First 200 of 2013

This winter in Montreal was much harsher and longer than last year's and therefore I hadn't gotten too many miles in so far. Yet, May marks the beginning of the brevet season, with a 200k. I probably won't be able to do any brevets next year, as we'll be moving to a town with a rando club and I therefore wanted to get a good number of rides in this year.

Important things first: Once again, I managed to not put back my memory card into the camera. I really hate it when that happens, especially when there would've been many opportunities for taking pretty pictures on this nice and sunny spring day.

The ride was scheduled for 7. I got out of bed at 5:30 and my usual slow morning self completed the last bits of preparation necessary. Other than forgetting the memory card, I also failed to prepare sandwiches -- something I would dearly regret later. The forecast for the day was a high of 24°C and pure sun. Given how pale I am after the winter and having seen my SO getting badly burned from a relatively short run, I decided to play it safe and wear my longsleeve wool jersey.

When I arrived at the starting point, there was already a big crowd of riders assembled -- possibly the largest number I'd ever seen at a CVRM event. Jean, our club president, quickly explained the rules of the ride for the newcomers and after the obligatory group picture we headed out. I stayed with the front of the group, and riding through the quiet morning streets in a pack of 15 to 20 riders at high speed was exhilarating. Once we got out of the suburbs, a group of 8 or so cyclists increased the tempo further and after a short attempt of keeping up with them I let myself fall back and rode by myself for a while. While I had my first Clif Bar of the day, I was caught by another group of 6 riders and we stayed together until the first control stop at 41 km. On the way there, I -- for what I think the first time of my life -- managed to drop my water bottle while being near the front of the group. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and I was able to retrieve the bottle, but I was rather embarassed.

Going with my usual policy of keeping the control stops short, I only had my card signed, went to bathroom and headed out again before the rest of the group. After a couple minutes it dawned on me that I hadn't refilled my water bottles because somehow in my mind the next rest stop would be before getting to the big climb of the day. A quick glance at the cue sheet, however, confirmed that that was not the case and I therefore bought a bottle of Gatorade at the next gas station. The lost minutes, of course, meant that the people behind me would soon catch up with me. I considered hanging on to them but they were just a tad bit too fast and I therefore continued by myself.

The route had been flat so far, heading straight south towards the US border. At the last turn before the crossing, we then turned west and rode parallel to border. This was also where things started getting hilly. It starts out with gentle rolling hills and a lot of false flats and I started feeling a little exhausted. This was exacerbated by my maladjusted rear derailleur that kept ghost-shifting into a higher gear. On the other, this stretch of the route is also the most scenic part. Vineyards and orchards, old stone walls, and nice views (you can see a bit of it here). The final climb up Covey Hill was mean, as always, but I made it up, huffing and puffing.

The following downhill to the next control stop quickly made me forget the hard work, though, and soon I arrived at Boulangerie Chartrand, which was as busy as usual, both with regular customers and other randonneurs. I only had an espresso and a Clif Bar, refilled my bottles, re-applied sunscreen, fixed the derailleur, and headed out again, once again by myself. The sun was burning by now which on the one hand made me glad to have the protection the long jersey provided, but on the other hand also made me pretty hot. Once again, I was being passed by the group of people I'd been playing cat-and-mouse with. The route out here was again all very quiet -- there's only one little town, Saint-Chrysostome, on the 60 km between rest stops 2 and 3.

Having a properly working derailleur was nice, but now I had to struggle with a headwind (even though it seemed to switch directios many times during the course of the day) and me being absolutely sick of eating and drinking sweet things. This is not uncommon for me, but usually doesn't happen as early. I dreaded having to eat yet another Clif Bar and longingly thought about those savory sandwiches I never ended up making. My feet were also complaining, but in the end I made it to the third control stop (which is the same as number 1). A few other riders were there, fixing someone's flat, and this time they actually headed out before me. The V8 and coke I had had at the control made me feel better, as did the knowledge that only a good 40km were left until the finish.

Just before reaching the outer limits of the suburbs I was caught by yet another group. This time, I did ride with them and had a nice conversation with one rider who was doing his first fixed gear 200k. We arrived at the final control at 15:37, a good 8.5 hours after the start. Given how early in the season it was and that I had ridden mostly on my own, this was a surprisingly good time and I didn't feel too bad. I also seem to have avoided getting burned by the sun. Overall, a very happy ride!

