Un course troisieme: the 400 km brevet The
400K brevet is one which is reputed to actually be the most
difficult. It's too short to sleep overnight and long enough that
completing it in one shot is a serious challenge. 27 crazies turned
up on May 31 to have a go at it.
The route was the same as the 200K and
300K brevets from Rochester to Stewartville, Chatfield, Wykoff
and Harmony. From Harmony we took Hwy 139 into Iowa and rode to
Decorah via the scenic route. This time we had a strong wind out of
the north, with the forecast that it would turn to the southeast late
in the day or in the evening. Mark was not riding the 400K, since he
was in Iceland with his wife for their 10th anniversary. Tim, who
hadn't really enjoyed the high-speed 300K two weeks ago, elected to
ride at my more sedate pace. We tagged up with Don, who had at the
last minute decided to give the 400K a shot despite how unpleasant the
300K had been for him.
Riding with the wind, we were able to make excellent time on
the outbound leg of the ride. The weather was- for the third time in a
row- superb. Slightly cool, clear skies. Over the four weeks since
the 200K, the trees had filled out and Spring had come into its own.
This time the highway department had tossed us a curve ball by ripping
up the road in High Forest. Our secret controle was located
right at the start of the construction zone. We were able to pick our
way over the loose road bed material carefully, and then we were back
on asphalt with a tailwind all the way into Stewartville. Out of
Stewartville to Chatfield, we had a quarter headwind for a while but
it wasn't too bad. The stop in Chatfield at the controle was a
bit longer, being at the 50 mile mark, and we stopped and ate some
snacks before getting back on the road. Riding south through
Chatfield, we turned off onto Cty 5. This is my favorite part of the
ride, a lovely valley that winds west and then south into Wykoff (65
miles). This time Wykoff was not a controle; we stopped
momentarily for water and such, and then continued south on Cty 5. 27
miles later we were in Harmony, feeling amazingly fresh compared to
two weeks earlier when we had slogged into the wind for almost the
whole distance.
This time, instead of turning back, we ventured south on Hwy 139
into Iowa. The Iowa border was just a few miles down the road, and
instantly the pavement changed. Iowa uses a much finer grade of
gravel in their asphalt mix, and the pavement was silky soft and
smooth as it rolled across northern Iowa's rural landscape. Tim and I
dropped Don on the rollers, as he was again starting to not feel well.
The route turned left and wound the back way into Decorah past Luther
College. The last few miles into Decorah on County A34 were a lovely
river valley bottom with a short limestone cliff along one side of the
road. Crossing Hwy 52, we skirted the campus and found
our controle at a convenience store. Don caught up with us
while we were standing in line for the bathroom. He decided to have
something to eat there, while Tim and I opted for the Subway about a
half block up the street. We ate foot-long sandwiches, had something
to drink, and basked in sitting on something other than a bicycle
saddle. About 4:30 we got back on the road.
Don must have gotten on the road much
quicker than us. We didn't see him for quite a while, riding back
through the lovely little valley and eventually making the turn north
back to Minnesota. Tim and I caught up with Don on the rollers near
the border, and found that he was again having some stomach problems.
Long distance bicyclists are often plagued with stomach problems. You
have to eat a lot of food- 200, 300, 400 or 600 kilometers can burn
4,000 to 15,000 calories- but your body has diverted blood supply and
energy from your digestive tract to your legs. Don was riding on grit
and determination at this point. Unfortunately the clock keeps
ticking in randonneuring, and we eventually had to leave Don behind
and carry on. We rode back to the controle in Harmony, where
he caught up with us, still feeling miserable. We chatted for a bit
with him and some of the other riders, and then had to get underway.
The last I saw of Don, he was sitting on the sidewalk in front of the
Harmony Kwik Trip, looking pretty tough (he finished inside the time
limits. This is the true spirit of a randonneur- it's actually
pretty easy to ride 400 km when everything goes well. It takes
determination to slog through when you don't).
