La Ruta Loca Randonnee 200k recap

[C. Duque]

Many thanks to volunteers who made La Ruta Loca Randonnee 200k happen. JimG who help in the morning with checking in riders and Juliayn C. and Rob H (our RBA) who manned the final control and cheered us up as we finished. Rob also served as the Day of Event contact. 

Many thanks to all riders. I had a great time and it seems others did too. 

- We had 15 registered riders. 

- 11 official starters plus I rider who started form a different location (thus did not sign in or picked up his Brevet card)

- First woman finisher, Go Megan!

- 10 finishers within the 13:30 hrs!

- 1 rider who also finished within the 13:30 hrs but did not get credit (did not sign in or picked up his Brevet card)

- At least 2 riders rode faster that the previous fastest recorded time of 12:20hrs. I can't remember the time of the 3rd and 4th riders but they may have also ridden faster than 12:20hrs.

- We had perfect riding weather conditions, a very strong field of riders and we saw a lot of each other during the day which was great.

- Just a few mechanicals for the whole group. 2 flats, one rear fender failing victim to fire road vibration, one front light almost lost and one rear shifter cable snapped and promptly replaced on Bolinas Ridge.

I hope to have my write up and post some photos soon.

See you next weekend on the SCR Dart,

Carlos

[Greg Merritt]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 10:39 AM, C. Duque <cduq...@gmail.com> wrote:
> - At least 2 riders rode faster that the previous fastest recorded time of
> 12:20hrs. I can't remember the time of the 3rd and 4th riders but they may
> have also ridden faster than 12:20hrs.

Q: What's the difference between a Cyclosportive and a Randonnée?
A: In a Cyclosportive, you pretend you're racing; in a Randonnée, you
pretend that you're not. ;)

lol good thing we didn't know about this 12:20 time, or I, at least,
might not have stood around taking pictures of the bridge up on
Conzelman on the return -- and the bridge was stunningly fabulous in
the magical sunlight on Saturday!!

There aren't enough words to describe my ride experience this weekend,
but I'm trying. Ride report in progress.

-Greg

[C. Duque]

Oh but stoping for photos is part of the whole thing. I did stop going down on the steepest section of Coastal fire road on the return leg as the ocean view was stunning. The photo did not turned as nice as I had hoped for but it was worth stoping and smelling the flowers. Just this morning I was going though the results of past years when the route was run not as an official brevet and found that 12:20hrs. To me is amazing we all finish relatively close after so many hard miles. 

Can't remember the time of the first rider who came in but I think Rob and Juliayn told me when I finished it was around 11hrs, freakishly fast.

Carlos

--
--
This message is from the San Francisco Randonneurs list at sfra...@googlegroups.com
Search the archives at http://groups.google.com/group/sfrandon
For SFR's schedule and general information, visit http://sfrandonneurs.org/
To unsubscribe, email sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "San Francisco Randonneurs" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Rob Hawks]

Stephen Z. finished in 10:54. For perspective, this is 2:56 slower than his time on the Point Reyes Lighthouse 200km.

rob

[Benz]

I don't know if I should be frightened by Rob's statement or energized by the challenge! :)

I eagerly await pictures and ride reports to whet my appetite for mixed-terrain brevets. 2014 perhaps!

[Metin Uz]

On Monday, August 12, 2013 6:53:15 PM UTC-7, Benz wrote:

I don't know if I should be frightened by Rob's statement or energized by the challenge! :)

I eagerly await pictures and ride reports to whet my appetite for mixed-terrain brevets. 2014 perhaps!

 OK, as the Lantern Rouge of this first La Ruta Loca brevet, I figure I can go first with the ride report. This is somewhat long winded, but perhaps more people can associate with this beginner's perspective. For just the ride report, skip to the last couple paragraphs:

I like riding on dirt trails, but am really bad at it. Or perhaps I am too invested in self preservation. So what gave me the audacity to even attempt this ride?

Mixed terrain rides havealways had a sort of romantic attraction for me. Then I rode Old Caz 300 last year, and I was hooked. I was terrified on the dirt descent to Austin Creek, and had to stay focused on the gravel climb, and the nice fire road up Willow Creek. After that, I was intrigued by the harder dirt trails in the Marin headlands, and joined one of Carlos's introductory rides.

Then, back in October last year, I joined Carlos and a few other people in the very first official running of La Ruta as a permanent. I knew from the start that I had no chance of finishing on time, I was slow and I did not know the route. I didn't even bother filling the info control questions in the brevet card. In fact, the only reason I didn't get dropped at the first descent was that Carlos's seatpost broke at the bottom of the hill, necessitating a small break. I rode the first 55 miles of the route to Pt Reyes Station, then took the usual route back to the bridge. It was a lot of fun. but I estimated that the whole route would take me 14 to 15 hours, and this was with the start and the finish in darkness in the reduced daylight hours.

