Friday, August 28, 2009

Summer Reading!

What better after a long summer's day ride than to relax, sit back, and read a good story? Here are three great ones by fellow randonneurs who wandered far afield this summer to experience some memorable events!

The Super Brevet Scandinavia 1200k visited all the Scandinavian countries, in part by dint of ferries such as this one (M. Thomas photo):


Mark Thomas started well-rested after four non-biking weeks in South America. How did he fare? And what about those ferries? You can read Mark's story of the SBS and more on his blog.

London-Edinburgh-London (1400km) is always a treat for its backroads, evocative scenery, sheep, and beans on toast for breakfast. This year added some very stormy rains into the mix (S. Klaassen photo):

Spencer Klaassen rode his fixie (what else?) on this one, despite the occasional 1:5 (20%) grade, which I remember well from riding Britain End-to-End some years back. Have a look at Spencer's captioned slide show.
The Bavarian 1200 took in a full circuit of Bavaria, incursions into the Alps included, of course! Some of the tiny towns I remember from my own days living in Munich - a cycling paradise, if you don't mind the occasional grade. Here is Kochelsee or Walchensee (E. O'Brien photo):

Fixeuse Emily O'Brien had so much fun on this one, she ended up with 180 extra credit kilometers by the time she crossed the finish line. See her blog for the whole story, from wunderschön to wienerwurst!

I savored these stories, and bet you will too. None of these rides were a walk in the park, and yet Mark, Spencer, and Emily all had a great time in the end.

Doesn't it inspire you? It makes me envious to have missed out! But there are more rides like these to come - have a look at the US 1200k schedule, starting with the Cascade and Shenandoah next year, and farther afield, too. Our own Eric Simmons is slated to ride Audax Australia's Sidney-Melbourne 1200k this November.

Read and dream!

-jle

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