On the way out of Harmony, I started to feel chilly as the sun
began to drop. We stopped and put on arm and leg warmers, and I put
on my long finger gloves. We were soon to get our own educational
experience about preparedness. It's 41 miles from Harmony to
Chatfield. By the time we got to Wykoff, it was well into dusk and we
needed to use our lights. We also put on our reflective vests, as
required by RUSA rules. Neither of us had brought jackets or cold
weather wear. I was wearing a light wool jersey and wool T-shirt,
Lycra arm warmers, wool leg warmers and two pairs of cycling shorts.
I had a cycling cap under my helmet and long finger lightweight
gloves. Tim had a wool jersey, arm warmers, leg warmers and cycling
gloves. The weather forecast had been for a low in the upper 50s and
we were dressed quite appropriately for that; unfortunately, the
forecast was wrong. Just outside of Greenleafton, we were chased for
a hundred yards or so by a pair of silent Rottweilers. Shouting at
them to "go home" had no effect, so we just had to keep sprinting
until they gave up.
Dropping from Wykoff into the valley on Cty 5, our lights gave us
excellent illumination. I had done relatively little night riding
with this system (Schmidt SON hub and Lumotec headlight); Tim had
used his Schmidt hub with two Lumotecs extensively in a 24 hour time
trial last summer. I was delighted both with the performance of the
lights and the adventure of riding across the landscape in the dark.
Perhaps this is what kept me from noticing the rapidly dropping
temperatures. By the time we got to Chatfield, we both knew we were
cold. A bank clock in Chatfield that Tim saw read 27 degrees F- about
30 degrees colder than the forecast! We doubted that the clock was
accurate, but it was darned cold. At the
Chatfield controle, we met up with several other riders who
were just finishing their stop. Tim bought gloves but there were no
jackets for sale and, since it was now about 11:00 PM, there were no
other stores open. After warming up in the store for a while, we
began to feel the passage of time and got back on our bikes. From
the controle it was a slight downhill, the a left turn and a
mile or two of flat road until one of the larger climbs on the ride.
I was fairly cold and Tim - probably in the first stages of
hypothermia- was shaking like a leaf. We debated what to do, but the
reality was the only real option was to press on.
Climbing the hill warmed us up, of course, and at the top of the
climb we found that the air was much warmer than it had been in
Chatfield. It was actually somewhat comfortable. We knew it was a
flat and straight 16 miles to the next controle in
Stewartville, and we basically team time-trialed across the distance
as fast as we could. We stayed warmer and made up time, both good
things. Stewartville heaved into sight in well under an hour. After
some confusion about where the back-up controle was as the
primary controle was closed for the night, we found the place
and met up again with the trio of riders we'd seen in Chatfield.
Tucking some newspapers under our jerseys as wind barriers, we were
off quickly into the night. We again experienced the odd effect of
having our sight restricted to the cone of illumination from our
lights and not really being able to judge where we were. Seeing the
arrows painted on the pavement was a challenge, but Martin had marked
the course very well. 23 miles later, we came to the controle
in Byron. The night clerk was very talkative and seemed happy to be
having company on this evening, even if it was a bunch of fly-by-night
bicyclists.
By this point, my own stomach was complaining after a day of mostly
convenience store junk food. I found today that drinking milk at
the controles was very good, my stomach seemed to like the
protein. Real food seemed to "sit" better in my stomach than
highly-processed prepackaged snack foods. I suppose this shouldn't
have been a surprise as I don't eat that stuff at any other time.
Since meeting my wife, who has worked in the natural food field for 15
years, my diet is mostly one of whole grains, vegetables, free-range
organic meats, etc. Our food is minimally processed and the flavors
tend to be rich and complex; the junk food available at convenience
stores seems light-weight and un-nutritious by comparison.
We kept the stop at this controle short, only about 5
minutes. It was only 10 miles from Byron back to Rochester, with one
good sized hill, one small but steepish hill, and we were done. With
the newspapers we were quite a bit warmer, and we covered the last 10
miles in about 45 minutes. Riding into the Wal-Mart parking lot, we
found an amused cashier to sign our brevet cards at 2:40
AM. We were done! We rode 400 km/250 miles in 19:40, an average of
20 kph or 12.8 mph. Actual riding time was about 17 hours, about 24
kph or 15 mph. The first rider in, completing the course in 13:44,
averaged 29 kph or 18 mph!
