DC Randonneurs

Keith Sutton is organizing a 200km and 300km brevet in southern Virginia, near Norfolk.  Pre-registration for the 200km closes at midnight, Saturday April 6th–payment must be received by then.  Many of you may be riding a fleche on Saturday, so don’t forget to pre-register a couple of days earlier.

Here is Keith’s ride description for the two brevets.

The 200km is a 130 mile route with less than 1000 feet of climbing, beginning at 1238 Holland road, Suffolk, VA at the Holland Plaza Shopping Center. Coming from US 58, it will be on your left. Park near the Rite-Aid near the now closed Food Lion.

The route is an out-and-back over gently rolling farmland with false flats but no hills of significance. The turn-around at Skippers is a large truck stop with a McDonalds. Other than that, and start/finish, there is only the required stop at the control at Boykins at 41 and 91 miles. Franklin (site of a few Civil War skirmishes in its role as the main terminus of confederate supply lines) has 2 convenience stores and a Hardee’s you’ll pass at 20 and again at 110 miles for an optional stop if needed.

The 300km follows this same route but continues on with a slightly more rolling terrain to Lake Gaston. Again, the turn around is a large convenience store with a strip mall across the street with a pizza shop and Grocery store

Longer Link to Google map showing parking

RWGPS route for 200km

(Note: Do not download “cue sheet” from RWGPS.  We will be posting cue sheets and GPS files after the pre-ride.)

A big group of 58 riders showed up at the Urbana Waffle House for the Urbana 200K Brevet (44 riders) and Thurmont Thump 117K populaire (16 riders). After carbo loading on waffles, the group departed at 7AM onto the challenging routes with temperature at around 28F. The 200K route makes a counter-clockwise loop up to PA (see GPS track ), so the brisk wind from the NW was in the 200K rider’s faces for the entire long stretch from Union Mills to State Line, PA. Fortunately, a tailwind developed as the route turned south, and combined with temperature warming into the 50s, the day became quite nice under blue skies. 12 riders successfully finished the populaire and 39 finished the brevet. Congratulations to all!

Thanks to Mike Wali for organizing the ride and to Dave Sweeney and Barry McMahon for registering riders at the start and also checking them back in at the finish. Thanks also to Mike, Dave, Barry, and Nick Bull for test riding the 200K route and to Dave Judkins for checking out the 117K route.

Preliminary results are posted here. Mike Wali’s photos are posted here and Bill Beck’s are here.

The cue sheets for the Urbana 200km ACP Brevet and for the Thurmont Thump 117km Populaire, starting at the Urbana Waffle House at 7:00AM on March 23, 2013 are now posted at Cue Sheet ZIP File.  The versions named “2Up” are set up to be displayed folded in half in the map case of a handlebar bag.  The other versions are our usual cue sheets for folding in quarters.

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.

Everybody should bring lights and reflective gear to this ride. The ride starts before sunrise and many riders may finish in the dark.

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 settings like those 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.

Note: Park at the Urbana Park’n'Ride.

The brevet begins at the Urbana Waffle House (8906 Fingerboard Rd, Frederick, MD 21704). Checkin starts at 6am and the brevet starts at 7am. Get there early and have a hearty breakfast to carry you through the day! The ride heads north through rolling hills in eastern Frederick County arriving at the Union Bridge 7-11. Turning roughly west, the ride is a little flatter, but that’s just so you can catch your breath before the SCENIC climb from Thurmont (altitude 500′) winding up MD77 through Catoctin Mountain State Park, topping out at about 1700′. A 3-mile descent ends at Smithsburg followed by some big rollers and finally a very gradual uphill into State Line, PA where riders can re-fuel with a quick convenience store stop or a leisurely sit down lunch. From here the terrain is flat to moderately rolling as the route heads south to Williamsport, through farmland and then along the lovely Conococheague Creek. After a little side trip to the control at the KOA (watch for gravel, cars, and children), there is more mildly rolling farmland into the Antietam National Battlefield and Sharpsburg, where riders can take a brief break at the Battleview Market control, before returning to the hills. These come in rapid succession with the next 20 miles containing many rollers as well as a 600′ climb over South Mountain at Gapland, big rollers and a 500′climb up Catoctin Ridge via Mountville Road. After a gradual descent, and ultimately a short climb away from the Monacacy River on Fingerboard Road, you’ve only got about 5 miles to ride, and you’ve ridden five miles before, haven’t you? Celebrate with other riders at the finish at Ledo Pizza. Estimated elevation gain: 8,200 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 of bad weather during the day or in case you need to ride after it gets dark. Sunrise is at 7:06AM, so lights might also be needed at the start if it’s cloudy.

Note: Park at the Urbana Park’n'Ride.

The populaire begins at the Urbana Waffle House (8906 Fingerboard Rd, Frederick, MD 21704). Checkin starts at 6am and the brevet starts at 7am. Get there early and have a hearty breakfast to carry you through the day! The ride heads north on the same route as the Urbana 200km brevet, through rolling hills in eastern Frederick County arriving at the Union Bridge 7-11. Turning roughly west, the ride is a little flatter out to Thurmont, where the populaire route departs from the brevet route.  Heading back to Urbana, the terrain is moderate to starts with but gets hillier as you rejoin the start of the brevet route coming back in to the control.  The route is shown here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2105620

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 of bad weather during the day or in case you need to ride after it gets dark. Sunrise is at 7:06AM, so lights might also be needed at the start if it’s cloudy.

Forty-eight riders set out on a somewhat chilly, somewhat breezy day that turned out to be sunny and eventually warm enough for shirtsleeves.  We had one rider on the populaire–maybe we need to publicize these better–and the rest on the brevet, bringing the total brevet riders to 51 including the pre-ride.  We ate a dozen pizzas, a dessert tray, and untold cups of coffee.

Thanks to our volunteers: For organizing the ride, John Mazur and Cindy Piotrowski; for rider check-in and route reconaissance on Friday, Michael O’Hara; and for route reconaissance on Thursday, George Moore.

Preliminary results are posted here:  http://www.dcrand.org/dcr/results.php

Do any of the riders have pictures to post?  I had my camera … just forgot to take photos.

Next rides: Urbana ACP 200km and Thurmont Thump RUSA Populaire 117km from Urbana, MD on March 23rd, both starting at 7am.  Details later …

Nick Bull
CBA/RBA

Lunch at Kelly’s Ford populaire is an out and back ride that follows the first quarter of the Wilderness Campaign brevet, turning around at the Inn at Kelly’s Ford, near the location of the Battle of Kelly’s Ford.

The populaire starts at 7AM (registration starts at 6AM) at the Caribou Coffee in Bristow, just west of Manassas, and heads generally south-south-west to the turnaround.  Unfortunately, the Inn at Kelly’s Ford is not open early enough to eat there–riders can stop at Elk Run Store, mile 21.5 and 42.9.  The first and final thirds of the populaire are fairly flat, but the middle third is moderately rugged as you ride through the Wilderness terrain.

The cue sheet is now posted at Lunch at Kelly’s Ford 104km Populaire Cue.

The ride starts from the Caribou Coffee at 7:00am. Registration will also be inside the Caribou Coffee starting at 6:00am.  We’ll have coffee available and some of our usual pre-ride eats, but nothing as good as you can get at the Caribou Coffee

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 - 20130309 Lunch at Kelly’s Ford 104km Populaire.