Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=internet-bob.10701.1923.eml
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:22:09 -0800
From: "Rob Hawks" <rob.hawks(AT)gmail.com>
Subject: [BOB] San Francisco Randonneurs 2007 200km brevet ride report

The Bay Area can be blessed with some really wonderful weather in January,
or at least to the perspective of someone who grew up with the snows of
Buffalo as their childhood memories. For several weeks before the January 26th
date for the first brevet of the year, the weather was often very
cold, but always
sunny. Some of my rides in the East Bay would take me past local reservoirs
and mostly those look empty. In fact, it's been unusually dry. So with the 2006
version of the 200k still in my mind, naturally it would begin raining the
day before this year's 200km after such a long dry spell. Several friends of
mine told me that around 2am they were awakened by the sound of pouring
rain.

In spite of the mixed forecast for local showers, and the reality of
the overnight
rain, 92 of the 100 registered riders were on hand to sign in under skies that
actually gave glimpses of stars above. To be sure, the roads were still quite
wet and would stay so for almost the first half of the ride, but it
wasn't raining
right then and really didn't seem to be threatening to do so. Crossing
the Golden
Gate Bridge, some riders would chat while riding side by side, which corked
up all the other riders behind them and by the time I reached the north landing
of the bridge, all the riders were fairly spread out. This route
follows the very familiar
north-south bike route from the Bridge to Fairfax, CA. This being my third SFR
brevet, I am used to the route and used also to seeing most of the bunch of
riders together. This day, that was not so and I wondered if it was
more than half
the riders ahead of me or just half.

Bruce Berg and I rode the bike route section together all the way until 
Fairfax.
Along the way we chatted with riders we knew and other riders who were from
out of town. As there are a great many turns along this part, and even though
this is the major bike route, it isn't always marked well at the turns
so the non-locals
had motivation to stick near us. In Fairfax, Bruce dropped back to ride 
with Dan
Brekke once I was with a lager group of riders. That larger group
didn't stay intact
though as just outside of Fairfax was White Hill, and hills have a way
of magifying
any small differences in pace. I ended up catching Zach Kaplan on his
recumbent on the way up, and then waited for the sonic boom as he would pass
me on the way down. I tried to hold his wheel for a bit going into San 
Geronimo.
I have to smirk now at how futile that ended up being. Sir Francis Drake Blvd,
the road we were on at this point goes into a redwood forest and passes through
a state park. The roadway through the park is a bumpy, potholed nightmare
and I took the bike path through the park parallel to the road but on the other
side of the creek. I could tell some of the riders ahead of me had done the
same by the tire tracks leading out of puddles and mud spots, but not many
riders had done this. The bike trail through the park is far smoother,
but slightly
longer and more than probably slower. I like my fillings to stay in my teeth
so I'm willing to give up some time here.

Once the route clears the park there is the Bolinas Ridge and the hill into
Olema to surmount. Olema is understood to be the epicenter of the 1906
Great Quake, but while it has a long history by American standards, it remains
largely a wide spot in the road, and a much smaller town than the bustling,
booming town of Point Reyes Station and it's 330 inhabitants. A quick right
and left turn in succession and the riders were now heading into the Point 
Reyes
National Seashore Park system. On last year's ride I was riding amongst
many more riders at this point, but this year there was Zach just ahead of me
and another rider whom I would later meet as Rick on the road and nobody
else. Equipment wise, these were too good riders to be near as they both 
sported
full rear fenders so riding behind them was not a muddy, messy business.
Zach and I both pulled off in Inverness to 'shift fluids' and Rick pedaled on.

Inverness, CA is on the west side of the Tomales Bay, a bay formed on the
merger of the Pacific and North American plates. Traffic was fairly light here,
no doubt due to the mostly cloudy skies that followed the previous night's
rain. Not much in the way of tourists out this day, due to the weather and it
being past the December peak of the Whale Watching season. As last year,
I rode this stretch solo for the whole way. I could see one rider
ahead, and then
two as I neared the end of that leg, but I never could seem to gain ground and
hold it. There are no major climbs once you pass the ridge near Mt. Vision
back near Inverness, but that is not to say that the road is easy here. Rollers
abound and some of those rollers are major ones. To add to the challenge,
there are some historical ranches within the park boundries that are still in
operation. The daily business of running these ranches calls for big equipment
to come and go from the barns and gobs of mud are tracked onto the road way.
Then there are the cattle grates and in one or two memorable spots, both mud
*and* cattle grates. I was very tentative in crossing these grates as last year
I went down on the last one which is so nicely situated on a slope. I made it
past with out incident and was within a mile of the turn around before I 
saw the
lead riders heading back. This leg from Inverness to the Point Reyes Lighthouse
is an out and back leg, as is the leg from Point Reyes Station to Marshall.

