting for us to finish and decided to dump on us.
Going downhill at 25-30 miles per hour in the dark with little to no lights in the rain isn't bad enough, I had 3 deer jump out in front of me and almost take me out. I was screaming and swerving and grabbing brakes. Luckily I saw them, I'm sure hitting one of them on my bike would not have been good or fun.
I basically rode in the middle of the road, using the white line as my guide, because it's all I could see. This was working out O****il I would go around a corner and the paint on the road was worn away or hard to see.
Since I'm sitting here typing this, I guess I made it down the hill. I sat at the bottom of the hill for 30+ minutes in the rain waiting for Marie and one other rider. They never showed up. I had no idea how far back they were, or how much walking they may have done, or if they were hurt or trying to wait out the storm or what. I decided that I would put my head down and try to power through the final 14 miles. I would get in my car and go back and look for them.
About 5 miles from the finish one of the ride organizers in his car pulled up behind me and asked me who I was and if I knew the other riders out on the course. I told them about Marie and Tye, He headed back onto the course to look for them.
I made it to the finish, had something to eat and then we got the call that he had found the other riders and that they were on their way in. Marie had an accident on the wet dark road, but she was OK and was riding to the finish.
I'll leave the rest of Marie's story to Marie.
Scott
It was a long day in the saddle, but enjoyable for most of it. There was 100+ riders who started this ride.
Marie and I tend to travel at two different paces. My hope was that we would both find riders of similar ability that we could both ride with. I figured I would wait for her to catch up at each check point and then we could take off again together.
Hopefully Marie will give some commentary on her ride, she had a more eventful trip than I did.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/765906 Del Puerto Canyon 200K
These rides are pretty interesting because they are unsupported. The idea is that you are supposed to be self sufficient and similate a touring ride not a century or race.
Many of the checkpoints consist of a gas station or 7-11 or something like that, and what you have to do is go inside and buy something, get a receipt and not the time on your Brevet card. This proves at least traveled the course. I suppose you could do it in your car if you were dishonest, but what fun would that be.
There were 3 riders who went down early on during this ride. They were part of a pack and the thought at this time was that a gust of wind may have contributed in pushing one rider into the path of another. It sent 2 of the 3 riders to the hospital, one with a punctured lung and a few broken ribs, and the other, I believe had a broken collar bone.
There were only two real hills in the whole ride, but they added up to almost
6,000 feet of climbing. There was a fairly decent head wind on a the second half of the ride when we were out in the valley. It was a little annoying, but not insurmountable especially if you could find a paceline to get into.
The first half of the ride was easy, and I was starting to wonder what the second half climb was going to be like. It had been too easy and I knew that wouldn't last.
At the approximately the half way point there was a roadside bar/quickie mart/gas station. I got myself a muscle milk and a few potato wedges. That turned out the be a big mistake.
I made it about 4 miles down the road and visions of finishing the ride without any socks started to flash through my head. Luckily I found an orchard that had a portapotty on the side of the road.
Unfortunately that unscheduled stop cost me my paceline group and I had to finish the next 20 miles by myself fighting that minor head wind. (Note: Bibb shorts are the bomb for comfort, but are a ***** to get off in a hurry)
Prior to the final course check in is where all the "fun" starts. It's about 30 miles of uphill and some of it was very steep. It had me wondering what it would cost to have a mountain bike gear setup installed on my bike. I have to admit to the walk of shame on a couple portions where I just knew I wasn't going any further. The only good thing about that climb is that what goes up, must go down. However in this case, this proved dangerous and not a lot of fun.
It was getting dark out so I switched on my lights, I had 2 headlights, one pointed right at the ground in front of me and one a few feet further ahead. This works pretty good, except for one thing. One of my lights decided that it was going to keep shutting itself off. I had spare batteries, so I swapped them out and the problem didn't resolve. The worst part of this was that it was my "better & brighter" light. So here I am out in the middle of nowhere with no ambient street lights and one headlight. Add to that the rain which had held off all day, decided that it was tired of waiting for us to finish and decided to dump on us.
Going downhill at 25-30 miles per hour in the dark with little to no lights in the rain isn't bad enough, I had 3 deer jump out in front of me and almost take me out. I was screaming and swerving and grabbing brakes. Luckily I saw them, I'm sure hitting one of them on my bike would not have been good or fun.
I basically rode in the middle of the road, using the white line as my guide, because it's all I could see. This was working out O****il I would go around a corner and the paint on the road was worn away or hard to see.
Since I'm sitting here typing this, I guess I made it down the hill. I sat at the bottom of the hill for 30+ minutes in the rain waiting for Marie and one other rider. They never showed up. I had no idea how far back they were, or how much walking they may have done, or if they were hurt or trying to wait out the storm or what. I decided that I would put my head down and try to power through the final 14 miles. I would get in my car and go back and look for them.
About 5 miles from the finish one of the ride organizers in his car pulled up behind me and asked me who I was and if I knew the other riders out on the course. I told them about Marie and Tye, He headed back onto the course to look for them.
I made it to the finish, had something to eat and then we got the call that he had found the other riders and that they were on their way in. Marie had an accident on the wet dark road, but she was OK and was riding to the finish.
I'll leave the rest of Marie's story to Marie.
Scott
The first time you do something - It's going to be a personal record!
holy crap.... that sounds like a crazy adventure, i'm glad you didn't get hurt (and hopefully Marie didn't get hurt as well). you left us with a cliff-hanger with marie too! i've never riden at night, so i can only imagine a decent in the dark in the rain....
Where are we going?? And why am I in this handbasket??
right now. somewhere. somebody is working harder than you.
right now. somewhere. somebody is working harder than you.
I don't ever want to do it again.
I also forgot to mention that my garmins battery died about 1 hour from the finish, so I was trying to read this rapidly deteriorating turn sheet in the rain. I could make out part of the road name, and would just keep riding until I saw something that looked similar then took the turn.
Luckily I was right with all of the guesses.
I also forgot to mention that my garmins battery died about 1 hour from the finish, so I was trying to read this rapidly deteriorating turn sheet in the rain. I could make out part of the road name, and would just keep riding until I saw something that looked similar then took the turn.
Luckily I was right with all of the guesses.
The first time you do something - It's going to be a personal record!
I keep meaning to write up a report but I hit my head when I crashed and my PCP thinks I might have blacked out. I didn't think I had but then I was looking at my GPS data and I started think maybe I had. There is some missing time in there after the crash. Anyway, it makes it hard to concentrate on things so I haven't had the gumption to write up a report.
HW - 225 SW - 191 GW - 132 CW - 122
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