And we were hungry. Since there were no other options, we went to
Perkins. I had decided to change there, so I walked into the
restaurant in my bike clothes and with my duffel bag. One young guy
rather excitedly asked us what ride we had done and what bikes we
rode. When I told him I rode a Gunnar, figuring as a small-label
brand he wouldn't have heard of it, he astonished me by saying "A
Crosshairs?" When I said yes, he replied "Dude! Cyclo-cross!" and
shook my hand. Amused, we sat down at a table and ordered the menu.
After changing in the bathroom (and setting off the automatic flush on
the toilet about 20 times in the process) and eating, we went back to
Tim's parent's house and slept the sleep of the just.
This was the most enjoyable of the rides so far, despite its
reputation for being the most difficult. The 200K was marred by knee
pain, and the 300K was complicated by having been beaten up a week
previous- both were uncomfortable rides as a result. For this ride, I
had taken a tip given to me by Don on the 300K, which was to wear two
pairs of shorts. It really made a huge difference in how I felt. In
randonneuring, it seems like the stuff that makes a ride fun or
miserable is not about conditioning or training, but about comfort on
the bike. Small things that are unnoticeable on a 50 mile spin become
make-or-break on a ride of 250 miles: saddle comfort, foot comfort,
hand comfort, the weight of a helmet, food quality, etc.
Preparedness, self-knowledge and self-reliance are crucial- as well as
not being dumb enough to believe the weatherman!
RASC 400K brevet results
May 31, 2003
Mark Scarphol 13:44 New course record
Bob Heath 14:55
Charles Breer 14:58
Jeff Stegemeyer 14:58
Daniel Stahlman 14:59
Bob Breedlove 15:44
Martin Fahje 16:20
Jim Joy 16:20
Daniel Reasoner 16:20
Robert Alwin 16:27
Bjorn Carlson 16:44
James Hopson 16:46
Bill Johnson 16:47
Greg Barkley 17:38
Foster Renwick 18:07
Bob Thompkins 18:55
Tim Bruns 19:40
Tim McNamara 19:40
Jim Bergman 20:05
Mark Hawickorst 20:05
Chris Conger 20:05
Bill Taylor 21:52
Kelly Krajnik 21:52
Don McCall 22:22
Tom Miller 22:22
Jeanne Abbot 22:31
Don Ware 26:30
The route was the same as the 200K and
300K brevets from Rochester to Stewartville, Chatfield, Wykoff
and Harmony. From Harmony we took Hwy 139 into Iowa and rode to
Decorah via the scenic route. This time we had a strong wind out of
the north, with the forecast that it would turn to the southeast late
in the day or in the evening. Mark was not riding the 400K, since he
was in Iceland with his wife for their 10th anniversary. Tim, who
hadn't really enjoyed the high-speed 300K two weeks ago, elected to
ride at my more sedate pace. We tagged up with Don, who had at the
last minute decided to give the 400K a shot despite how unpleasant the
300K had been for him. 
Don must have gotten on the road much
quicker than us. We didn't see him for quite a while, riding back
through the lovely little valley and eventually making the turn north
back to Minnesota. Tim and I caught up with Don on the rollers near
the border, and found that he was again having some stomach problems.
Long distance bicyclists are often plagued with stomach problems. You
have to eat a lot of food- 200, 300, 400 or 600 kilometers can burn
4,000 to 15,000 calories- but your body has diverted blood supply and
energy from your digestive tract to your legs. Don was riding on grit
and determination at this point. Unfortunately the clock keeps
ticking in randonneuring, and we eventually had to leave Don behind
and carry on. We rode back to the controle in Harmony, where
he caught up with us, still feeling miserable. We chatted for a bit
with him and some of the other riders, and then had to get underway.
The last I saw of Don, he was sitting on the sidewalk in front of the
Harmony Kwik Trip, looking pretty tough (he finished inside the time
limits. This is the true spirit of a randonneur- it's actually
pretty easy to ride 400 km when everything goes well. It takes
determination to slog through when you don't).