Listen up people!

On July 11th you are invited to do the 2009 edition of the 200k Mixed Terrain ride, La Ruta Loca Randonnee (LRLR), that loosely follows Brevet event rules. We will start from the San Francisco Marina Safeway at 6:00 am. What is that? well a brevet is a long distance recreational ride (not a race) that is timed, the time allocated for a 200k event is 13.5 hrs. You can find more about brevets at the San Francisco Randonneurs website.

The difference here is this event covers mixed terrain, both paved and off-road sections (about 60%-40%) I've been mapping mixed terrain routes in Marin since 2005 and have come up with several detailed cue sheets for different routes that start at the Golden Gate Bridge and go North to the Marin Headlands, Mt Tam and a little beyond, this has been a real labor of love, you can read my Jul/07 posting here. The 2009 cue sheet will be posted here soon.

LRLR 200k has about 15k of climbing most of it on fire-roads. We start at the Marina Safeway and ride to Muir Woods via the Marin Headlands then climb to Pantoll Ranger Station using Deer Park, continue to Lake Lagunitas using mostly Mt Tam fire-roads, connect to Bolinas/Fairfax rd, down to Alpine Dam, up to Bolinas Ridge down to Hwy 1 via Randall Trail, pay a visit to Mike @ Black Mountain Cycles in Point Reyes Station to get your proof of passage, ride back to Fairfax and Larkspur using the regular bike route, before Camino Alto turn left and do the full Paradise Loop, at Mill Valley keep towards Mt Tam, up to Railroad Grade, West Point Inn, down to Pantoll Ranger Station, connect to the Marin Headlands via panoramic Hwy, get to Miwok Stables and continue on the fire roads to Conzelman, down to the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco Side) and you are done. Sounds like fun? There are "Controls" where you should prove you where there by either getting a receipt, signature/stamp or write some obvious thing about the location, it is different for each Control.

Use whatever bike you want, road, cross, mtb, just make sure your brakes work and the bike overall mechanical condition is very good. I use an unsuspended ti MTB with 1.5" hybrid tires because that is what I have but others have done parts of this route in all sorts of bikes/tire combos, single speed, fixed, fixed 20", road, cross... Just pick one and ride.

If you get in trouble due to a mechanical, or hopefully not, "health" issue there are many places to cut the ride short; the same places serve well to cheaters but I hope no rider does cheat as that misses the whole spirit of doing this type of ride. You have 13.5 hours to complete the route and cover every inch as per the cuesheet. To put the ride in perspective, I am a middle of the pack rider in the San Francisco Randonneurs regular brevets and last year completed LRLR route in 12.5 hrs so I think this will challenge most riders. No awards, no entry fee, just the fun of a though ride in our corner of the world.

Don't think you can complete it in 13.5hrs? So what, nobody is going to pass judgment on you, that is your job. Come out and ride and finish in whatever time you can.

This is NOT a sanctioned brevet or event sponsored by the San Francisco Randonneurs, just a regular informal ride, if you decide to do it you ride at your own risk.

Carlos

When I first read the 2009 San Francisco Randonneurs schedule of events I was pleasantly surprised to see a night event had been included. Back in August of 2007 I wrote here about my SFR wishlist and that was one of the wishes I had. I realy enjoy riding at night, there is that warm-happy-feeling I get when moving silently in the dark. I was looking forward to this event. The only minus I saw was that the start/end was in Hercules instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, but hey I would be riding a night with a bunch of friends.

Not liking to drive to ride but being to lazy to take public transportation I went for the worse of the two and decided to drive. I emailed JimG letting him know I was going to drive and asked him if he was going to do the event so we could carpool. After a couple of emails we agreed he would drive. I made plans for my Friday and Saturday before the ride that included, working from home, eating decent pasta meals and just relaxing as much as I could, as I always try to do before a brevet. I took a long nap Saturday afternoon and then I rode to Jim's. We went for a burrito, of which I ate only half and stashed the other half as a meal for later during the ride.

We arrived a good 40 minutes early and most riders were already there. As soon as we parked next to his Brevetmobile, Willy N. asked if we were interested in a pair of wooden fenders, me, me, me! I have always liked them but it is one of those things I would not purchase cause I'm cheap that way. He pass'em my way and warned he did not want to see them in his hands again. We both were happy.

About 20 riders started the event. We rolled at 8:00PM and...

