SFR Fort Bragg 600km brevet history and stats through 2019
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Rob Hawks
May 16, 2019, 1:09:48 PM5/16/19
to SF Randonneurs
The Fort Bragg 600km is not the most frequently run SFR event and it isn't the one with the most participants in a given year, but as there is a notion of progressively longer events within our 'PBP Qualifiers', the Fort Bragg 600km, among the 'legacy' brevet routes, has some luster as a 'signature' brevet.
The route from SF to Fort Bragg and back is attributed to Daryl Skrabak though it is listed on the RUSA site as submitted by Todd Teachout who was the SFR RBA when route numbers were first assigned to existing and new routes. 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. Daryl ran the brevet once in 1999, and after that it was next run in 2004 under 2nd year RBA Todd Teachout. Todd listed the event again in 2005 through 2007. After a gap year in 2008, the event was again run by 2nd year RBA Rob Hawks, with subsequent versions in 2010 through 2019 which was the longest consecutive string of years 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). Since 2009 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. In 2012, for one year the start time was 05:00. In 2013 returned to the 06:00 start time where it has remained.
The route has been changed little since 1999, but thankfully, many of the miles of highway have been repaved in those years including long portions of CA 128, including the famous Tree Tunnel section (after several years of half finished repaving). Two changes to note are that until 2015 the start and finish were at the Golden Gate Bridge visitor plaza at the south end of the bridge. In 2015 the finish was moved to East Beach at Crissy Field which allowed for a much nicer reception for the riders and much calmer place for those waiting to greet the riders. In 2016 following a widening and repaving of Sir Francis Drake Blvd, the return from Point Reyes Station to San Geronimo changed from a route through Nicasio to a route through Olema and over the Bolinas Ridge via Sir Francis Drake Blvd. This actually shortened the route enough so that the start was also moved to East Beach at Crissy Field to compensate.
Weather is always an issue on this ride if for no other reason than that the riders are out for roughly 25 to 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. Since 2009 the event has generally been favored by 'good' weather (no rain, moderate winds) but even then the temperatures ranged from ~100F to 45F on the same day. This can happen quite quickly too. In 2012 in the span of less than 35 miles (from the Yorkville Highlands to the junction of CA 128 and CA 1) the temps ran that complete range as riders left temps of 99F at the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and found temps of 49F when they reached the coast in wind blown fog as the sun set. Wind is often present at some point on the route and most typically so on the stretch between Healdsburg and Cloverdale where riders then get 'relief' from the wind by climbing up to the Yorkville Highlands. Headwinds return for the western reaches of the Yorkville Highlands then even more robustly for the crossing of the Anderson Valley. Riders once more get a break from the headwind, this time from the Tree Tunnel, and then finally face headwinds one last time where the route meets the coast at the mouth of the Navarro River. The winds routinely abate after sunset and it is on either side of that time of day when riders are collecting proof of passage at the Safeway control in Fort Bragg.
In 2018, the date for the event was pushed later in May hoping for a little better overnight temps and possibly less wind. That effort was a failure. While the very early morning temperatures were not any lower than in any previous year, they were low for a much longer period of time. Similarly, the wind was no stronger than any other year, but it was strong for much longer.
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 and was only organized the morning of the start. Since 2009 a staffed water stop has been an official feature of the brevet though it is not a timed stop. Until 2013, that stop was at Paul Dimmick Campground, less than 7 miles from the coast. Since then the official water stop was 15.5 miles further east, near Philo, CA at the Indian Creek campground.
There have been 493 participants on the event through 2019. Since 2016 there has been a bit of a shake up on the list of most frequent participants. In 2017, Bob Buntrock broke the tie with Richard McCaw as the rider with the most completions, but Bob had to miss the event in 2018 and 2019 and several other rinishers moved a little closer to him on the list. Even with a roster of 50 riders starting the event in 2019, a smaller number of riders were repeaters in 2019, so the top 20 list changed even more. Here are the most frequent riders of the FB 600km:
There are 34 riders with as many as 4 Fort Bragg 600 finishes, and 27 more with 3 completions.
For women completing the Fort Bragg 600km route, here are those with the most finishes:
The route is rumored to be the most difficult (paved) 600km route among the four Northern California brevet clubs (Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Davis and San Francisco). Ridewithgps lists the total climbing at 19,353'. This reputation seems to hold true if one looks at finish times as they are generally longer than those on other local 600km routes, but the elevation gain on the Fort Bragg route may not be as much as Ridewithgps advertises as many riders record between 17,000 and 18,000 by the finish of the route.
The Fort Bragg 600km brevet has been ridden by a wide range of randonneurs. Of the 497 finishers, 59 have been women (11.8%). The youngest rider to finish was 18 years old and if I recall correctly he had celebrated that milestone event in the weeks just before participating. No data is available for oldest rider but I know several that were in their 60s at the time of finishing.
