SFR Fort Bragg 600km history and stats

[Rob Hawks]

The Fort Bragg 600km is not the most frequently run SFR event and it isn't the one with the most participants, but as there is a notion of progressively longer events within our 'PBP Qualifiers', the Fort Bragg 600km has some luster as a 'signature' brevet.

The route from SF to Fort Bragg and back (speaking generally) is attributed to Daryl Skrabak though it is listed on the RUSA site as submitted by Todd Teachout. According to RUSA records, this route was first run in 1999 with Daryl Skrabak as RBA. Much like PBP itself, though not for the same reasons, the Fort Bragg 600km was not run every year. After 1999, it was next run in 2004 under 2nd year RBA Todd Teachout. Todd listed the event again in 2005-2007. After a gap year in 2008, the event was again run by 2nd year RBA rob hawks, with subsequent versions in 2010-2013 which was the longest consectutive string for the event.

The FB 600k has been run as early in the year as April 10th (1999) and as late as July 7th (2004). For the last four years it has always been held in May. 

The start time varied in the early years, with a dual start time in 1999 of midnight or 04:00 depending on the speed of the rider. Though the start time in 2004 is unknown, as of 2005 the start time settled in as a morning start, varying between 07:00 and 09:00 until 2009 when it was changed to 06:00 until 2012 when for one year it was 05:00. 2013 returned to the 06:00 start time.

Weather is always an issue on this ride if for no other reason than that the riders are out for roughly 30-40 hours. Day time vs. Night time temps always range widely even on good weather days. Weather was likely most a factor on the 2007 version when it began raining on the riders around the 50 mile mark in Petaluma and it continued for perhaps 20 more hours. The last two runnings of the event were generally favored by 'good' weather (no rain, moderate winds) but even then the temperatures ranged from ~100F to 45F. This can happen quite quickly too. In 2012 in the span of less than 35 miles the temps ran that complete range as riders reached the coast in wind blown fog as the sun set.

In the early years, there were no staffed controls on the course. Since 2007 there has been a staffed water stop. In 2007 this was so unofficial that it was not listed on the route sheet. Since 2009 this has been an official feature of the brevet though it is not a timed stop. Until this year, that stop was at Paul Dimmick Campground, less than 7 miles from the coast. This year the official water stop was 15.5 miles further east, near Philo, CA.

There have been 272 participants on the event, with 164 unique participants. Bob Buntrock holds the current highest number of FB 600k's ridden with six, followed closely by John Potis with 5. Here are the most frequent riders of the FB  600km:

BUNTROCK, Robert	6
POTIS, John	5
CLARKSON, Bryan K	4
KOBAYASHI, Masayoshi	4
HASTINGS, Geoffrey	4
DUQUE, Carlos	4
MASON, Aron	4
MCCAW, Richard	4
RUSSELL, John	4
EHLERT, Gabe	4
SHOEMAKER, Ken	4
HAGGERTY, Tom	4
HAWKS, Rob	4
NEVIN, Willy	3
TEACHOUT, Todd	3
BUTT, Clyde	3
BLOOMFIELD, Michael	3
MORRISSEY, Peter	3
LYNCH, Theresa	3
PLUMB, Alex	3
BEATO, Keith	3
BEVAN, Roland	3
MAURER, Joseph	3
HONDA, Nicole	3
FITZPATRICK, Kevin	3
HOUCK, Timothy L	3

The route is rumored to be the most difficult 600km route among the four Northern California brevet clubs (Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Davis and San Francisco). This seems to hold true if one looks at finish times as they are generally longer than those on other local 600km routes. Aron Mason holds the fastest time at 24 hours  and 50 minutes. This is the only finish time under 26 hours, and there are only 2 others under 27 hours and a grand total of four finish times under 28 hours. Tom Haggerty holds the current longest time and he is unlikely to ever relinquish that time. There is a story behind this time and Tom's record is 40:00.

Geoff Hastings and Peter Burnett hold the record for multiple finish times with the largest difference in time. Both have their fastest and longest times over 9 hours apart. Michael Bloomfield is perhaps the most consistent finisher. All three of his finish times are within 7 minutes of any other finish time.

