Snowmelt and Sun on the Lyons-Berthoud Populaire!

A mere two days after a big snow dump, bright sun and clear roads welcomed a good crowd - 29 finishers - to our first randonnée of the season! Here's nordic skier Patricia Heller at Ski Haystack only a half mile off the populaire course the day before:

What's a Populaire? A Populaire is a shorter distance "fun ride" randonnée, 103km in this case. The spring Populaires are chances for newbies to find out how randonnées work and get tips from rando veterans, who are stretching their legs and meeting old acquaintances.

Steve Le Goff was gracious enough to lead this one. Here's Steve providing a rider a control card, resplendent in his RUSA Super-Randonneur jersey.

Steve is clearly raising the bar for being well-organized with ride materials!

Michelle Grainger acted as co-leader on the Populaire, with a surprise treat of Shot-Blocks for the riders:

Mike Prendergast shot great video footage of the event, which he's produced into a short feature and posted for our enjoyment. This is HD, by the way, so try it on full screen. Thanks, Mike! Here is Mike's camera setup (Tom Foss photo):

A splendid day to be out, with views like this one of freshly-coated Longs and Meeker Peaks (Tom Foss photo).

Temps were in the chilly-to-mild range - perfect for an early-season jaunt:

A light jacket and no chemical foot-warmers - spring must be here!

Colorado Last Chance 1200 veteran Bob Bruce did more than his share of pulling on this pel0ton-friendly course:

Thanks to everyone for coming out to ride, and a special thanks to Steve and Michelle for a nice event!

Remember, April brings you two more Populaires and the first 200km Brevet of the season, the new Drake Doubleback!

-john lee