Max Poletto, Bill Brier and Carl Anderson held the shortest elapsed time at 23 hours and 33 minutes. This was the only finish time under 24 hours, until 2019. Erik Nohlin and Chris Burkard managed to lower the shortest finish time to an astounding 22:50. Tom Haggerty holds the current longest elapsed time of 40:00 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 used to hold the record for multiple finish times with the largest difference in time. Both have their shortest and longest times over 9 hours apart and that spread is still noteworthy. Tom Haggerty replaced those two by once holding the record of widest margin between shortest and longest finish times: 28:53 done in 2014 and the above mentioned 40:00 from 2007. With Erik Nohlin's finish in 2019, he bettered Tom's one time record margin of 11:17 between shortest and longest finish times by a full hour. Michael Bloomfield is perhaps the most consistent finisher. All three of his finish times are within 7 minutes of any other of his finish times.
Here is a chart showing the break down of finish time ranges for all 493 participants:
Finally, here is a table of the starters per edition from 1999 through 2019, NB: RUSA doesn't have DNF numbers available to RBAs prior to 2009:
Robert Cauthorn
May 17, 2019, 2:04:34 AM5/17/19
to San Francisco Randonneurs
This is fascinating! Thanks for posting it!
Congrats to all the riders this year, finishers and not!
Bob
Rob Hawks
Aug 13, 2021, 11:06:52 PM8/13/21
to SF Randonneurs
White the earth has since taken two more full trips around the sun since the last time this 600km route was run as a brevet, pretty much nothing in this post below has changed (except the name) because tomorrow is the first time since this posting that we've held this event. And, it can be safely predicted that a grand total of zero of the data points mentioned below will change after this weekend's event is wrapped up.
Except maybe one. But that will be a story for another time, perhaps early next week.
Tomorrow we have 7 riders signed up for the brevet after several late cancellations.
As always, new data is being unearthed so I've updated a few points below so you may want to re-read this.
On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 10:09 AM Rob Hawks <rob....@gmail.com> wrote:
The Mendocino Coast 600km is not the most frequently run SFR event and it isn't the one with the most participants in a given year, but as there is a notion of progressively longer events within our 'PBP Qualifiers', the Mendocino Coast 600km, among the 'legacy' brevet routes, has some luster as a 'signature' brevet.The route from SF to the Northern California coastal town of Fort Bragg and back is attributed to Daryl Skrabak though it is listed on the RUSA site as submitted by Todd Teachout who was the SFR RBA when route numbers were first assigned to existing and new routes. 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 Mendocino Coast 600km was not run every year. Daryl ran the brevet once in 1999, and after that it was next run in 2004 under 2nd year RBA Todd Teachout. Todd listed the event again in 2005 through 2007. After a gap year in 2008, the event was again run by 2nd year RBA Rob Hawks, with subsequent versions in 2010 through 2019 which was the longest consecutive string of years for the event.The MC 600k has been run as early in the year as April 10th (1999) and as late as July 7th (2004). Since 2009 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. In 2012, for one year the start time was 05:00. In 2013 returned to the 06:00 start time where it has remained.The route has been changed little since 1999, but thankfully, many of the miles of highway have been repaved in those years including long portions of CA 128, including the famous Tree Tunnel section (after several years of half finished repaving). Two changes to note are that until 2015 the start and finish were at the Golden Gate Bridge visitor plaza at the south end of the bridge. In 2015 the finish was moved to East Beach at Crissy Field which allowed for a much nicer reception for the riders and much calmer place for those waiting to greet the riders. In 2016 following a widening and repaving of Sir Francis Drake Blvd, the return from Point Reyes Station to San Geronimo changed from a route through Nicasio to a route through Olema and over the Bolinas Ridge via Sir Francis Drake Blvd. This actually shortened the route enough so that the start was also moved to East Beach at Crissy Field to compensate.Weather is always an issue on this ride if for no other reason than that the riders are out for roughly 25 to 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. Since 2009 the event has generally been favored by 'good' weather (no rain, moderate winds) but even then the temperatures ranged from ~100F to 45F on the same day. This can happen quite quickly too. In 2012 in the span of less than 35 miles (from the Yorkville Highlands to the junction of CA 128 and CA 1) the temps ran that complete range as riders left temps of 99F at the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and found temps of 49F when they reached the coast in wind blown fog as the sun set. Wind is often present at some point on the route and most typically so on the stretch between Healdsburg and Cloverdale where riders then get 'relief' from the wind by climbing up to the Yorkville Highlands. Headwinds return for the western reaches of the Yorkville Highlands then even more robustly for the crossing of the Anderson Valley. Riders once more get a break from the headwind, this time from the Tree Tunnel, and then finally face headwinds one last time where the route meets the coast at the mouth of the Navarro River. The winds routinely abate after sunset and it is on either side of that time of day when riders are collecting proof of passage at the Safeway control in Fort Bragg.In 2018, the date for the event was pushed later in May hoping for a little better overnight temps and possibly less wind. That effort was a failure. While the very early morning temperatures were not any lower than in any previous year, they were low for a much longer period of time. Similarly, the wind was no stronger than any other year, but it was strong for much longer.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 and was only organized the morning of the start. Since 2009 a staffed water stop has been an official feature of the brevet though it is not a timed stop. Until 2013, that stop was at Paul Dimmick Campground, less than 7 miles from the coast. Since then the official water stop was 15.5 miles further east, near Philo, CA at the Indian Creek campground.
