DC Randonneurs

The cue sheet for the Contrary Mother of all 300Ks, starting at the Middletown, VA Super 8 at 5:00AM on April 9, 2011 is now posted at Cue Sheet - 20110409 Contrary Mother 300K Brevet.

Registration will be available from 6PM to 8PM on Friday and from 4AM to 5AM on Saturday in the Super 8 lobby. Please park as far from the lobby entrance as possible.

Last year the penultimate controle was the Lost River Store, which was also indicated in the initial description of this year’s version. Unfortunately, the store does not open for the season until April 15 so we will be substituting the Lost River Grill. It is ~1 mile further down 259 from the store and will be reflected on the cue sheet. It is a nice place to grab a bite to eat to fuel the final 55 miles home including climbs over Mill Gap and Wolf Gap.

The link to the GPS files is posted below. But please read this information before downloading them. Always get a copy of the final cue sheet. That final cue sheet contains the official route, so in case there is a conflict with the GPS file, you should resolve the conflict in favor of the cue sheet. Use the GPS as a handy-dandy adjunct. Keep your wits about you, as the GPS cannot notify you of road hazards — it is up to you to ride safely.

We strongly recommend that you set your GPS to the settings below. We cannot guarantee that these will keep you on the official route, but if you have your GPS set some other way, it is entirely possible that it will take you off route, possibly onto unsafe roads. Go to the Setup->Routing page and set as follows:

Guidance Method: Follow Road
Follow Road Method: Shortest Distance
Next Turn Pop-Up: On
Follow Road Options:
Off Route Recalculation: Prompted
Calculation Method: Best Route
Calculate Routes for: Car/Motorcycle
Avoid: (set to none – the route itself should control this)

By the way … make sure that your GPS either has maps already downloaded, or select the relevant maps around the routes. The GPS files are posted at GPS Files - 20110409 Contrary Mother 300K Brevet. These are derived from the files that we posted in 2010, and I recall that they worked. But they were not rechecked on the road this year so, as always, pay attention to the cue sheet.

DCR is having a contest to design an Official DCR Summer Jersey.  The winner (selected by member vote) will receive a free jersey.

After the contest is over you will be able to buy DCR jerseys in late April as part of a one-time private group purchase from the manufacturer.

The designs that have been submitted so far are posted here.

Gary Dean has kindly agreed to manage the jersey design competition and jersey order.

Nick Bull
President, DC Randonneurs
president<at>dcrand<dot>org

How – Ordering Process 

Ordering Process:

The winning design will be sent via the listserv along with a “shared-design link” and ordering instructions.  People can click on the shared-design link and choose from among the jerseys that are presented in that link.  Note: the shared-design link currently only shows the front of the jersey.

Individual orders (type, color, and size of jersey(s)) will be sent to Gary Dean, e-mail address: paladindad@verizon.net  for consolidation into a single group order.

Use the price in the “16+” column PLUS 50 cents per jersey for shipping. 

Note: If fewer than 16 jerseys are ordered, the per-jersey price will be higher, and you will need to bring an extra few dollars when you pick up your jersey.

April 18:    Ordering Begins.

April 30:    Deadline for your jersey order and money being received by Gary.

May 1:       Group order placed.  If the final individual cost is higher because fewer than 16 order, we will notify orderers.

Note: we have already spoken with Voler and will get the currently-posted prices, which include the 10% off, even though the web page says those prices expire on April 15..

~2-3 weeks later:  Jerseys arrive and are available for pickup.

The cue sheet for the Urbana 200K Brevet, starting at the Urbana Waffle House at 7:00AM on March 26, 2011 is now posted at Cue Sheet - 20110326 Urbana 200K Brevet.

Registration opens inside the Waffle House at 6:00am. Come early enough to have some waffles! Please park at the Park & Ride lot indicated on the map. Do not park in the Waffle House lot or in any of the surrounding businesses.

The link to the GPS files is posted below. But please read this information before downloading them. Always get a copy of the final cue sheet. That final cue sheet contains the official route, so in case there is a conflict with the GPS file, you should resolve the conflict in favor of the cue sheet. Use the GPS as a handy-dandy adjunct. Keep your wits about you, as the GPS cannot notify you of road hazards — it is up to you to ride safely.

