I was working from home Friday afternoon so a double espresso at 3:30pm was a good idea at the time... 1:30 am Saturday morning and was wide awake, oh well this would not be the first time doing a long ride on little sleep.


In the last couple of years I've gotten great feedback from riders who started this 200k mixed terrain ride and the consensus is that this is a real hard ride. When I first developed the route my purpose was to turn this into an official RUSA permanent so randonneurs who have never experienced the fun that it is to ride a bike anywhere would have an excuse to get some dirt on their chainstays.

By chance this year the first climb of the route had been closed halfway up at the intersection where I usually detour on regular rides that involve the Marin headlands so that forced me to come up with small modifications to the original cue sheet and while I was at it why not include some new hills and make the 1st control easier to make? At the end of all chopping and re-measuring the total distance was still over 200k so it was all good.

This year we had six official starters and 2 riders who were going to ride with the group for a while and then return home to other commitments. 6:00 am is early but we managed to start at around 6:08...

This time it would be Gabe E and I carpooling to the start. Jim G was sick and had to cancel on the fun this time.  I consider this event an fun easy ride, riders tend to stick together for most of the route and the few hills that we encounter are gentle. Since I had cut down on my cycling since the 600k a month ago I thought it would be a good idea to go for a run on Saturday morning, something easy like the Presidio loop we often do with the wife which is just over 5 miles. Well it all was fine until we started running downhill on some trails, I got a real acute pain in the quads and almost had to stop. By the time we were back home I wanted to take a nap and just rest, so I did.

After preparing my gear, another short nap and then I was hungry, a Mexican style Cuban torta from the nearby taqueria hit the spot. I was ready to go pick up Gabe. We were very early to the start, something unusual for me but a welcome change. Had time to chat with all suspects and then at 8:00pm sharp we were off into an ~80 degree evening, lovely.

The whole group of 30-some riders rode together most of the way to the Carquinez Bridge and then the little rollers before Lake Herman did their thing and split us up. We were now nature-sorted into similarly paced riders. The group that I end up in was the head one, I was very familiar with all the riders except one, Brian K. Two San Francisco Randonneurs RBAs Rob H. our current RBA, Todd T our previous RBA, Willy N, Gabe E, Brian C and Ken J the other SFR, who like me, has been riding flat bar bikes on brevets for a while.

When we were getting ready to leave the first Control...

I read my own writeup from the same route for the previous year and took my own advice, eat better, don't chase, and ride at a comfortable pace.

I was not sure my mind and body were ready this time; I had not been riding too much and was feeling a little lazy, issues at work did not help either, I was not focused for this event. Fortunately the few rides I had done before this had been good. A new friend who had recently joined us on our Mixed Terrain rides and who is far faster than me had me trying  to keep up with him on some nice rides. With just a couple of weeks left before the ride I rode from San Francisco to Occidental to spend the night and meet the wife. Right at the Bohemian Hwy turn after Freestone I had taken a wrong turn and added about 10 miles and near an hour to my total for the 2009 600k. I needed to know the right way to avoid the same stupid mistake. This was a good call on my part.

No wine for a whole two weeks, early to bed, and a decent diet. Had also been running between 6 and 13 miles on trails on Sundays; that gave my body, I think, a chance to get used to hard efforts.

The bike had a new set of wheels I had recently build, food loaded, batteries charged, cue sheet printed. The body had plastic and wool layers combination that I like. The drop bag a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, a six pack of Ensure and few toiletries. The head and body, a few demons inside...

20% rain chance for most of the route on Saturday wasn't bad, I had no real excuse to stay in bed instead of going on a 600 kilometer ride. As always by 6:00 we were moving on the east sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge. I joined the front group....

Having participated in my first Fleche the previous year I was looking forward to being part of a Fleche team in 2010. A Fleche is a 24 hour point to point randonneuring ride of at least 360 km done by several 3-5 bicycle teams (tandems are considered a single bicycle) each team takes a different route and converges on Easter morning at a pre-arranged place for a group breakfast.

I was lucky to be part of a team with very experienced randonneurs, Bruce B. our captain and also the Fleche coordinator for the San Francisco Randonneurs (SFR), Rob H. the Regional Brevet Administrator for SFR, Phil M and Robbins P., a partner in many weekend rides on and off road. We all are evenly matched in pace so maintaining the team challenged, interested and more important together would not be a problem. Last year, I had also done this same route with Bruce. Rob had also done it before so the three of us were familiar with the roads. Our cue sheet had a column for time of day which was very accurate considering the many hills we climbed and turns we had to make.