Ride report: A hard 300

Picture from the start. Courtesy CVRM

I had just gotten back from a three week trip to Europe on Tuesday night. On Wednesday I checked the CVRM calendar and was a bit concerned about seeing a 300 km brevet on the schedule for the weekend. I would have preferred a shorter distance, but as there are only two other rides left for this season I decided to sign up anyway.

My sleep pattern was still messed up by the jetlag and I woke up at 4:17, 13 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. I arrived at the start just a bit after sunrise and was surprised to see only five other riders there -- it later occurred to me that in addition to vacation season it was also the time of the Rocky Mountain 1200 which was attended by five of our members. My main goal for the day was to make it back in time to meet the biketopus for the fireworks at 10 pm, a secondary goal was to complete the ride in a similar time as my last attempt, 14 hours and 32 minutes. My French is still pretty bad, but it was good enough to understand that one of the riders, Marc, had the plan to complete the ride at "sept heure," which was clearly too ambitious for me. Nonetheless, I tried hanging on with the rest of the group to the first contrôle in Saint-Cesaire. The pace was high, with an average of about 30 km/h, but I was feeling okay.

This would quickly change after the first stop: Raymond had left a few minutes before us and Jean, leading the rest of us, seemed determined to catch up with him. Zooming along on the Route des Champs bike path at 38 km/h was way too much for me and after maybe 10 km I decided I had to ride at my own pace in order to survive the ride. Unfortunately, for the rest of day I would be in various states of pain. It started with a headache which became bad enough to force me stop at a supermarket in Bromont to buy a Pepsi. The Pepsi cured the headache but somehow during the stop I must have pinched a nerve in my hip joint. This was painful in itself and also affected my pedaling form which in turn caused my left knee to start hurting, too. Between the second and third contrôle I was feeling more and more crappy and had to stop and sit in the grass for a bit somewhere along Vallée Missisquoi. At the bottom of the climb up Scenic Drive, the major climb of the route, I reached a low and thought I would have to walk up the mountain. Pondering this prospect for a minute, however, brought back my stubbornness and I decided to not let the mountain defeat me. I was passed by a number of roadies on the way up, but in the end I made it to the top.

At the third contrôle in Sutton I stopped for 50 minutes which, in combination with two Advils and lots of V8 and apple cider, made me feel a bit better. Between Sutton and the next contrôle the ride was fairly enjoyable -- nice scenery, almost no wind, and not too much pain. Once I reached Saint-Cesaire, with only about 60 km left, I knew that I would make it. From St.-Cesaire the route followed Route 112 all the way to the end which is easy and fairly nice to ride on. Lots of cars but the shoulder is wide and has good pavement. Back in Longueil I missed the turn onto Lapinière. but at 9:12 I reached the final contrôle. And after getting lost in Brossard while trying to find my way to the Saint-Lambert locks I arrived just in time at the Parc de la Cité du Havre right on time for the fireworks.

Brevet card

The other riders did indeed almost reach their goal of finishing at 7 o'clock which is very impressive. Had it not be for the pain my ride would probably have been really great, as the weather was pretty much perfect: warm but not too hot and very little wind for most of the day.I was surprised that the brevet only took me about 45 minutes longer than in my previous attempt, where there had been little pain and I had received a lot of help from the other riders. My moving average was much lower, 24.6 vs. 27.4 km/h, but I spent half an hour less at the stops. This pretty impressively shows that a fast brevet is not so much the result of riding fast but of having efficient stops.

Ride report: CVRM 300km Brevet

After really enjoying my 200km brevet with the CVRM in early June and finishing with lots of time to spare I decided to give the 300 a try last Saturday. My main goal was to finish and since it was Nicole's birthday the next day the secondary goal was to get home before midnight.

At the start

I got up at 4:35, slurped down my oatmeal, and left the house at 5:15, well in time for the 6 o'clock start. With 9 riders (one more would catch up with us later) we got going right on time, heading for Chambly. I started out riding with Clement and one rider whose name I forgot but soon decided to catch up with the riders slightly ahead of us, Serge and Raymond. This turned out to be a good decision and I would stay with them for quite some time. The first controle was a gas station in Saint-Césaire after about 55km, and during our quick stop the whole group regrouped again.