There have been 493 participants on the event through 2019. Since 2016 there has been a bit of a shake up on the list of most frequent participants. In 2017, Bob Buntrock broke the tie with Richard McCaw as the rider with the most completions, but Bob had to miss the event in 2018 and 2019 and several other rinishers moved a little closer to him on the list. Even with a roster of 50 riders starting the event in 2019, a smaller number of riders were repeaters in 2019, so the top 20 list changed even more. Here are the most frequent riders of the MC 600km:
There are 34 riders with as many as 4 Mendocino Coast 600 finishes, and 27 more with 3 completions.For women completing the Mendocino Coast 600km route, here are those with the most finishes:
The route is rumored to be the most difficult (paved) 600km route among the four Northern California brevet clubs (Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Davis and San Francisco). Ridewithgps lists the total climbing at 19,353'. This reputation seems to hold true if one looks at finish times as they are generally longer than those on other local 600km routes, but the elevation gain on the Mendocino Coast route may not be as much as Ridewithgps advertises as many riders record between 17,000 and 18,000 by the finish of the route. There are now new 600km routes run by NorCal RUSA regions as well, so time may be passing by for this reputation.The Mendocino Coast 600km brevet has been ridden by a wide range of randonneurs. Of the 497 finishers, 59 have been women (11.8%). The youngest rider to finish was 18 years old and if I recall correctly he had celebrated that milestone event in the weeks just before participating. No data is available for oldest rider but I know several that were in their 60s at the time of finishing.Max Poletto, Bill Brier and Carl Anderson held the shortest elapsed time at 23 hours and 33 minutes. This was the only finish time under 24 hours, until 2019. Erik Nohlin and Chris Burkard managed to lower the shortest finish time to an astounding 22:50. Tom Haggerty holds the current longest elapsed time of 40:00 and he is unlikely to ever relinquish that time. There is a story behind this time and Tom's record.Geoff Hastings and Peter Burnett used to hold the record for multiple finish times with the largest difference in time. Both have their shortest and longest times over 9 hours apart and that spread is still noteworthy. Tom Haggerty replaced those two by once holding the record of widest margin between shortest and longest finish times: 28:53 done in 2014 and the above mentioned 40:00 from 2007. With Erik Nohlin's finish in 2019, he bettered Tom's one time record margin of 11:17 between shortest and longest finish times by a full hour at 12 hours and 17 minutes, and also stole the show from Raphael Gernez who on that same 2019 running set his Delta at 12 hours and 6 minutes. Michael Bloomfield is perhaps the most consistent finisher. All three of his finish times are within 7 minutes of any other of his finish times.
Mike Hrast
Aug 17, 2021, 10:18:19 AM8/17/21
to San Francisco Randonneurs
Thanks for posting this information. I can attest that this year’s version lived up to the temperature variances and the wind. Six riders started this year’s ride. I believe one of the riders established a new best time of 21 hours and change.
The ride started in the usual summer fog and the temps remained comfortable, I live in Danville so my comfortable temp is probably different than those who live West of here. My goal was to reach Cloverdale before the temperature reached 100* and then suffer on the Highway 128 climb and survive to Indian Creek. My Garmin registered some crazy temps that ranged from 114 to 112 along this stretch of 128. I stopped at Boonville just to buy cold water to replace the hot water in my bottle.
The tree tunnel was such a relief from the heat and at this point we past Yuri on his inbound leg. When we reached US1 the temp was now 63 and dropping. In Fort Bragg the temp was below 60 with thick wet fog. It was a relief to be done with the heat and headwinds for a while.
The plan was to ride through the night in order to avoid the tourists in Guerneville, lunch time traffic a long the Shoreline Highway, and the fact that neither of us can sleep on the first night of a brevet. We encountered the usual headwinds on the bike trail and the last two remaining climbs.
For me this was a tough challenge and I guess I get to be added to the list of riders in their 60’s who completed this ride.
I’m very grateful for Gregg and Melissa who volunteered to staff Indian Creek in the heat. I’m grateful for my fellow Rando and new SFR member Kevin Williams for putting up with an old man who probably drank too much coffee on this ride.
Thanks to all who help organize and support this ride
Mike
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