Un course deuxieme: the 300 km Brevet The 300K
brevet occurred two weeks after the 200K. The interim had proven
eventful. On the Sunday after the 200K, I replaced the 180 mm cranks
I had been using all spring with 175 mm cranks, in hopes that this was
the cause of my pain. I also replaced the bottom bracket with a
slightly shorter one, trying to bring the cranks in closer to the
centerline of the bike. I reasoned that since the pain was on the
inside of my knee, my foot might have been slightly too far out. I
mostly rested the first week, riding just a little and trying to let
my knee heal. I took Aleve every day to reduce inflammation and was
able to do a couple of 40-45 mile rides.
The Friday after the 200K, I had the afternoon off and hoped to get
in a longer ride before going out to dinner with Tim and my wife,
Jean. It didn't quite work out that way. The wind was quite strong
from the West, so I rode from St. Paul through Minneapolis and then
rode out the Cedar Lake Trail. I rode out to Hopkins, and decided to
turn around and go straight back home as my knee was protesting. I
rode back on the trail, and as I approached downtown Minneapolis I was
knocked off my bike and assaulted by four teenagers. They mostly
concentrated on my head, leaving me with a black eye, a possible
non-displaced nose fracture, a shattered and dented crash helmet,
bruising over my left kidney and breaking off one of my front teeth.
The kids tried to take my bike, dropped it when I said "no", hit me a
few more times and then walked away. I was able to ride my bike into
downtown Minneapolis to the First Precinct, where I filed a report.
Then I rode to the Fairview Riverside Hospital ER for an examination
and CT scan. No serious injuries were found and I was released. I
had called my wife, who came to the ER to pick me up accompanied by
Tim. Jean gave me a ride home and Tim rode my bike (several sizes too
large) back to his car, and then drove the bike back to my house.
The following week was a low mileage week, relatively speaking.
Now I was taking Aleve for different reasons. I was able to get out
for 21 miles on Monday, 52 miles on Tuesday, 57 miles on Thursday. I
felt well enough to start the 300K and see how it went.
The 300K was on Saturday, again leaving from the Wal-Mart parking
lot in Rochester. The route was the same from Rochester to Wykoff,
with most of the same controles, and then extended from Wykoff
to Harmony near the Iowa border. On the way down we discussed pace,
and I told Tim and Mark to ride at their own pace rather than waiting
for me, as I really had no idea how I'd fare and whether I'd be able
to finish. As it turned out, Mark rode with me and Tim rode off the
front in the style of Jacky Durand. He collected several other
riders, and they blasted around the 300 km in 10:32. Mark and I rode
with Don, the rider we'd met up with at the end of the 200K. Don was
very congenial, a mechanical engineer who also lives in St. Paul. He
was riding a lovely custom built bike made by Chris Kvale of
Minneapolis, with fenders and pump painted to match the bike. By
comparison, my Gunnar Crosshairs cyclo-cross bike looked positively
kludged together.
We again had the benefit of a
lovely day, with a stiff breeze out of the southeast so we had
quartering crosswinds from either the right or left. The breeze
stiffened as the day went on, although we were often sheltered from it
in the valleys. From Wykoff to Harmony, however, there was nowhere to
hide. The last 11 miles into Harmony were all but straight into the
wind on slightly rolling terrain. It was an hour's grind along that
stretch of road to the turnaround point. The lead group passed us on
their way back, at that point about an hour ahead of us and flying.
Tim waved at us from the front of the group. Don, Mark and I found
the controle and sat down on the sidewalk to eat and rest. We
sat there for about a half hour and then got back on the bikes.
Tick-tock, randonneuring makes you very conscious of time. The ride
out of Harmony was a blast, now with a stiff tailwind. Eventually
this became a sidewind, which was still an improvement over the ride
out. Between Wykoff and Chatfield, in the beautiful valley along Cty
5, we had a short section of headwind but that was almost the last of
it. On this section we also noticed Don was lagging behind on the
hills. It turned out that he wasn't feeling good and had an upset
stomach. On the way back we started catching riders, and eventually
we had to leave Don with one of them and carry on into
Stewartville.
My knee was feeling pretty good, with only occasional twinges, and
this time I managed food a bit better and didn't bonk. We rode into
Byron and stopped for a couple of minutes. As we were leaving
the controle, Don rolled in looking quite a bit better. The
last 10 miles were pretty pleasant, although dusk was settling in and
I had to finally turn on my lights for the last few miles. By the
time we got back to the Wal-Mart, it was nearly full dark. Tim had
again had lots of rest time waiting for us, as Mark and I were 3:45
behind him. We signed in, then got cleaned up and changed, stopped
for food to go at Noodles and Company, and headed back to the Twin
Cities.
RASC 300K brevet Results
May 17, 2003
Tim Bruns 10:32
Charles Breer 10:32
Jeff Stegemeyer 10:32
Will Oberton 10:32
Bob Heath 10:32
Daniel Stahlman 10:47
Martin Fahje 11:12
Bill Johnson 11:33
John Wharem 11:43
Foster Renwick 11:45
Rick Miller 11:45
Jim Joy 12:03
Bob Thompkins 12:30
Greg Barkley 12:55
Jim Foley 13:05
Tom Edgerton 13:21
Robert Wittmers 13:21
Mark Scarphol 13:21
Mark Hawickhors 13:21
Robert Alwin 13:27
Daniel Dunn 13:40
Tim McNamara 14:17
Don McCall 14:25
Chris Conger 14:41
Tom Miller 14:55
Kelly Krajnik 14:55
Bill Taylor 14:57
Greg VanDeMark 15:00
Jeanne Abbot 15:00
Greg Hlauka 15:00
Jim Bergman 15:52
We again had the benefit of a
lovely day, with a stiff breeze out of the southeast so we had
quartering crosswinds from either the right or left. The breeze
stiffened as the day went on, although we were often sheltered from it
in the valleys. From Wykoff to Harmony, however, there was nowhere to
hide. The last 11 miles into Harmony were all but straight into the
wind on slightly rolling terrain. It was an hour's grind along that
stretch of road to the turnaround point. The lead group passed us on
their way back, at that point about an hour ahead of us and flying.
Tim waved at us from the front of the group. Don, Mark and I found
the controle and sat down on the sidewalk to eat and rest. We
sat there for about a half hour and then got back on the bikes.
Tick-tock, randonneuring makes you very conscious of time. The ride
out of Harmony was a blast, now with a stiff tailwind. Eventually
this became a sidewind, which was still an improvement over the ride
out. Between Wykoff and Chatfield, in the beautiful valley along Cty
5, we had a short section of headwind but that was almost the last of
it. On this section we also noticed Don was lagging behind on the
hills. It turned out that he wasn't feeling good and had an upset
stomach. On the way back we started catching riders, and eventually
we had to leave Don with one of them and carry on into
Stewartville.