Route Verte near Granby

We continued east towards Granby where Raymond (who Serge described to me as "the human GPS") took us on a detour on the Route Verte 1. This was slightly longer but much more scenic and quiet than the original route. Ten kilometers past Granby we changed our general direction, now heading south. This should be the beginning of the hilly part of our ride which continued for the next 100km. Initially, I was doing fine on the rollling hills, yet our pace was fast and the closer we got to the second controle in Lac Brome the more tired I felt.

Second controle in Lac Brome

Awesome scenery

Rest, V8, a coke, and two Clif Bars got me back into shape, however, and we continued. The dark clouds and showers that we had observed all throughout the ride now finally reached us, and for about 20 km we rode through heavy rain. Since it was still very warm and I was wearing my wool jersey I didn't bother putting on any extra clothes. Riding in the rain without fenders is something I haven't done in years but I wasn't as bad as expected, and eventually the sun came out again. In a little village near the Vermont border (Mansonville?) we stopped at a gas station for a final refuel before the big climb of the ride. Jean and Olivier passed us there while Martin decided to stop, too, and continue with us. The route was still very scenic, following a river between the sizable hills of the Eastern Townships. After about 160 km it was then time to leave the valley and tackle the climb on Scenic Drive. The climb, while being the biggest on the ride, is not all that bad with less than 200m of elevation change and a doable gradient. Nonetheless, I quickly fell behind Serge and Raymond, and Martin also slowly disappeared ahead. On top of the hill I took a quick stop to get out my camera and then it was all downhill. Martin fortunately waited at the next intersection which I otherwise probably would have missed. The descent was smooth, steep, and awesome, and I got up to over 70 km/h. For the following ten kilometers to the third controle I decided to take it easy, enjoy the scenery and take some pictures.

I made it up Scenic Drive

Getting ready for the downhill on Scenic Drive

Woo-Hoo

Controle in Sutton. Yes, that big bottle of V8 is mine

The picturesque town of Sutton was buzzing with St. Jean-Baptiste/Canada Day celebrations. The controle was at a supermarket on the outskirts of town, and the rest was very welcome. I devoured a bunch of crackers, a liter of V8, and a cup of coffee. Freshly nourished our group of 6 riders got going again, now headed north and into the wind. Serge had stop after about 5km for what I think was a mechanical, and Raymond and Olivier stopped with him while Martin, Jean, and me continued on. For the next 50 km I should learn why Jean is nicknamed "La Machine": despite the headwind he pretty much pulled me and Martin along all the way at a very good clip. I felt somewhat bad for not being able to contribute much but I was in no shape charge ahead. At km 225 we had another stop at a little dep with the now usual crackers, coke, V8. Somewhere between there and Farnham Olivier and Raymond caught back up to us and for the rest of ride we'd stay together.

Quick stop in Stanbridge East

Quiet country roads

Unplanned stop at a railway crossing

Tired legs at the second-to-last controle

Getting ready for the last leg of the ride

The second-to-last controle was again in Saint-Cesaire and from there we took the direct route back to Montreal on the Route 112. This is a busy four-lane highway but it has a wide paved shoulder and we made good time. The wind had mostly died down and I felt very good, allowing me to do some work for the others. We had a quick stop to fix a flat on Martin's bike but other than that the final stretch to Saint Lambert was uneventful. Following Raymond's suggestion we followed a different route into town which had much less traffic but unfortunately many more bumps.

Through the suburbs

Yay, 300km

Into the sunset

After 14 hours and 26 minutes with a moving average of 27.5 km/h we arrived at the final controle. I still had some way to go, and at the end of the day I had clocked in 335 km. During the ride, Jean and others kept suggesting that now I should do the 400 -- and I must say that probably I would have been able to do another 65km. Unfortunately, the CVRM's last 400k of the season is this coming weekend and I'll be in Europe. Oh well. I'll definitely be back for the remaining 300 and 200 km brevets in July, August, and September.

Cartier Bridge on the way home from the ride's start/finish

A big merci goes to all the riders who rode with me last Saturday, and especially to our great president Jean, for their advice, encouragement, stories, and paceline work. Without them I probably still would have made it but it would have taken much longer and been much less enjoyable.

Ride report: CVRM 200km Brevet

After the tough but successful 147km Populaire in late April, I was determined to do at least one 200km brevet this season. I missed the first opportunity in May but last weekend there was another one scheduled.

