The Oregon Randonneurs Covered Bridges 400km route went as promised. Lots of covered bridges. My redundant photos are here. My primary reasons for riding though were that 400km is about my favorite distance - plenty long enough so that plenty (everything and anything) can happen - but, done in a day with time to get home and get ready for the work week. And, the previous week I DNF'd the SIR 600km at the 400km mark. This motivation is not unique.
It was a good brevet. Two points of uniqueness were the extreme allergy symptoms I managed to experience (I ended the ride with a good case of Jabba-the-Hut face. All swollen). There were fields upon fields of the grass/allergen shown at the top of this posting.
The other point of note was that I rode about the best brevet I could, given my condition (or lack thereof) and the ride conditions. A nearly even effort over the 400km with no bonking, excess effort or dead spots. Here's the breakdown:
Leg HR Speed
km bpm km/hr
74 116 22.4
29 123 21.9
67 118 21.6
50 116 20.1
38 121 22.5
77 116 20.6
15 104 20
50 104 20.9
Another high point - it was the first Brevet I'd had with Dan Fender in multiple years. Good to catch up with him again, and I ended up riding some with both Dan and Brian. Rode briefly with Lynn and Jason. Also had a good stretch of riding with Narayan, and managed to draft (slightly) off of Scott's excellent recumbent. Had some time to chat again with Bill. Finished the ride with John Vincent - he was riding well. I speculate it was a fast 400km time for him, as it was for me.
The cycling high point of the ride, for me, occurred while toiling on a 30 mile flat stretch against a head wind. I was passed by Dan and Brian, working together. Invited to join in the pace-lining, I did and we turned the chore of that stretch into good clean fun.
Another great day on the bike.
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