A lovely fall…
Recent Snaps
Fall Overnight (almost)
Planned to do an E24O (extended 24 hour overnight) with Greg this weekend. Ride ~60 miles. Climb halfway up the spine of the Green Mountains. Hike a bike / ride in to Camp @ Silver Lake. Ride out in the morning through Moosamaloo and The Natural Turnpike for breakfast in Bristol. Ride home.
Greg hammered all week to get a roof on a project he was finishing up… so his legs were toast. At the ~35 mile mark he said he felt worse than when we completed the Lake Champlain 200k. Options were to continue on with a major bit of work in front of us, or slowly head back home. He chose to call it, and offered to ride back to my place solo so I could carry on. Not willing to leave him stranded and suffering (and with no way to carry the 10 year old 3 season tent on my own, and manage to still carry my extra layers, food, and stove) – we enjoyed a leisurely ride home.
A bit of a disappointment – but when I woke up this morning to freezing / sleeting rain and took a short ride to the local cafe I was glad not to have spent a night at higher elevation with a 60 mile wet, rainy, 40 degree ride home.
Bike and gear worked admirably. The tent is something I didn’t carry last year. A bivy and tarp setup is in my future for the cold. All in, a good day out.
Chilly Fall Day
Off to cheer on supermom at the Grand Isle Marathon. Go mama go!
Wet Saturday
Wet Saturday ride after a big front blew through. Leave, branches, debris and water everywhere. The bike geek in me revelled in the wet – enjoying the warmth of wool covered by my Shower’s Pass jacket and Rainlegs.
2011 Vermont Brevets (tentative)
2011 will be a big year for our local VT Randonneuring rides. We are running a full series here in VT to accommodate local qualifying for Paris-Brest-Paris. Tentative schedule for 2011 pending RUSA approval is as follows:
4/9/2011 Champlain Valley (route TBD)
200k Brevet RUSA / ACP
Burlington
4/30/2011, Lake Champlain
300k Brevet RUSA / ACP
Burlington
5/21/2011 Green Mountains (route TBD)
400k Brevet RUSA / ACP
Burlington
7/15/2011 Montpelier-Maine-Montpelier (route TBD)
600k RUSA Brevet
Montpelier
10/01/2011, Fall Classic
114k RUSA Populaire
200k RUSA Brevet
Burlington
ACP Brevets will qualify you for PBP.
Our 600k will be RUSA certified only – and is being offered as a ‘tune-up’ ride for PBP (or any stateside 1200km). It is also available for anyone interested in a challenging ride from Montpelier, VT to Maine and back via the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
We will be adding our Cafe Cruise as a RUSA Populaire sometime in early spring / summer, and are working on a Sunday ‘training+social’ ride series to leave from the Old Spokes Home beginning later this fall and running through the winter and spring – shorter rides in bad weather, with studded tires, and all – as winter allows.
Fall Riding
Another great day out on the bike. Spent the first 20 or so miles with the usual suspects then rode solo to meet the family in Cambridge for a harvest festival. Picnic lunch, great scenery and a field full of Trebuchets tossing pumpkins made for an interesting afternoon. Color was perfect. Temps were cool. Sky was blue. Could not have asked for a better day today.
Postal
Postcards from the Starksboro, VT control on the Fall Classic 200k.
Fall Classic 200k Brevet and 114k Populaire
Thanks for everyone who came out to ride. We had a setting full moon to lead ~30 of us out of town. Lots of hills, lots of color, 6 covered bridges on the 200k and lots of dirt on both routes. This is my favorite time of year in Vermont!
More later…
Date Night
Love my daddy time.
Dinner, park, sunset.
Then groceries (with lots of hugs) at City Market.
Fall Classic Update
Preliminary cue sheets have been posted to the ride page. Final cue and brevet cards available at ride start. Use the prelim route and GPS files at your own risk.