Great summer morning riding

Rolling hills

 As per usual, I didn't get much sleep the night before and at 4:47--13 minutes before my alarm was going to go off--I got out of bed. Despite my attempts to prepare as much as possible the night before, my slow morning self still had to do a couple of things and I only got going at around ten past 6. My ride to the start leads across Île-Sainte-Helene and I was lucky to still get through, as there were already barricades and plenty of security people in preparation for the Formula One Grand Prix weekend.

Rando-panda cockpit shot

After the obligatory group picture, we got going a few minutes after 7. Overall there were, I believe, 9 or 10 riders and I started out with the lead group of 4 others. As I tend to stop at traffic lights and only ride through stop signs carefully, I fell behind the group a couple of times but always caught back up when they got stuck at a traffic light. Like on the populaire, the route led south but on a slightly different route due to construction. By the time we had gotten out of the suburbs, one of the four riders had gotten ahead and quickly disappeared in the distance. The speed of the other three was just a bit too high for my taste and I stayed a bit behind all the way to the first control at a gas station in St. Cyprien, after 41km. From there to the second control I stayed with the three others.

One of several vineyards and cider mills on Covey Hill Rd

Covey Hill in the distance

The route took us pretty much straight south towards the US border, parallel to the A15. The weather was lovely, the roads were scenic and quiet, and I was very much enjoying myself. At the "last exit before the border" we then turned west towards Covey Hill which I had just climbed a three weeks ago. Before getting on the actual Covey Hill Rd, there was a horrible but fortunately short stretch of very rough gravel road. After that the initially gentle and rolling climb to Covey Hill began. Me and one other rider of the group had an easier time with the climbing and after a while we each went off on our own before regrouping at the top of the hill. The last bit of Covey Hill felt pretty mean again, but I arrived on top first. The rest of my group arrived after a few minutes, almost at the same time as those riders who so far had been behind us. From here to the second controle it was all downhill which, despite the poor road conditions, was very enjoyable.

Gunnar on top of Covey Hill

View down Covey Hill's western flank

Controle 2 was a nice change to the usual gas station/depanneur stops: Saint-Antoine-Abbé is a tiny village but it features a lovely bakery, Boulangerie Chartrand. Of course, they didn't have anything vegan but that was alright. I refueled with an espresso, a can of V8, and a homemade lemonade. With a group of nine riders arriving and the usual customer traffic the rest stop took fairly long but the folks I had been riding with previously were also eager to get on the road again.

Their pastries looked awesome

The next part of the ride would lead us back east, and the roads we were riding were awesome. The espresso (my first caffeine of the day) worked wonders and at some point I decided to ride ahead at my own speed. After a while, another rider from my previous group caught up with me and we rode together until the next rest stop. For most of the time we shared the work and were going at a very good clip. Only for the last 20 km before the controle, my partner was starting to bonk a bit and I pulled for the rest of the way. This didn't slow us down too much but it definitely drained my energy reserves; and we were both very happy once we got to the gas station controle. I had just started drinking my bottle of Pepsi when the 5 riders of the bigger group and after another couple of minutes our two riding buddies arrived, too.

On one stretch of road there were dozens of telephone poles with stuffed animals nailed to them. Very weird.

With only 40 km to go I didn't feel like hanging around for too long and thus headed out by myself ahead of the others. As I was now riding mostly into the wind I kind of expected to be caught by the others but that didn't happen. My speed was still decent and at 3:47 pm I reached the final controle. I would have gotten there at least ten minutes earlier but my bike computer and the cue sheet didn't quite match and I therefore rode past the controle and had to turn around.

On the way back from the ride finish. Masses of people at the Grand Prix

To conclude: this was a great ride, both in terms of performance and of experience. I was fast (moving average of 27.8 km/h), the route great, the weather awesome, and never during the ride did I feel particularly crappy. Next stop: 300km.

Ride report: CVRM Populaire April 28

I like long rides, and I like the idea of randonneuring: mostly non-competitive long-distance riding where your goal is to ride a certain distance within certain time limits. While still living in Ithaca, I never got around to doing a sanctioned brevet, partly because I wasn't quite sure if I could ride 200km or more, partly because none of the brevets start in or very close to Ithaca -- and I both don't like the idea of driving several hours to the start of ride and it's also not exactly practical if you don't have a car.