Here is a chart showing the break down of finish times for all 272 participants:

rob hawks

[Kevin Fitzpatrick]

"Mr. Spreadsheet" approves! 

That's a great summary, Rob. There are some interesting bits of data in there. It'll be good to have this in the record for future riders who are planning their first SFR 600k. 

Thanks for taking the time to pull that all together.

Kevin

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[rsthompsonian]

I can't be the only one who wants to hear Tom's story...

[rsthompsonian]

[Roland Bevan]

Well that makes two of you...and me too!

  -Roland

On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 7:23 PM, rsthompsonian <rsthom...@gmail.com> wrote:

I can't be the only one who wants to hear Tom's story...

[Aaron]

IIRC I think the police were involved....  just to peak everyone's interest.

--
Aaron

[Thomas Haggerty]

I dug into the archives to see what I'd written to the group about it back then, and to help remind myself: 

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/sfrandon/message/283

This retells only the final bit of the ride and oddly I left out the best part at the very end.  Just off the bridge, after finishing the most grueling thing in my life, instead of cheers, hugs or champagne, the three people at the finish (Todd T., my wife, and Mike B.) just gave me frozen stares.  Apparently each of them had a slightly different time on their watches with one being a minute early, one being right on time, and one being a minute late and luckily Todd went with the average time.  Incidentally two photos were taken of me at the finish with time stamps before closing time too.  I also neglected to mention that as I was riding to the finish I felt awful for keeping poor Todd at the finish control up until the bitter end. He took on a fair bit of the volunteer responsibilities himself for that ride.

Stuff happened before all that too, but mostly it was me just being slow, doing a poor job of eating, getting lost at one point adding 10 miles and getting a bit wet.  Oh yeah, and I'll never forget the hot pizza delivery in the rain on 128 from Kevin F. And of course Bruce B. and Jack H. were so much fun at Dimmick that I decided to spend an entire ride with them out there a few years later.   

It's fun to read the discussions on that thread about the weather leading up to the ride and whether or not people would/should do it.  I was actually ready for my wife to put her foot down that morning and forbid me from riding because of the weather (and the memory of the 300k earlier that year), but when she didn't, I was stuck.   

Tom

[alex plumb]

Tom, you must have expanded their consciousness. I've only received nods and smiles from the graveyard shift, even when they caught me sleeping on soda cases in the back of the Fairfax 7-11.  Alex Plumb --- On Fri, 5/24/13, Thomas Haggerty <tdhag...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Aaron]

I've continued to have good luck with the graveyard as well.  On the way back from Ft Bragg at night on Hwy 1 a highway patrol pulled along side to ask what was going on. I stopped and explained that we were all headed back to San Francisco with a detour to Cloverdale.  His response was "good for you"....

As opposed to my conversation with a local in Pt Reyes on the return as we both were munching on some freshly cooked hot dogs. He striked up the conversation and I mentioned we were just heading back from Ft Bragg... his first response after a short pause to take in what I just said was " Is that healthy?" my response "Probably not."

Then as I got up and mounted my steel lugged frame he ran over and said "You're riding that?"

--
Aaron

[rob hawks]

Below is a post I sent to the list last year, after the 2013 SFR FB 600km. There is one correction of significance to make and that is Richard McCaw has 6 finishes, not 4 so would be included with Bob Buntrock as having finished the most SFR FB 600km brevets (6 times). The error occurred because of the way RUSA and the SFR website stored Richard's name, and as I recall it was included with a middle name in some cases. This suggests there is a possibility of a similar error elsewhere, but I've tried my best to normalize rider names.

If you'd like to come out to the finish and meet returning riders, use the chart at the bottom to find out when the bulk of riders usually finish. Given the 6:00 start time on Saturday, a 30 hour finish would be at noon, 31 at 1pm, 32, at 2pm, etc.

rob hawks

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 3:32:02 PM UTC-7, rob hawks wrote:

The Fort Bragg 600km is not the most frequently run SFR event and it isn't the one with the most participants, but as there is a notion of progressively longer events within our 'PBP Qualifiers', the Fort Bragg 600km has some luster as a 'signature' brevet.