We strongly recommend that you set your GPS to the settings below. We cannot guarantee that these will keep you on the official route, but if you have your GPS set some other way, it is entirely possible that it will take you off route, possibly onto unsafe roads. Go to the Setup->Routing page and set as follows:

Guidance Method: Follow Road
Follow Road Method: Shortest Distance
Next Turn Pop-Up: On
Follow Road Options:
Off Route Recalculation: Prompted
Calculation Method: Best Route
Calculate Routes for: Car/Motorcycle
Avoid: (set to none – the route itself should control this)

By the way … make sure that your GPS either has maps already downloaded, or select the relevant maps around the routes. The GPS files are posted at GPS Files - 20110326 Urbana 200K Brevet. Note: On the checkout ride, the GPS routing acted strange in the first mile after the start. We think that’s fixed, but beware and, as always, follow the cue sheet.

Starting from the Frederick Hampton Inn, we follow roughly the same route as last year. The ride heads north, skirting South Mountain as far as Thurmont and then turns west to climb the ridge on MD77 through Catoctin Mountain State Park. Just short of the summit, it heads roughly north-north-east into Pennsylvania and through the rolling apple and peach orchards of Adams County. From Arendtsville, it turns northwest and begins a long, stair-step climb with many steep sections, ascending the false summit before Big Flat (altitude 1650 feet) before a rapid descent to a stop sign, followed by the real climb to the summit of Big Flat (altitude 2040 feet). Nine miles of mostly downhill brings riders to a much needed rest stop and control in Shippensburg. The terrain moderates in the Cumberland valley northeast to Bloserville. The return trip heads east and south through Mount Holly Springs, then recrosses South Mountain (by a noticably easier route) and takes several miles of easy rollers to East Berlin. The final miles remain mellow, heading southwest to Thurmont ending with a few rollers paralleling US15. After crossing US15, we’ll take a new route into town on Opposumtown Pike.

Lights and reflective gear are required as described in Article 10 of the RUSA rules for riders, and there will be a lighting inspection at registration.

Controls: Frederick, Shippensburg, Bloserville, East Berlin, Frederick.

2010 Frederick 300K 3D Map

The DC Randonneurs fleche will be held on the weekend of April 15-17, 2011. A fleche (French for “arrow”), is a team event in which each team rides different routes toward a common finish location, like arrows toward a target. The minimum ride distance is 360 km, which must be covered in a period of 24 hours.

Most people who have done a fleche consider it to be one of their favorite randonneuring events since riding together as a team for 24 straight hours builds strong bonds between team members, and is great fun! This year we have scheduled the fleche for a week before the Easter weekend. The target this year is again the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, VA, where the teams will also rejoin for a hearty post-ride breakfast.

The fleche has its own set of rules that are somewhat different, and perhaps even more arcane, than those for a standard brevet. Some of them are summarized here:

• Each team must consist of three to five bicycles. (Note that a tandem counts as a single bicycle, so teams will sometimes contain more than five riders.)
• Teams can start at any time between noon on Thursday and 10AM on Saturday, and must finish 24 hours later. (However, we encourage teams to finish between 6AM-8AM on Sunday morning so that we can join together for the brunch!)
• The traditional fleche route starts at some distant location and then heads for the target, but a loop route is also allowed, as long as the start location is far enough from the finish to be considered as a different postal jurisdiction.
• As in a standard brevet, the routes must contain control locations chosen so that the shortest bicycle-legal route through the controls is equal to at least the minimum distance of 360 km. However, the fleche has an additional requirement that one of the controls must occur exactly 22 hours after the start and be at least 25 km from the finish. Note that this requirement, as well as the one that states that no rest stops can be longer than 2 hours, ensures that teams take nearly the full 24 hours to complete the ride.

Additional information about the 22-hour control will be provided to all registered team captains, since a full understanding of the rules for this control is essential for achieving a successful finish. Many experienced captains even recommend bringing a printed copy of the rules on the ride since they can be hard to recall at 4 in the morning!

To participate in this special event, riders should start forming teams now. Each team must have a captain who is responsible for designing the route and submitting it for approval. Captains should carefully read the rules first. The schedule will be:

• March 16: Applications from captains due to RBA including 1) captain’s application form, 2) start date, time, and location, 3) map of route, 4) cue sheet, and 5) names, addresses, and phone numbers for the controls. The route information can be submitted electronically to cba@dcrand.org in PDF, MS Word, or MS Excel format. Route files from DeLorme Topo, Garmin Mapsource, or MS Streets and Trips will also be appreciated, but not required.
• April 3: Final rosters, rider applications, and waivers due from team captains to RBA. Deadline for final route approval.
• April 10: Control cards sent to captains
• April 15-17: Fleche

The application form is available here. Team captains are responsible for collecting applications and waivers from their team members and getting them submitted on time. The information part of the application is a fillable PDF form that can be emailed to cba@dcrand.org, but the waiver parts must be signed and snail-mailed to the address on the form. The application fee of $10 includes the post-ride buffet at the Marriott.