I was passed by a couple of riders while at the control. I really
wasn't planning
on rushing the control and deliberately filled my bottles and mixed some
Gatorade, and ate some Clif Shot Blocks (my new favorite ride food). Turns out
I actually passed one rider while at the control myself but shortly
after leaving
Rick caught up to me and we rode pretty much the rest of the ride together.
Rick was riding a Longstaff bicycle, a frame he had picked up last March
at the North American Frame Builders show. He believes it is the only
such frame in the US. As we headed back toward Inverness, we were passed
by the bulk of the riders on their way out and I got to catch glimpses of
all the bikes those riders were on. Rivendell Bicycle Works was 
represented, and
it's possible that every single Rivendell product was on the ride,
except I don't recall
seeing anyone riding Dixie cups of bees wax. I may not have been paying
strict attention though.

There is no doubt that the landscape of Point Reyes is beautiful, but many
I think would modify the description with the word stark. The sky is more than
an attribute of the landscape here. I was lucky to be passing through at a time
of day when the cloud gaps permitted sunlight to make the wet, green hillsides
stand out against the blue and white of the sky. To the north one could get
long sweeping vistas of the waves breaking on the beaches for miles on end.

Back on Highway One, past the tourist traffic that seemed to have picked up
in Point Reyes Station, the road surface improves dramatically right at the
town boundary sign. Highway One is a curvy, swoopy carnival ride, even once
the roadway makes it's way back to the shores of Tomales Bay. Rollers, some
big and some small, are what makes up the challenge here and Rick and
I traded off
pulling up the hills and down again all the way to Marshall and the 2nd 
control.
About 2 miles out from the Marshall Store we were passed by the lead group
going in the opposite direction. So far, we had only lost a small bit of ground
on them. Unlike a year ago, we weren't the only riders out enjoying the roads
in Western Marin, but even still I was pretty sure which riders that had passed
by were brevet riders and which weren't and I estimated about ten riders were
ahead of us.

In the Marshall Store I had a cup of clam chowder (great stuff, but maybe not
the best thing for ride food) and a half pint of chocolate milk. While there,
a couple more riders arrived and they didn't pause to eat much, just getting
their cards stamped and moving on. I managed to get out the door and on
my bike as they were pulling away and I hustled to catch on to the pace line.
The reason for my haste was because there was now a headwind which would last
most of the rest of the way back and I wanted company if I was going to do
battle with that headwind. The effort paid off in the very short term as I was
able to latch on. The group included three very strong riders, riders that I
have historically never been able to keep up with. Mark Homrighausen
from my club was there, as was Bob Buntrock and Mojo Cosgrove who
was doing the ride on his fixed gear. On the way back the route climbs one
last huge roller before Pt. Reyes Station and Rick and I both dropped off the
pace. I managed to latch on two more times before the turn at Platform
Bridge Road but a 40 yard gap just grew and grew until the undulating
topography kept the group out of sight ahead. I rolled around the Reservoir
and through Nicasio and just past the 100 mile mark of the ride I decided I
had earned a rest. I had done the 100 miles in less than six and a half hours,
not dramatically fast but not slow either given the hilliness of the
ride so far.

Rick caught up to me while I waited and I joined him as he rolled by.
I was paying
for the effort of trying to hang on with the faster riders and the
climb up the hill
was draining. There was one more big hill before Fairfax and it wasn't
until I was
going down the back side of that coming into town that I was getting my energy
back. I couldn't do well to name the streets and turns by memory, but riding
the bike route from Fairfax to the Bridge is as close to automatic as I can
get. Along this way it is generally flat with the exception of the
hill on Camino Alto
and finally on the climb out of Sausalito back to the bridge. My
strength was back
for both of those climbs and I was able to stay with Rick and even
lead out a little bit.
Funny how that comes and goes on a long ride, but there it is.

Waiting at the finish was most of the fast group, including club
members Peter Morrissey,
Steve Downey and Mark H., both of the latter two riding their first
brevets. Also
on hand was Sterling Hada who had to miss the ride due to classes he
was attending,
but nonetheless came out to see the riders finish. Peter chided me on how clean
my bike was, joking that I must have taken a ride in the back of a pickup 
truck.
Well, full fenders and a mudflap on the front will make that difference.

Last year, I finished in the dark and rain in 11 hours and 8 minutes. This year
it was still daylight for some time and I finished the 125 mile and change
course in 8 hours and 23 minutes. What a difference a year makes.

It was good to ride with so many of my club mates on this ride. The 
Grizzly Peak
Cyclists had a good number of the 92 riders. I enjoyed riding with
Bruce and Dan,
Bruce Marchant who rode his Ebisu, Mark H., Steve Downey, Veronica T.,
Agnes on her first brevet and first time riding that distance (and doing it in
style too), Ernesto, spotting Jim Bradbury who I rode my first brevet, the
2004 Fleche, with as my teammate, finishing the ride in time to be teased
by Peter, riding a while with Zach and catching up on recent goings on, and of
course joking (as if there was any other way to converse) with Jack
Holmgren. I missed
chatting with several people before and after the ride, but I did see Jim G.
and Carlos a couple times on the ride. Both looked to be riding well and
strong. I understand Cyclofiend was supposed to be on the ride, but I missed
meeting him alas.

rob hawks
richmond, ca
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