A Raft of New Permanents to Explore!

We've had some good tastes of winter here on the plains:

But plenty of sun, mild days, and dry roads, too:

Permanents let you pick and choose the choice days to get in a good, long ride.  With friends, all the better!  Here is Irene Takahashi enjoying the Roggen Roundabout:

A dozen new permanent routes were added in the course of last year, ranging all the way from the Lyons-Berthoud Bump-Along 100k through Brent Myers' 428km Rocky Mountain High.  These are shaded on the Colorado Permanents page.  A sampling:

• Carter Lake Cakewalk 206k - Skirting the foothills, where it's often warmer in winter days than further out on the Plains.  Punctuated by occasional short climbs to keep the blood moving.
• Coal Creek Calypso 219k - A Peak-to-Peak permanent, this one featuring the climb up Coal Creek Canyon.  A milder-day opportunity.
• Golden Gate Gadabout 210k - Another Peak-to-Peak permanent, featuring Golden Gate Canyon, oh, and spurs to Eldora and Rabbit Mountain.
• Lyons-Berthoud Bump-Along 103k - Perfect for the P-12 aspirant or stretching your legs whena 200k is not in the cards.
• Rocky Mountain High 428k - Brent Myers' point-to-point from the Amtrak station in Grand Junction to Union Station in Denver.

Not all of these are early-season routes, but certainly ones to keep in mind as the season unfolds.

Meanwhile, enjoy those dry, sunny winter days before spring snows move in!

-jle

PBP Tips from The Daily Randonneur!

Ed Felker, editor of The Daily Randonneur - also RUSA's Randonneur 5000 award administrator and DC Randonneurs bon vivant - has surveyed a half dozen PBP veterans, garnering expert insights under the rubric PBP, The Anciens’ Way.

These are veterans of multiple PBPs, so it's useful to see how their choices have changed (hopefully for the better?) over time.

Have a look.  And now Ed has posted the rest of the survey, in Part 2.

-jle

A Slight Brush with Winter!

Hard to resist a Permanent in February that starts above freezing. In fact, at the same moment a thousand miles west, the Santa Cruz 300k brevet was starting off only a couple degrees warmer.

But ... very different prospects!  Topping out above 80º there; devolving to below freezing at the finish line here.

A scenic if icy panorama in Paradise Valley: 

 Heading east from Campion, the sweep of the foothills-born snow cells:

And interesting patterns crossing the South Platte:

I had lucked out since mid-morning when the blustery cold front blew through.  It had brought a succession of spotty snow showers, all of which I'd managed to miss.  Just a bit of wet pavement in their wake. 

That's why the final hour from Erie to the finish - a hint of spitting snow flurries building into actual real snow with some slippery final miles - was more of an adventure - "the rando experience" - rather than a true bother.

... and still not as snow-encased as Irene's ride a year ago ...

A happy finish for a February outing!

-jle

2010 Result Mailing on its Way!

While the mountains have lured us with great snow ...

as at Snow Mountain Ranch:

... yet local roads have been great for riding a Permanent ... for example, past ice covered Baseline Lake in front of the Flatirons graced with a cloud of snow from the mountains:

 ... there's been plenty of indoor time to affix ACP stickers from Paris to your brevet cards:

... and compile them all into a growing raft of envelopes:

... wending their way to you.  Whether your envelope is a particularly thick one or on the slimmer side, I hope it contains fond reminders - perhaps a coffee or grease spot here or there - of a season well spent ... and tough rides survived!

And hopefully, too, an energizer to start ramping up for your 2011 season!

-jle

P.S. You can also see the 2010 consolidated rider results online.