Please contact Bill Beck ( cba@dcrand.org ) with any questions. We also have many experienced fleche captains in the club who would be excellent sources of advice. If you are thinking of forming a team or looking for a team to join, the dcrand listserve is one good way to connect with other riders.

Planning and training is essential for finishing and enjoying a fleche. This year, we have again scheduled a RUSA “Dart” on March 19, which will provide an excellent training and shakedown opportunity, especially for newly-formed teams. So I encourage all Fleche teams to also participate in the Dart and discover any problems with organization or rider pace in time to make corrections before the Fleche.

The Old Rag 200K starts at the “Howard Johnson Inn” at 6 Broadview Avenue in Warrenton, VA‎ (540 347-4141‎). Checkin starts at 6am and the brevet starts at 7am. Pre-ride bathrooms are available in the Burger King, just N of the HoJos, on Broadview. Please do not park at the HoJos, unless you are a guest. There is street parking on Waterloo, just west of the HoJos. If you want off-street parking, park at the High School which is at Waterloo and Van Roijen St, about three blocks from the HoJos.

From Warrenton we head generally southwest passing through rolling horse farm country with the Blue Ridge Mountains as our backdrop. We parallel the Blue Ridge as far south as Madison where we begin our return to Warrenton after a stop at the friendly, well-stocked Yoder’s Country Market. The route is fairly gentle as we wind our way to Syria in the shadow of Grave’s Mountain. A moderate climb followed by a 3-mile descent puts us up and over the Old Rag Grinder. A series of steep and unrelenting rollers–lovingly known as The Three Kings and The Meanies–will consume us for the next hour or so prompting many to re-fuel at the Laurel Mills store with the sweet, spring water that flows nearby. Country roads bordered by stone fences carry us through Ben Venue and into Flint Hill and the final control at the reopened Orlean Store. A final climb over Piney Mountain brings us back to the HoJos in Warrenton. Estimated total elevation gain : 8,000 feet. 

Lights are not absolutely required, and there will not be a mandatory lighting inspection, but lights and reflective gear are required to ride in dark conditions. So we recommended that you bring lights in case you need to ride after it gets dark. Lights might also be needed at the start if it’s cloudy.

This is the same improved and reversed version of the original Mother of all 300k’s that we did in 2010. As shown in the elevation profile, it consists of fabulous scenery hard won by lots of climbing of hills of all variety (see Endless Mountains 1240km). Don’t forget to bring lots of low gears.

Map and Elevation Profile (click for larger view)

From the Middletown Super 8 there is a relatively mild warm-up stretch to Green Spring Road where, after a long slow descent, there is a significant ridge and fast downhill into the volunteer control at Siler. There are more big rollers through Cross Junction and Whitacre on the way to the WV border in the orchards of the aptly named High View.

The route then descends to the control in Yellow Springs and the Cacapon River and follows the lovely Cacapon River Road to Capon Bridge on US50. Some serious climbing and descending through beautiful wooded and streamside terrain leads to a much needed break at the Slanesville General Store for pizza or subs. You will need the fuel — for the next 75 miles, between Slanesville and the summit of Wolf Gap, there is very little that is flat, and there are seven notable climbs averaging more than 600 feet apiece.

After continuing east along WV 3 - much easier in this direction - as far as Points, the route then turns south for some terrific long views from Jersey Mountain Road and then brings the riders back to US50. The Mountain Top Restaurant or Liberty convenience store offer a possibility for some calories in anticipation of the hard stretch to Lost River.

This section consists of many long slow climbs and descents with an occasional very steep section for distraction. The roads follow streams through farmland or forest and the top of each climb can be marked by the flow of water - you will be happy when it is going your way.

The control at the Lost River General Store serves excellent pannini, espresso drinks, milkshakes and various gourmet fare in an idyllic setting. Make sure you’re well supplied for the continued climbing back into VA and the rigors of Back Road. Coming out of Lost River, there are two roughly-800 foot climbs between you and the VA border; Mill Gap is moderately long and very steep in spots, then there is a fairly long downhill to catch your breath before the climb over Wolf Gap. Be very careful on the downhill, there is often gravel in the turns, and some are not well signposted. Once you are on Back Road, it is actually slightly downhill overall, but you might never notice given all the climbing. A few more moderate ups and downs and one big drop and climb at Cedar Creek bring you back to Middletown, the finish, pizza, and the well-deserved feeling that you’ve conquered a very tough brevet.

Lights and reflective gear are required as described in Article 10 of the RUSA rules for riders, and there will be a lighting inspection at registration.