Awesome!
I decided to ride this months' populaire with the group. I knew I wanted to hammer it out and try for a very good time. I switched out cassettes last night from my 13-30 to an 11-26, so I had some gears to hammer on, instead of spinning my high gear like I tend to do on flattish rides. I've only used the 11-26 cassette on a few other rides, where I knew there were no major climbs. And this was just such a ride, never requiring me to drop to the small ring, or to cross chain (meaning I never used a gear lower than 46x23)
I had a goal of 4:00 hours on the bike. I didn't make it, with a rolling time of 4:08:27. I was 4 minutes faster on the return, despite there being a good bit of rain on that leg. The middle section of roads were a bit rough, and knowing this going in I dropped the pressure on the tires by 5psi front and rear. The CX geometry and 28s were made for this, and the bike acted awesome, floating over all the choppy pavement and really encouraging me to just go for it. Averaging 16.7 over 69 miles is pretty damn fast for me. I've done faster rides, but never over such a distance. Honest Abe, which I consider my "TT Century", has never had me average better than 15.96.
The route wasn't exactly flat, but rolled pretty much the whole way with no significant climbs, but still even the one guy who came on a SS with rack and panniers managed to get in within the time limit. My gps shows 2562ft of climbing, making it the "flatest" ride I've ever created, and less than 200 ft more than the July Populaire Steve created.
Showing posts with label brevet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brevet. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
I Scream Populaire
Today was the second of the trail run of LBC sponsored Populaires. It was also the first route I had designed entirely from scratch. I think I aimed too high, as the response from the five people who showed up was overwhelmingly positive! Five people was about half as many as I had hoped for, but it was a good group. I had been warning people that it was pretty climby, and I might have scared a few people off who might have come otherwise, and would have been fine. Depending on what you use to measure it, it comes in @3700, 4800 or 5200 ft of climbing. My Garmin 500 is at the low end. RidewithGPS is at the high end.
I couldn't have even hoped for as fine of weather as what we had today, with highs around 80F, cloudy skies and pretty light winds. Skies threatened rain, but other than a few sprinkles, held off. It made me very sad that I was driving a van from control to control to do the paperwork, as I could schedule this every weekend and not manage to luck into the kind of weather we had today. When I had scheduled it way back in May, I had expected a mid-August Populaire to be hellishly hot and humid.
The riders are asking me to put this on again, and no doubt considering the amount of time and effort I put into designing it, I will. However, I don't think I'll put it on too often, as I think it's special enough to dole out sparingly. Perhaps twice a year at most, probably once as a Populaire and another time as a club ride. I'm really tempted to see if I can continue to schedule it as a "Picnic-Alternative", and use it as a Populaire at some other point of the season, perhaps in Spring as soon as Polly Freeze opens. Trying to do it when the leaves are turning is problematic as a Populaire, as I have to schedule so far in advance that I could end up scheduling it on top of Harvest Homecoming, and the route overlap in enough sections to be confusing, which could endanger the HH riders.
I couldn't have even hoped for as fine of weather as what we had today, with highs around 80F, cloudy skies and pretty light winds. Skies threatened rain, but other than a few sprinkles, held off. It made me very sad that I was driving a van from control to control to do the paperwork, as I could schedule this every weekend and not manage to luck into the kind of weather we had today. When I had scheduled it way back in May, I had expected a mid-August Populaire to be hellishly hot and humid.
The riders are asking me to put this on again, and no doubt considering the amount of time and effort I put into designing it, I will. However, I don't think I'll put it on too often, as I think it's special enough to dole out sparingly. Perhaps twice a year at most, probably once as a Populaire and another time as a club ride. I'm really tempted to see if I can continue to schedule it as a "Picnic-Alternative", and use it as a Populaire at some other point of the season, perhaps in Spring as soon as Polly Freeze opens. Trying to do it when the leaves are turning is problematic as a Populaire, as I have to schedule so far in advance that I could end up scheduling it on top of Harvest Homecoming, and the route overlap in enough sections to be confusing, which could endanger the HH riders.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Populaire Kick-Off
Today was the first of the LBC Populaires. This is a trial series of events to see if there is sufficient interest in having the club host a full P-12. The RBA and I have decided to do these as social and intro to randonnuering events. With good food and post ride socializing, we hope to get a decent following.
This first event went well, with an outstanding turnout of 38 riders, most of which completed the course with not issues. There were a few lost brevet cards and a pair of people just missed the time limit.
The fairly challenging, but scenic route, offered a great intro for the new riders. I was one of the first-timers. Despite the fact that I've never done a brevet before, I was one of the driving forces behind the event, taking care of the marketing end (drumming up interest) and helping to get club approval to put it on.
I was a bit astonished at how long I took, mostly at how long I wasn't moving. One hour and forty minutes my bike sat still. Massive waste of time. While these are social rides, I need to be a bit more deliberate in how I spend my time. I will have to learn that by the next Populaire, a route which I planned. I have no choice, as the next route has 50% more climbing than today. If I waste as much time as I did today, I'll not make the time limit.
This first event went well, with an outstanding turnout of 38 riders, most of which completed the course with not issues. There were a few lost brevet cards and a pair of people just missed the time limit.
The fairly challenging, but scenic route, offered a great intro for the new riders. I was one of the first-timers. Despite the fact that I've never done a brevet before, I was one of the driving forces behind the event, taking care of the marketing end (drumming up interest) and helping to get club approval to put it on.
I was a bit astonished at how long I took, mostly at how long I wasn't moving. One hour and forty minutes my bike sat still. Massive waste of time. While these are social rides, I need to be a bit more deliberate in how I spend my time. I will have to learn that by the next Populaire, a route which I planned. I have no choice, as the next route has 50% more climbing than today. If I waste as much time as I did today, I'll not make the time limit.
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