With the Santa Cruz Randonneurs’ 2014 California Central Coast Randonnée looming before me, I’ve been slowly ramping up preparations for my longest ride to date — 1000 kilometers. Here’s a rundown of the gear I’ll be carrying with me.
I didn’t take a lot of photos on today’s permanent, a 68-mile ride that stops at Rivendell Bicycle Works in Walnut Creek, because it was tooooooooo damn hot! I still had fun on this awesome East Bay route.
My training continued this weekend for the upcoming 3CR 1000k — it’s just a few weeks away, eek! TBO was game to attempt his longest set of consecutive rides to date (in terms of total mileage) and tackled my friend Franklyn’s 205k permanent from Sausalito to Ukiah with me.
Every summer, the San Francisco Randonneurs organize a super fun double brevet weekend that begins in San Francisco and heads north out to Cloverdale (riders have their choice of either a 300k or 200k route). After kicking back and relaxing over a catered dinner at the host hotel and tucking away several hours of sleep, folks stretch their tired legs and return to the city the following day on another 200k route. Last year I had done the Cloverdale to SF segment, so I thought I’d ride the other direction this time around and volunteer at the finish.
Last year, when I began riding “inappropriately long distances” as my friend Jason would say, I focused on completing the entire San Francisco Randonneurs‘ series. This year I wanted to mix things up, and my second year has been a veritable “Brevet Buffet”: I sampled rides from most of other the clubs in the Bay Area (with the exception of Fresno, which just launched their series this spring). In January, I rode an early Healdsburg to Napa 200k with the Santa Rosa Cycling Club; finished most of the Davis Bike Club’s brevet series (but had to skip out on their March 200k as I was out sick — I plan to make it up later in the year); and now, I just wrapped up my inaugural ride with the Santa Cruz Randonneurs run by Lois Springsteen and Bill Bryant.
Continue reading Randonneur Ride Report: Santa Cruz Randonneurs Marina 300k