The route from SF to Fort Bragg and back (speaking generally) is attributed to Daryl Skrabak though it is listed on the RUSA site as submitted by Todd Teachout. According to RUSA records, this route was first run in 1999 with Daryl Skrabak as RBA. Much like PBP itself, though not for the same reasons, the Fort Bragg 600km was not run every year. After 1999, it was next run in 2004 under 2nd year RBA Todd Teachout. Todd listed the event again in 2005-2007. After a gap year in 2008, the event was again run by 2nd year RBA rob hawks, with subsequent versions in 2010-2013 which was the longest consectutive string for the event.

The FB 600k has been run as early in the year as April 10th (1999) and as late as July 7th (2004). For the last four years it has always been held in May. 

The start time varied in the early years, with a dual start time in 1999 of midnight or 04:00 depending on the speed of the rider. Though the start time in 2004 is unknown, as of 2005 the start time settled in as a morning start, varying between 07:00 and 09:00 until 2009 when it was changed to 06:00 until 2012 when for one year it was 05:00. 2013 returned to the 06:00 start time.

Weather is always an issue on this ride if for no other reason than that the riders are out for roughly 30-40 hours. Day time vs. Night time temps always range widely even on good weather days. Weather was likely most a factor on the 2007 version when it began raining on the riders around the 50 mile mark in Petaluma and it continued for perhaps 20 more hours. The last two runnings of the event were generally favored by 'good' weather (no rain, moderate winds) but even then the temperatures ranged from ~100F to 45F. This can happen quite quickly too. In 2012 in the span of less than 35 miles the temps ran that complete range as riders reached the coast in wind blown fog as the sun set.

In the early years, there were no staffed controls on the course. Since 2007 there has been a staffed water stop. In 2007 this was so unofficial that it was not listed on the route sheet. Since 2009 this has been an official feature of the brevet though it is not a timed stop. Until this year, that stop was at Paul Dimmick Campground, less than 7 miles from the coast. This year the official water stop was 15.5 miles further east, near Philo, CA.

There have been 272 participants on the event, with 164 unique participants. Bob Buntrock holds the current highest number of FB 600k's ridden with six, followed closely by John Potis with 5. Here are the most frequent riders of the FB  600km:

BUNTROCK, Robert	6
POTIS, John	5
CLARKSON, Bryan K	4
KOBAYASHI, Masayoshi	4
HASTINGS, Geoffrey	4
DUQUE, Carlos	4
MASON, Aron	4

MCCAW, Richard

6

[sten...@gmail.com]

That's a fantastic story Tom! I have been there as I have trouble sometimes with cue sheets and direction. And the police! Total nightmare. Thanks for rehashing this and adding that link. Crazy.

Roy.

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 3:32:02 PM UTC-7, rob hawks wrote:

[Mick Jordan]

My memory of the 2010 event is that the temps in the Anderson Valley overnight were in the 30s. This was my one (and only) ride through 600K and not by design. Generally I was riding quite fast in 2010 and had completed the 400K in 18:15, so I thought I could make Cloverdale in the early hours, and arranged to share a room with Ken Shoemaker. However, I failed to calculate the performance difference between my carbon Trek 5200 and my 70's steel Dawes Galaxy, with rack, that I chose to ride because I wanted more carrying capacity. I also hadn't factored in the almost inevitable headwinds on 128N. So it was nearly midnight by the time I left Dimmock. I was so cold that I put on my spare pair of shorts, jersey, leg and arm warmers, and full balaclava on rather than just change.

