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https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Ride Reports >> First brevet in the books! https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1333286975 Message started by dd5339 on Apr 1st, 2012, 8:29am |
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Title: First brevet in the books! Post by dd5339 on Apr 1st, 2012, 8:29am Saturday the Lone Star Randonneurs hosted their Fleas and Trees brevet out of Canton Texas. I had the not so bright idea of signing up for the 200K to see if I could push my previous best distance, (107 miles, 20+ years ago). Little did I know my motto for the days ride was going to be, "Embrace the Suck!" The day started out absolutely beautiful, nice temperatures, a very light breeze, (rare for around here). One of those days that really can't get much better. Little did I know that since the weather was so nice, something else was bound to go south. I was riding with a group of folks who are well above my pay grade, there was a collections of serious K hounds, Dan D, Scary Gary, Square Corners, Sharon, Vickie, Michele and others who had accumulated some serious miles. It was nice to get the chance to meet them and eyeball their bikes and gear as they went merrily heading toward Louisiana at a high rate of speed. My day started going south about mile 25 when my rear tire flatted, Square Corners stopped to assist a bit. I pulled the offending tire, swept the inside, checked the outside, swept the rim and didn't see anything, so I put a new tube in and headed out. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have brought my reading glasses. One tiny little shard of metal that only poked through the tire and into my tube when I was on the bike would cause me no end of problems from mile 25 to mile 109. Four tube changes and numerous stops to air up that danged tire later, a pair of guardian angels from Trinity Bicycles in Fort Worth showed up and were able to eyeball the root cause the problem. My Garmin had to get into the problem child act as well as the start/stop button got bumped into stop when I fixed my first flat, which I didn't notice till the turnaround in Gilmer. And since I was so irritated at my tire, I let my nutrition/hydration plan slip by the wayside. As a type II diabetic, this was not such a good idea. I seem to have survived however. So despite the problems and my own danged stupidity, I finished. Ride time was 08:28 with a 14.7 avg. Total time was right at 12 hours. Semper Fi |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by square_corners on Apr 1st, 2012, 2:41pm I'll piggy back on Dave's writeup, since I did the PLUS version of his ride . . . We started with very warm conditions for the time of year, starting and ending at 67° with a spike to 91° during the day, once the storm clouds passed. There was rain visible from the threatening clouds, but fortunately, none fell on us. By the time we left Gilmer, 62 miles out, the sky rapidly cleared and we were left with mostly sun, a few scattered clouds, and very high humidity. With the passage of the front, there was wind from the southwest, but the pines block most of the wind - we mostly felt it on the last segment of our ride, from Mineola to Canton. This out and back course starts in Canton and goes all the way out to Vivian Louisiana, about 60 miles NW of Shreveport. Major towns we pass through: Mineola, Gilmer, Jefferson, plus crossing the dam of Lake of the Pines - a very scenic area. The name of the route: Fleas refers to the flea markets Canton is famous for; Trees refers to the piney woods most of the route travels through. Elevation gain: the first half of the ride has slightly less climbing than the 2nd half. This is because when traveling to that part of Louisiana, you lose about 500 ft of elevation, vs the start point. Vivian is near the northern extremity of Caddo Lake, which lies at about 160 ft elevation. There are so many climbs and descents, though, that you would never notice that you had net climbing on the second half. The route breaks down into 5 sections, based on climbing. First section is Canton to Mineola - 27 miles of mostly easy riding with long stretches of flattish ground interspersed with easy climbing - no hill greater than 8% but most in the 5% range. Mineola to Gilmer: innumerable giant rollers, most offering up 8% gradient but a few as much as 10%. While these gradients are not terribly steep, it is the sheer number of rollers that makes this 35 mile section a real bear to complete. Gilmer to Jefferson: Climbing is the name of the game in this section but giant rollers do not predominate. Here, it is long steep climbs and steep descents but not every climb is answered with a descent. Gradients in this section are mostly 9% with a few under and a few over. Jefferson to state line: 22 miles with more climbing than I remembered from last year, fortunately none greater than 4% and most at 3%. By this time though, fatigue has set in and the climbs, while not steep, tend to wear on you as well. Stateline to Vivian: 5 miles, no hills, great smooth pavement, and cross the north end of Caddo Lake, with its mysterious, spooky Big Cypress swamp, black water, and the expectation of seeing alligators ready to pounce (in reality, I've never seen one there, but they do exist!). Then we turn around and do it all over again, in reverse! miles: 252.6; climb: 9768; AVS: 14.9; MXS: 38; elapsed time: 20:45 |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by JimFPU on Apr 2nd, 2012, 8:14am Holy cow you guys...you're riding 12 -20 hours!! [smiley=jawdrop.gif] I'm so out of my league here... [smiley=twitchy.gif] |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by rmillay on Apr 2nd, 2012, 5:42pm You have to work up gradually. Also, it doesn't hurt to join a club full of crazy people! :o |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by dd5339 on Apr 2nd, 2012, 9:54pm rmillay wrote:
Crazy is right! Those folks do crazy big time! Nice to meet people crazier than I am. I'm already thinking hmm, just when is that next brevet? Call me crazy also I guess! Semper Fi |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by Bud_Bent on Apr 2nd, 2012, 9:57pm Good job getting the first brevet done. I tend to only ride the ones close to home for me, but maybe I'll see you on one of these eventually. |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by AustinSkater on Apr 3rd, 2012, 5:34am dd5339 wrote:
Crazy is right! Those folks do crazy big time! Nice to meet people crazier than I am. I'm already thinking hmm, just when is that next brevet? Call me crazy also I guess! Semper Fi[/quote] Looks like in this case it's Uncle Sam's Misguided Cyclist. Be very care of LSR, or Dan will have you racing the Tejas 500 in the fall ;D |
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Title: Re: First brevet in the books! Post by rmillay on Apr 3rd, 2012, 5:58pm Not to mention the next Stampede 1200k! ::) |
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