DC Randonneurs

Hi All,

Here is the promised additional info on the Jan 12, 2008 Mason-Dixon 200k Brevet.

The start time is 0700 at the Starbucks, 10251 (not 10250!, my bad) Old Georgetown Rd. Registration starts at 0600 (Starbucks opens at 0600 on Saturdays). The brevet fee will be $10 and be sure that you have renewed your membership or be prepared to do so at the start.

PARKING NOTE: Due to the potential large number of riders, I recommend parking on Berkshire Dr, which is along the back of the Wildwood Shopping Center. See attached directions.

I will not have maps at the start so if you are a map person, please print ones from the attached file. I have attached 2 GPS files courtesy of Nick Bull, don’t know anything else about them, although Nick has ridden the route 3 times presumably without getting lost.

ROUTE DESCRIPTION: I designed the route as a close in start Permanent route, thinking I would go to Woodbine and then mooch the route to Gettysburg on Bill Beck’s route. Turned out to be too far, so I diverted to Littlestown. I had no intent of making it hard, but my feeble understanding of the terrain and the desire to keep the route direct had its impact. I’ve clocked ~ 7800′ elevation on my Ciclosport HAC4, which always reads lower than others. For reference, I clocked slightly less for the Lebanon Church 200k in September. If you look at the profile, there are no long climbs but a constant up and down throughout. You cross many E-W drainages going N-S from Olney (mi 15) to Littlestown. I highly recommend taking it “easy” until you arrive back in Woodbine (mi 100), before deciding to hammer. It seems the 3rd quarter is where the accumulated climbing of the route hits you.

The first 15 miles are Suburban, following the “standard” escape from DC up Rock Creek Dr. then Parkland to the summit of the day’s first major climb, the famous Col du Manor Country Club Parking Lot (mi 8, 200′ vertical in 4 mi!). The route zigzags through neighborhood streets just west of Georgia Ave (MD97) to avoid larger roads, but has light traffic particularly early Sat. By mile 15, we are through the new Norbeck Grove development in Olney and into rural riding for the rest of the route. The route heads north, just west of Georgia Ave MD97 to Littlestown, PA just over the Mason-Dixon Line. The route is more downhill on the return, particularly noticeable in the last 8 miles, except for the last climb up Grosvenor Ln. out of Rock Creek (sorry). The wind can be a factor in the open country from mile 23 north, but if it’s a SW headwind on the return you are pretty sheltered from mile 102 in.

LUNCH NOTES: The Sheetz in Littlestown does NOT have an interior Executive Seating area, so those of you looking for a sit-down, warm-up lunch stop at the turn-around should Google the other possibilities nearby on PA97 or PA194. I have route info and cues for bicycling to the start from Downtown DC via the Crescent trail. I don’t believe Metro runs early on weekends, but you could take it home (Grosvenor Stop ~1.4 mi from start - all downhill).

Please contact me if you have any questions. Attached are files for: Maps, Elevation Profile, Driving/Parking directions and GPS files [gpx or gdb format] (Thanks Nick Bull!) (When the webmaster has these files I will link them all up here. You’ll want to save these links to a file instead of just clicking directly on them.)

Mark

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 11:47 am and is filed under Brevets, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.