Fast forward to last weekend. I had ridden most of the route, including all the off-road sections over several training rides with Carlos. When I entered these times into a spreadsheet, I came up with a total of 12:45. If I did not take breaks, kept the same pace as my training rides, and did not run into mechanical issues, I had a good chance of finishing within time limits. When I lined up at 6am, I figured I had a 50% chance of finishing on time.

The ride started fast. I lined up at the back, knowing I would lose contact with the group at the first dirt descent off Conzelman. Sure enough, I was soon by myself. I could see a string of riders climbing up Bobcat trail. I could rejoin the group if I pushed harder in the long climb, but I knew I had to stick to my plan. What I lacked in skill I had to make  up in grit.

I had a good time riding up Coastal Trail, walked some sections up Tennessee Valley, then the scary descent to Muir Beach. I was within a couple of minutes of my plan, even after the long climb up Deer Park fire road. At this point I was feeling relatively comfortable off road, and did not feel rushed even though I was at the back and had not seen another rider for more than 3 hours. In the descent towards Lake Lagunitas, a mountain biker coming up the trail commented that he has been seeing a lot of cross bikes that day. That put me in a better mood, perhaps I wasn't as far back as I had imagined.

I had stopped to fill my camelback when James rode by. He had been fixing a flat and I passed him by, unnoticed. We rode together to Bolinas Rd, then I climbed by myself towards Ridgecrest. There were lots of cyclists on the road, I had to fight the temptation to push harder every time a group passed by. I had a long way to go, and another off road section was waiting for me at Bolinas Ridge Trail.

This was one of the highlights of the whole ride for me. It was a "mud-fest" as Carlos had warned in his pre-ride report, but a lot of fun in the endless rollers nonetheless. I took my time, yet still finished this section much faster than my spreadsheet, as I must have gotten better since last October when I rode it. As I was filling out my brevet card before a steep descent to Highway 1, I got caught by Henry. He had missed the start location and started late and without a brevet card. This was all very fortunate; a few minutes late and he would be turning back towards San Francisco as he did not know the rest of the route. I descended right behind him, we would end up riding together rest of the way.

We took turns pulling towards Pt Reyes Station, then around and back towards Fairfax. I could sense Henry wanted to go a little faster, but I tried to moderate the speed as I needed to save some energy for the big climbs that came at the end. The route has about 8,000ft of climbing in the first 45 miles, then a long relatively flat road section, followed by 30 miles of mostly off-road with 4,000ft climbing. In Fairfax, I noticed two cyclists who had as much mud as us, and sure enough they were Jeff and Carl. Four of us rode into Tiburon, an hour before the control closing time, and some 30 minutes ahead of my plan. Ernesto was leaving as we parked our bikes. For the first time, I could sit down and relax for a bit, as I enjoyed the delicious bread pudding at Cafe Acri.

Then came a short ride through Tiburon and Mill Valley, and the long climb up Railroad Grade. This was also one of the highlights for me. The climb is fairly even grade, a little bumpy but not too technical, and I did not have to spend much mental energy as I just focused on maintaining an even pace. I was also beginning to sense the end: once we were at the top, just 3 small hills separated us from the finish.

Jeff and Carl were about to leave as we showed up at West Point Inn. We took a few minutes, snapped a couple pictures, then descended first on dirt, then pavement towards Miwok trail. Fog was rolling in at the coast, it was cool but still comfortable. Not too long after, we had crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and made our way to finish, exactly 13 hours after I had started. Rob and Juliayn were staffing the control, and there were still a number of riders having a good time.

Big thanks to Carlos, both for designing the route and putting up with newbies like me in the training rides. Pre-riding the course made a big difference for me, I know I couldn't have done it otherwise. Also thanks to Jim, Rob and Juliayn for volunteering at he start and finish controls. This may have been one of the more challenging rides for me, but definitely the most fun you can have on a bike.

On a related note, Old Caz 300 that is coming up is a great way to get started. with mixed terrain. You don't need a special bike, and you can finish in time even if you walk a lot of the off-road sections (I know).

Pictures can't really capture the beauty of this ride, but I posted some at

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113824878830946179439/albums/5911080748082999601

--Metin

[Greg Merritt]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 11:01 PM, Metin Uz <uz.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mixed terrain rides have always had a sort of romantic attraction for me.

Wow! Each of used a variation of the word "romance" to described
mixed terrain riding in our reports.

Great ride, Metin! Nicely done!

-Greg

[Eric Walstad]

Metin,

Thanks for the report and photos, I enjoyed the arm-chair-ride; wish I could have joined you all this year.

Eric.

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 11:01 PM, Metin Uz <uz.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Banksie]

Me too! Congrats to everyone on completing the famed La Ruta!!! 

Deb

Sent from the RivetPad.

[Roland Bevan]

Awesome job and great write-ups/pictures!

  -Roland

[Darell (EVnut)]

What impressed me more than the inclusion of the word "romance" was the
absence of the word "suffer."

I'm sore just reading about it.

-= Darell =-
http://EVnut.com

[Jenny Oh Hatfield]

Great job, all!

Cheers,

Jenny