The route, designed by Bruce starts in Berkeley and travels trough Vallejo, Suisun, Lake Solano, Saint Helena, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Fairfax, Corte Madera and then finishes at Crepes on Cole in San Francisco. With about 9500 feet of climbing it has a good balance of hills and flat riding and great views of vineyards in several Northern California counties including Napa and Sonoma.

The lovely wife agreed to drive Robbins and I to Berkeley and after loading Robbins bike in front of his house, at an -ultra steep even for San Francisco standards street- we drove across the Bay Bridge to Bruce's home where we had coffee and pastries and met up with Rob and Phil. At 7:16am we were off.

Soon after the climbing started...

At the end of the 300k Vidas had asked me if I wanted to do the 400k workers ride, "we'll see" I said. A week before the scheduled 400k workers ride I did the SRCC 200k, a very flat and relatively fast route. I was drafting behind Richard M. most of the day and at the end, since I was not driving, I had a couple of beers and went home happy. Next morning the wife and I went for a ~6 mile trail run. The rest of the week I was completely exhausted and did not have it in me to do the 400k workers ride. The day before the ride I let Richard and Vidas know that I could not do the ride with them.

The next week I was still not feeling 100%, a little tired and wasn't looking forward to the regular 400k, not a good sign. Fortunately, by the end of the working week I was more receptive to the idea of a nice long ride on Saturday. After all, this is my favorite brevet distance/route. Prepared the bike, gear, clothes, got the food ready and went to sleep. I debated if I should take my bright orange waterproof jacket which is great for night visibility but doesn't really do well in mild conditions as I sweat a lot in it. Next morning I rode with it to the start.

JimG asked if I was planning on doing the March 13th, SRCC 200k, a relatively flat route that finishes at a pub. Say what? yes beer drinking randonneurs at the end. After getting approval from the wife I sent an email to Bob (SRCC Regional Brevet Administrator) and he agreed to have me bring the registration papers and liability form on event day. This event would be attended by several fellow SFR riders including our own RBA Rob H., Gabe E., Alex P, Phil M, Masa K and his wife (on her first brevet) and others who I can't remember. I had done about half of the route a couple of years back when the wife and I rode the SRCC permanent.and had good memories of that ride.

On the way to Healdsburg, we picked up Bill E. a Santa Rosa Cycling cub rider; his wife had espresso for us, thank you!. Technically, Bill was not a brevet rider today, he was a volunteer who would be riding part of the route and then head back to work the final control along with his wife Evelyn. By 7:00 about 80 riders took to the Sonoma and Napa roads. A clear cool morning. Jim was not feeling 100%, but he was good enough for riding this event. A mile after starting we rode on Westlake Rd, the rollers there separated the large group into smaller ones.

It's always about timing. Last month, the day before the SFR Two Rock/Valley Ford 200k I had a bad sore throat; good thing I had done the course the week before as part of the worker's ride and had gotten those miles in. I volunteered at the start and final controls and had a great time chatting with riders as they arrived. The sore throat has remained, complemented by lots of coughing and in addition I have pulled a muscle on my right leg while doing some trail running, nothing serious but it had me limping a little for a few days. So, I had been watching both throat and leg making sure that they both healed in time to allow me to ride comfortably the upcoming 300k.

This is my least favorite brevet distance, neither short nor quite long enough so its a hard event to pace myself, just a case where for me middle ground is no good. Well, time to confront my demons head on and challenge myself a little. This time I would try to do the 300k riding alone. To make sure that I would not have much of a chance to hide my weaknesses behind a paceline, I decided to volunteer at the final control for this event and do the volunteer's ride the weekend before.

Since not too many riders do the volunteer's ride for this distance there is a good chance I will be alone for most of the way. I was looking forward to this ride, it would be like touring alone but without the load. Just hoped for good weather. I had the bike and necessary supplies ready by Friday evening, but not before paying a visit to a local Safeway to familiarize myself with the layout of the store and the location of the stuff I like, V8 single serving cans/bottles and Odwalla energy bars.

I rarely go to Safeway, except during San Francisco randonneurs brevets as we use their stores for controls. On my hunt for individual bottles or cans of V8 I found that Safeway either stopped selling singles or the employees I asked about V8 singles are as clueless as I am. In any case, they place the Odwala bars not with all other energy bars but in small displays next to the Odwalla juices. One thing the caught my eye while in the energy bar aisle were the