Earliest PBP Pre-Registration Starts April 3!

For Paris-Brest-Paris aspirants who finished a 1000km or longer ACP/RM randonnee last year, pre-registration opens this Sunday, April 3.  The ACP has posted some details on this process. 

• "Rider License Number" only applies to FFCT, UFOLEP, and other applicants, not to foreign ("Int'l.") riders like us.
• "Rider Affiliation" again applies to those organizations, not foreign (non-French) riders.

Since there are more US rider slots (718) than US 1000k+ finishers in 2010 - some of whom aren't bound for Paris anyway - there is really no race to pre-register for that group.  So if there are glitches or ambiguities to be ironed out, there's plenty of time. 

Happy Planning!

  

-jle

2011 Brevet Season Underway - With 7 New Events!

Our 2011 season is now underway, with a record 24 events from 100km to 1200km in length.  How many are you putting on your schedule?

Especially exciting are some new events:

Colorado Springs Brevets - We're introducing three spring and one late-season brevet based in Colorado Springs.  They offer new terrain to explore, and some interesting parts of our region!

• Falcon - Limon - Kiowa Triangle 200k - A wide-open plains ride that's more challenging than one might think, including the big, wind-exposed rollers from Limon to Kiowa.
• Cripple Creek - Pine Junction 300k - Two challenging spurs, one to Cripple Creek, and the next along the Rampart Range to Pine Junction.
• South Park 400k - Backroads to Fairplay and then more lightly-traveled roads south to the Arkansas Valley west of Royal Gorge.
• Larkspur 200k - The Black Forest and Larkspur area like our Black Forest 200k (out of Castle Rock), but from another vantage point.

A big thanks to Vernon Smith for proposing these events, designing the routes, and leading them!

Golden Gate Gadabout 200k - Based on the Permanent by that name, this summer 200k climbs Golden Gate Canyon of course, descends St. Vrain Canyon, with plenty of the Peak-to-Peak Highway and a spur to Eldora thrown in.  A scenic mid-summer tune-up!

High Country 1200k Grand Randonnée and 1000k Brevet - Years in planning (thank you, Pat and Buster Heller), the HC 1200 is designed to max the scenery while minimizing traffic.  A peak event for a number of folks from the US and abroad!



The Rest of the Schedule! - Of course this is in the context of the usual panoply of events and myriad avenues to your goals:

• Populaires - spring warm-up and autumn foliage cool-down
• SR series - two or more chances at each distance (200k, 300k, 400k, and 600k) to become a Super-Randonneur ... or qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris or other 1200k, including an early 600k for High Country aspirants
• Colorado Front Range Flèche - this time actually on Easter weekend

Register online ... and, new for this year, see who else is registered for events ... don't be left out!

-jle

Flèche Deadline Is Racing Towards Us!

Your deadline for submitting a route and team roster for this year's Colorado Front Range Flèche is April 1. 

The Flèche is a curiously appealing event: 24 hours from start to finish, no matter how fast you ride, with a minimum of 360km (224 miles) to pedal between those hours.  By contrast, I find the 400k brevet, though a bit longer, is less of a challenge, because you can go all out and don't have to put up with your teammates! 

Here are the happy teams last year finishing with a 100% success rate:

With that enticing prologue, if you're considering this year's Colorado Front Range Flèche, we're exploring new territory.  Traditionally, the flèche is held on Easter weekend, the first weekend after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  That can mean late March, or late April, as this year.

Regions in "wintry" climates are allowed to delay their flèche.  For that reason, ours has been held the second weekend in May  (only snowed out once!).  Yet, for once we're in striking distance of actually holding our flèche on Easter weekend, as it's in late April. 

Interested?  Some teams will be reprising their efforts; new teams may be forming.  To seek a team or teammates, you may use the Colorado Randonneuring Google Group (just sign up for membership).

-jle

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.