 I had actually met up with Ken at Dimmock and we, and a couple of others set off as a group, but after a about a mile I realized I had forgotten something important from my drop bag (something so important I now can't remember what). So I went back and told the others to go ahead. Suffice it to say I never caught up with them. Both my helmet and headlight batteries ran out on the route, in that order, and when I came to replace the headlight battery I realized I had used the wrong battery for my helmet. There was a moment of panic as I made the switch as you simply cannot believe how dark it is in the Anderson Valley (no moon). Even with my double layers I was seriously cold, but by the time I got to Cloverdale, the sun as coming up and I didn't feel sleepy. Ken had informed me that he had invited the two others he was riding with to stay in our room (with 2 beds) so I decided not to join the party and continued to ride. Then, of course, it started warming up, and I had to dump my many layers. When I got home I weighed my Arkel trunk bag and it was 10lbs, making a total of about 40lbs for the bike! I did fine until Point Reyes, despite a mini-meltdown on the Bohemian Hwy, when I was convinced the summit was much earlier than it turned out to be, but then it got even warmer and I really started to fade. Every single climb I had to stop at the bottom, take a drink, and spin up in my lowest gear. Somehow I made it by about 4pm. I had called my wife&son to come pick me and the car up, as I was in no state whatsoever to drive home.

Having experienced Bill Bryant's recommendation of the straight through 600K, I vowed never to do it again (unfortunately I was fated to repeat it at PBP 2011). Since then I have sworn off the night rides and in 2012 I stayed in Ft Bragg. However, I was too slow to make the timed cutoff at Guerneville (I calculated I would had to have started out at 2am), so rode straight back to the GGB for a DNF. Missed 2013 owing to family emergency, and this year I'm planning the Ft Bragg stay again and hoping that I can make the new Pt Reyes timed control before the cutoff. But, I will be challenging Tom's record I suspect.

Mick

[Patrick Herlihy]

Unique story!

In that situation, after you've given them time to "conduct their investigation", you can assert your rights and ask "Am I free to go?".  They either have to arrest you or let you go.  SCOTUS says 15-45 minutes is enough but if the questions start getting stupid, then it seems like time's up.

Of course, you don't have to talk to them at all if you say, "I'm going to remain silent", but that isn't necessarily going to get you away any faster.

[Rob Hawks]

> Geoff Hastings and Peter Burnett hold the record for multiple finish times with the largest difference in time. Both have their fastest and longest times over 9 hours apart. 

Ah, a new record for this event. Tom Haggerty now has two finish times for the Fort Bragg 600 that are 11 hours 7 minutes apart (40:00 and if anything Tom held back on this weekend's ride in that he could have finished even earlier

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[Rob Hawks]

Sorry, this got sent too quickly owing to hands with > 2 thumbs. Here is what I meant to send:

> Geoff Hastings and Peter Burnett hold the record for multiple finish times with the largest difference in time. Both have their fastest and longest times over 9 hours apart. 

Ah, a new record for this event. Tom Haggerty now has two finish times for the Fort Bragg 600 that are 11 hours 7 minutes apart (40:00 and 28:53). If anything Tom held back on this weekend's ride in that he could have finished even earlier than he did choosing instead to help keep a much larger group together for the finish.

rob hawks

[Eric Larsen]

I think I've figured out his secret: it is his large front handlebar bag which either; a, contains stolen stuff or; b, acts as a wing and propels him forward as the air moves around to the sides then in a vortex sweeps him forward from behind. It's got to be nice :)

[Peg Miller]

Hi Rob
Thanks that was great. Do you have any girl info? How many women have done it, times etc?

THANKS!

[DHK Goes Well With Coffee]

This is an epic tale. +1

[Greg Merritt]

On Monday, May 12, 2014 at 1:38:00 PM UTC-7, Eric Larsen wrote:

I think I've figured out his secret: it is his large front handlebar bag which either; a, contains stolen stuff or; b, acts as a wing and propels him forward as the air moves around to the sides then in a vortex sweeps him forward from behind. It's got to be nice :)

I believe that Compass Cycles Quarterly quotes bigger and bigger front bags as obviously making your ride more aero. Add low-trail supple planing, and it's pretty much bike doping. There should be rules.

-Greg

[Greg Merritt]

On Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 10:50:39 AM UTC-7, DHK Goes Well With Coffee wrote:

This is an epic tale. +1

Whoa...DHK's one-liner bumped the years-old thread to current at the top of the Web portal, I read back a couple of messages in the thread, didn't look at the post date, and responded to a years-old message...Google Groups is an odd beast sometimes.

-Greg

[Roland Bevan]

Kind of like the typical randonneur...

  -Roland

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[Rob Hawks]

Nope. I think Google Groups has a long way to go to be equal on that count.

rob