In Montreal, the practical aspect was much easier: all the rides start at the same place, only about 10km from our apartment. In terms of the physical aspect, I have also grown more confident in my abilities to be able to do at least a 200km ride -- after all, in 2010 I had done 230km on one occasion, and just two weeks ago I rode an average of 150km a day for 4 days in a row.

Thus, I decided to give to give the CVRM (Club Vélo Randonneurs de Montréal) rides a try. I was a bit intimated by the fact that their website is all in French whereas my French skills are still pretty limited. But whatever, last week I sent an email to the ride coordinator and signed up for their first Populaire of the year. Populaires are intended to introduce riders to randonneuring, primarily by being shorter than regular brevets which start at 200km. The ride on Saturday was announced to be 147km with a time limit of 10 hours.

I left the house around 8 o'clock and it was still around freezing. I had decided to do the ride on Wolfgang, my all-purpose, fully decked-out Cross-Check. As the forecast had predicted cold but dry conditions and the ride would be entirely during day light I might as well have ridden on the sporty Gunnar. After arriving at the start at 8:30 Wolfgang looked decidedly out of place: He was the only bike with fenders and dynohub lighting, and there were only a few other bikes with steel frames, racks, or non-system wheelsets. The rest was mostly racy crabon bikes, with a few titanium frames mixed in.

After a very cold half hour -- the icy wind was blowing relentlessly -- and a quick group photo, we finally got going with about 20 riders. And going we were! I tried hanging on with the guys in the front, and for the first 15km or so we were averaging well over 30 km/h. It was pretty obvious to me that this pace was absolutely unsustainable for me and I slowly fell back to what I think was the middle of the field. Supported by a strong tailwind I nonetheless kept my speed up and every once in a while saw some riders ahead of me. The first controle -- these are the waypoints where riders have to stop and get their brevet cards stamped -- was at a depanneur in the little village Saint-Paul-de-L'Île-Aux-Noix. There I caught up with a larger group of riders. Following Jan Heine's advice, I tried to limit my stopped time (the time limits on brevets count the total time, not only the moving time), and got going ahead of most of the rest of the group. Whereas most of the ride so far had been going south, i.e. in the same direction as the strong wind, the route now turned west or northwest, right into the wind. This slowed me down immensely, and I was quickly passed by the faster group. It would have been nice to ride in a group to better withstand the winds, but I knew that I wouldn't be strong enough to hang on with them. So I just continued on alone. At a long straightaway I got a glimpse of the group again -- and they were going straight where they should have turned right. The next controle was a gas station at km 95, and maybe 10 km before that the wrong-turn riders caught up with me and insisted that I ride with them. My legs weren't too excited but I went along anyway, channeling my inner Jens Voigt and telling the legs to shut up. Riding in a small group was clearly more effective in the wind and just before the controle we caught up with another small group (I guess they had taken the right turn).

According to the cue sheet, the second controle was a Shell gas station at the intersection of highways 219 and 221. I therefore was surprised and confused when the group left the Shell station on the right and stopped at PetroCanada 100 meters down the road. As a rule-abiding randonneur, I went over to the in my opinion correct gas station and met up with one other rider there. He wasn't quite sure what was going on with the others, too, speculating that they might be abandoning because of the wind. Well, we had a nice chat and decided to do the rest of the ride together. He had done a couple of rides with the CVRM before and he confirmed my impression of the club being somewhat more competitive than what I had randonneuring imagined to be.

Our abilities were fairly well-matched and while I in general don't mind riding alone, it was great to ride with him for the final 55 km. At some point we had to cross the A10 which added a little cyclocross element to our ride: the bridge was being rebuilt, with the surface at this point only consisting of the steel armaments without the final layer of concrete. A detour was not available and so carried our bikes across the narrow cantilevered pathway built for the construction workers. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, and at 3:50 pm, after 6 hours and 50 minutes, we checked in at the final controle.

At this point I was out of water, my legs were very tired, and my upper back and arms hurt. The final 10km back to our apartment I took it extremely slowly. This clearly had been the hardest ride I had done in a long time, surpassed probably only by my failed attempt of the "Terrible Hills involving the letter 'B'" in Ithaca and my ride up the Stelvio pass last summer.

Today, randonesia, the phenomenon that you very quickly forget about all the hardships a ride brings, has already started kicking in, and only my very sore legs are there to prevent me from immediately signing up for another brevet.