I've been enjoying the summer American Randonneur (recent editions not yet available online) over the last 24 hours. A few highlights:
1. Burnley Willis on the Park Road 300K (called the "Denali 300K") permanent. I had thought this was run as a brevet, but I have not been able to find it on the Alaska Randonneurs website recently. (Note: I can't find anything on the Alaska Randonneurs website currently. I am getting a "suspended page" notation.) It makes sense given permitting restrictions that the ride would be best done as a permanent. Burnley rode it on a 29-er. Great write-up.
 |
| Picture of the Denali Park Road, from tripadvisor.com via Google images. |
2. Pete Dusel on the LOL 1000K. Pete (Western NY Randonneurs) runs this together with the Ontario randonneurs. If I understand him right, the clubs use the same controls but start and finish in their respective home bases, so they are sort of chasing each other around the lake. This has always looked to be an incredibly appealing event, held each year in early July. Among other excellent reasons to ride it, the weather up there mid-summer is about 15 degrees cooler than it is where I live. I've twice ridden with Pete and his club; there is no friendlier or more casual bunch; and I can't believe I haven't yet fit this event in to the schedule.
 |
| Picture of a bridge in 1000 Islands State Park, New York, from backcountrywiththekids.com via Google images. |
3. Bill Watts on his Super Brevet Summer. In 2013 Bill rode LEL; loaded his bike with touring gear and rode/ferried to Denmark; and then rode SBS -- Super Brevet Scandinavia. He reports 2800 miles by bike in a one-month period.
4. The SLO 300K. We did some casual riding in SLO last Thanksgiving. A brevet on those roads, organized by one who knew them well, would be a real treat.
5. The RUSA awards. Dan Driscoll from Texas shows that you don't have to be the Million Mile Man to be a distance cycling regular, with 10 consecutive years of R-12 awards.
4 comments:
The LOL 1000 sure looks nice. I don't know why, but a brevet that crosses a border seems a tad more interesting than one that's all in the US.
I like the concept of 1000Ks. They are like long 600s. They don't suffer the fanfare of the GRs but may as well be one.
Yes, lots of appealing rides on offer. I wouldn't mind doing an ultra distance off-road (or at least off-pavement) trek at some point down the road, although I'm not sure any of my current bikes is up to the challenge. At some point in the future, my Seven may have to give way to a more rando-purposed bike, one capable of moderate off-road duties if the need arises. I think it's unlikely I'll dive back into the mountain bike world in the near future; the maintenance:miles ridden ratio is diabolical.
I've seen your storage locker. You have no excuse not to have at least n+1 bikes parked in there.
Post a Comment