I was out the door riding my bike with a small duffel bag on my shoulder at 5:15; inside the bag was a 40° sleeping bag, a change of clothes/gloves, a towel and a few toiletries - my drop bag that was destined for the Dimmick campground rest stop.

At the check-in John Russel introduced himself and we had a short chat. It is great how randonneurs in the same geographic area all know about each other and eventually are able to put a face with the name. That is one of the good things of being involved in an activity that has yet to reach mass appeal.

JimG was there but I barely talked to him, he was busy checking in riders and I was busy getting my stuff ready to go. All riders received a Fiberfix Spoke, a thing that I had been meaning to buy for years and had never gotten around to doing so, many thanks to the SRCC and SFR for providing them. It was time to move and after listening to Rob's comments about how there were errors on the cue sheet we left at 6:00 am Saturday cloudy morning. Wish I had listened more carefully...

Seven days prior I did the SFR 400k and have had issues with my left leg. The Fleche is a team event, it's shorter and we need to finish as close to the 24th hour mark as possible, but not later than or it would not count; the slower pace should help keep my injury under control.


During the weekdays before the event I kept my activity to a minimum to help me recuperate from the 400k, I was feeling fine by Friday. Bruce, our team captain, had mapped out an excellent route, the cue sheet was even more impressive with elapsed time for every turn. He just did an amazing job at this. Our route started from his house in Berkeley and rode towards Napa via Vallejo, St. Helena, and Healdsburg, then we would move South towards San Francisco passing first though Santa Rosa, Petaluma and then the very familiar route from there into the city.

On Saturday morning the wife drove me to Berkeley where Todd was unloading his bike from his truck; Kitty and Joel were already inside Bruce's home. All of them are PBP ancients, that means they've completed the 1200K Paris Breast Paris at least once. I was in the company of very experienced randonneurs. After a cup of coffee we left at 8:00am. I am completely unfamiliar with the roads leaving Berkeley and all the way to St. Helena, my cue sheets would be most important this time.

No rain and nice temperatures during the day, a little cold at night. That's what was expected for Saturday so no fenders were needed this time. I would ride the lighter Habanero frame just like I did on the same route in 2007. The 6am start was a little rough on me, I am not a morning person but a ride is a ride; at 4:30 the alarm went off and I got ready to go face the road.


As usual, I arrived at the start with only just a few minutes to spare and had forgotten to turn the GPS on. Said hi to Greg and Max and other riders that were near where I placed my bike and within moments we were moving. Well they were moving, I let most riders go before me. Somewhere along the Mill Valley bike path I remembered that I had to turn the GPS on to record this route so I did it at the first chance I had, the bottom of Camino Alto Hill.

Morning person I am not. The freaking cell phone alarm makes cute noises at 4:40am and I know it is time to get ready. The espresso machine goes off, the breakfast burrito and banana are consumed and then I am awake. Oh sh*t, it seems there is a very good chance of rain and I procrastinated the installation of a mudflap all week. Get the dremell, two rivets and the old plastic I had installed a year ago. Ok I'm almost done but I need to take a shower to really feel awake.


With just minutes to spare I signup and ride the last yards to the Strauss Statue, I still need to start my GPS, take off and pack the jacket and turn off the phone so I have battery left, just in case. I say hi to Greg and after a minute or two I see JimG. Just after I am done putting everything away Rob let us go. I am not up for a fast ride today. I had a little too much cognac a couple of days ago and last night did not sleep very well. I see Greg and the rest of the front of the group take off.

I keep my tubes in the bike for a while but when they get about 4 to 5 patches I retire them, but still keep em' just in case I need one and don't have a brand spanking new to use. There are times however when the tube is not worth repairing or the damage is not repairable (like a valve failure) I also keep some of those dead ones and give them a second life as rubber bands gaskets and other things. I use the same 1.5-1.9" x 26" tubes on all my wheels, from the 1.3" slicks on the commute-randonneuring wheels to the mixed terrain 1.5" hybrid tires I favor for off road ridding. This tube size has proven to be very useful when recycling them into new objects. My recent creations a cover for the iPhone and a wrap for battery holders I use on the Dinnote 200L light.

The iBTube ©®™... When I first got an iPhone as replacement for my aged Palm phone I found the silicone covers or the phone they sell in stores here, were ~$20! are you crazy?...