It’s almost time for me to post about my high hopes for writing about bike trips this season and then not doing so or making a very halfhearted attempt to do so.

Finally… an answer.

Actually every cyclist needs a length of rebar. Am I right?

In a stunning turn of events, I may be riding that 300K after all.

I always start the night before a brevet fully intending to wake up in the morning with a complete and restful night’s sleep behind me. That’s invariably what I’m thinking anyway as I lay in bed, wide awake all night. The ride started close to home, so I can’t even blame an uncomfortable or unfamiliar hotel bed. At least the cat was good company, but I don’t know that I slept more than a solid hour at a time.

I don’t know what the problem is. It’s not that I’m particularly stressed about the ride or anything else. I suppose it’s just the anti… pation of it all.

I almost attempted this ride with the Raleigh, and in hindsight, I wish I would have. The Cannondale needed more than the 30 minutes of futzing I gave it. The shifting is all fouled up. I think I need to take everything apart, lube the cables, and check the limits again. It seems like I just wrapped those bars. At least I feel like I’m finally getting good at it.

This would be my second attempt at a brevet this year. I attempted the first one with my riding buddy Ilter (AKA Champ) a few weeks ago and we ended up bailing halfway through. I had nearly just walked back in the door from being away from home for three weeks (four wedding, funeral, vacation, that sort of thing) and Ilter seemed to have contracted malaria. One hundred kilometers into the ride, we realized that we could eat tacos and visit the local brewery instead of pushing to finish, probably just after the cut-off times. At least we impressed Michelle, the local RBA with our excuses:

CONGRATULATIONS to all participants of the GLR Opener this past weekend. While the wind might have seemed a bit daunting at the start, 35 riders started and 30 completed the ride. My personal favorite reason for not completing? “We have sore knees and there are delicious tacos in Crystal Lake!”

The route for my second brevet attempt was new to me. It skirted around and near many places I have ridden, but most of the route was entirely new to me. And starting a short drive from my house was a nice bonus.

In the week preceding the event, I did my best to not check the weather or remark about my tires at all. (We randonneurs are superstition bunch.) I did well on the latter but not the former.

The weather was just OKAY. It drizzled some and was a little chilly. There was a moderate headwind/crosswind on the back half of the out-and back route. The first half of the ride, of course was only a slight breeze.

Usually a 200K means that lights and reflective gear are not an issue. I really should have brought reflective gear (at least ankle straps). The last hours of the ride were fairly overcast. I was glad to have my lights and ended up running both a headlight and a taillight for visibility.

There were no wheel or tire related issues on this ride. I’ve been riding with Pasela Tour Guard tires which are tough as hell, but ride like cement. I have some regular Paselas that ride like a dream, but I haven’t had them on my bike since the time I got three flat tires on my commute home and ended up riding the bus.

For a 200K, this route actually featured a crap-ton of controls: 9! We’d be stopping nine times!

To be fair, this included the beginning and end, but still. It’s a lot of stopping. I’d need to practice good control at the, er, controls…

I fell into a good ride with a couple folks, Dan and Todd. I’d seen them both before on other brevets and I’d actually abandoned a 300K a previous year with Dan. They are both pretty strong riders. Todd gets down into his aerobars and just cruises. He’s signed up for Paris-Brest-Paris (a 1200km ride) this year and I’m sure he’ll do fine. I hung on to them for half the ride but didn’t see Todd after the turn-around, and only caught up to Dan in the controls after the turn-around. He must have been matching his pace from the beginning of the ride. I had slowed down a bit, and Dan and I took a longer break at the penultimate control for a hot coffee and a pastry, which really warmed my insides. Getting back on my bike in the chilly weather should have motivated me for a stronger finish, but there you are…

Dan is the one behind me that looks like an actual cyclist.

This is not my photo, but we did pass this water tower in Hebron, IL. Hebron is apparently very proud of their 1952 State Champions!

I need to start taking more pictures during these rides. The problem is that once I start, I don’t want to stop and take out my phone. I recently purchased a GoPro, but don’t really have a way to mount it at the same time as my front bag. Perhaps once I figure that out, I’ll have more photos.

Here is a summary of my diligently curated, highly tuned fuel for this trip. Trust me, it takes a lot of math to prepare a plan like this for an athlete like me:

• One Starbucks Tea/Lemonade
• One Starbucks blueberry scone
• One Starbucks coffee
• One Starbucks chocolate croissant
• Four or Five homemade sweet potato tacos
• One Regular Coke
• One cold Starbucks Frappuccino Drink
• One Payday bar
• One Stinger waffle
• One Jarritos
• One gas station danish
• One strawberry Quick
• Some chips
• Some dates
• Some Water (Three or four bottles)

I was pretty happy with my tacos. I’ll probably do that again. Baked sweet potatoes with a little olive oil, Mexican rub, cheese, and salt wrapped in a tortilla. Good stuff and easy to eat. I gave one to Todd and he survived (as far as I know). That’s probably why he was so fast.

I am usually pretty hungry when I finish a ride like this This time I had trouble eating anything. I couldn’t even finish a beer. I’m not sure what that was about.

According to my GPS, finishing time was 12:21, which is neither my best nor worst. Ride data here: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/34580798. We’ll see what gets submitted to RUSA. I forgot to take a photo of my brevet card.

Well that’s it. The brevet season has officially started for me. There’s a 300K next weekend, which I’m sure I won’t be at. My next longish ride will probably be the Quest for Lombardis and I’ll be sure to write all about it.

Time to go to bed and get ready to attempt a 200K tomorrow. 2nd attempt for 2019. Here goes something…

randobeering:

A while back, I was accompanying a friend of mine to a bike store as he was looking to buy a new road bike. He introduced me to a roadie friend of his there as a “pretty serious cyclist.” I thought to myself, “Self, I’m pretty serious about riding my bike to where beer is.”

So I obviously don’t fancy myself a serious cyclist. I’ve never even had a serious road bike; I’ve always just ridden mountain bikes or hybrids. But I do enjoy a nice long ride. It gives me time to turn my brain off. Maybe it’s a zen thing.

Back in 2012 (oh the heady days of 2012), I found out about something called randonneuring. Randonneuring is long-distance, self-supportive, noncompetitive cycling within a proscribed time period. Last year I rode in two 200Km brevets hosted by the Great Lake Randonneurs, which I successfully finished.

This place, Randobeering, is a place to put my ride reports, general thoughts about the sport, links or anything else cycling or beer related. The goal is to both not abandon this place and to write something marginally interesting to someone.

Have a question? Use the “Ask me a question” feature. Have something to contribute? Use the “Author a guest post” feature.

Thanks for reading, and Bonne route!

Oh man… I feel like such a rube… Time to get busy and write up a report of my 200K DNF from a bit ago.