8-27-2010 Apple Valley 400k Ride Report and Comments

Click here for the pdf

7-7-2010 Summer Minnesota Randonneur Update

The randonneuring season is now in full swing, with three Minnesota brevets complete and five to go. Weather has been a big factor in two of the events, with strong winds early in the season at the Rochester 200k and a wild thunderstorm at the recent Rochester 400k ride. See Mike Aeling’s ride report for the details. Congratulations to the sensible riders that waited out the storm and made it to the finish early the next morning. A special shout out goes to Jim Joy, who carried on anyway, waited out the worst of the storm on the veranda of a farm house and made it back to Rochester, wet but several hours ahead of the rest of the field.

We are heading into the hot part of the year so take some time before you ride a brevet to consider your plan for maintaining fluids, electrolytes and core temperature. Keeping enough fluids flowing into your system is very important and replenishing your electrolytes through powders, or gatorade, but so is keeping your core temperature under control. Cold drinks at controls (personally milkshakes are great) can help. Insulated bottles help. You may want to consider an ice sock wrapped around your neck to help keep you cool. Tube socks work well, but melting water can flow down into your shorts which can be an issue for some people. There are versions of this concept that are leak-proof, but cost a few $.

Upcoming rides

The Iowa Randonneurs have their final brevet date of the year in Waterloo this Saturday, July 10th, with a full slate of 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k rides available. This is a TCBC Outreach ride.

Coming up July 24-25 is the Rochester 600k. Check the RUSA website to get the forms needed to register or send an email to Mike Aeling at mdapbp@yahoo.com.

The Apple Valley 400k is being held on Saturday, August 21st. The route will be changed somewhat from last year to ensure the return controls are open later in the evening. More details will be forthcoming as we get closer to the ride date. Cue sheets will be available before the ride. We are also running a 200k ride on the same date for TCBC members that would like to try a brevet. The route is the same as the regular 200k being held on October 2nd. Miles completed count for TCBC credit but not RUSA/ACP.

Riders interested in the Apple Valley 600k on September 11-12 should be considering their plans soon. We have booked the Windswept Inn again for the rest/sleep stop and lunch and dinner for riders heading to and from the La Crescent loop. The route will be very similar to last year’s, road construction permitting, and will provide a good challenge for riders, especially those who are planning on PBP 2011, as the rolling terrain is quite similar to what riders will experience in France. Overall this is the easiest of the three 600ks offered in Minnesota and Iowa. Send an email to TCBCBrevet@aol.com to confirm your plans for this event. There will be a drop bag service to/from Rushford. The Windswept Inn house we are renting has room for 8-10 riders to sleep. There are some other rooms available at the hotel if you want one to yourself.

The Minnesota randonneur season finale is the Apple Valley 200k brevet on October 2nd. Everyone should be in great shape so we’re looking forward to a fast ride with lots of smiles.

To register for the Apple Valley brevets, send an email to TCBCBrevet@aol.com. You need to be a TCBC member to ride, but there are no other costs, other than a requested donation to cover the bag drop and sleep/food control on the 600k. To register for the Rochester brevets, send an email to Mike Aeling at mdapbp@yahoo.com.

Rob's PACTour Elite Tour Transcontinental blog

http://randonneurrob.blogspot.com/

5-2-2010 New Minnesota Randonneur Jersey

Below are pix of the new Minnesota Randonneur jerseys that were unveiled last Saturday. They are very sharp and the riders really like them. TCBC is recognized as a sponsor of randonneuring in Minnesota on the sleeve of the jersey.

    

The first TCBC brevet of the year will be the Apple Valley 300k, to be held on Saturday, June 12. See the TCBC website for more details.

To give more TCBC riders the opportunity to try randonneuring, we will be offering a 200k option at the same time as the Apple Valley 300k brevet on June 12th. Miles will not count for RUSA credit but will count for TCBC miles and will be a great experience for new or potential randonneurs.

2-14-2010 Welcome to Minnesota Randonneuring 2010!

It's the middle of winter, it's cold, and the snow and ice keeps on coming. There is not a better time to be planning and training for your 2010 brevets. I have seen and heard from some of you about your winter riding and training plans - Jim and Charles have studded tires and were out riding today; Michele is doing kettle ball workouts and escaping to Arizona as often as she can; some others have been to the TCBC Texas adventure and more are going to BikeAzona. Some of you are sweating it out on trainers in your basements or in spin classes at the Y. If you aren't doing any of these things: don't just sit in front of your monitor; get out there! The first brevets of the season start in two months. Now is the time to start working to reach your goals for a big year in 2010, be they personal accomplishments or planning for Paris Brest Paris in 2011.

For fun and to help us all get motivated, share your training program and goals with the rest of us by sending it to this email. I'll put them all together and send them out. Workout programs that only involve watching the Olympics for 12 hours a day will not be published, however.

In the next few days you will be receiving a survey email with designs for a Minnesota Randonneuring jersey. A committee has been working on a variety of designs, colors and vendors. It will be great to have a distinctive Minnesota image on randonneur events - we are one of the fastest growing randonneur groups in the US. When the email comes, select your favorite design and sign up for a jersey. We plan to have them ready for the first Minnesota brevet of the season - the Rochester 200k on May 1.

At the TCBC Awards banquet in January, I had the opportunity to present a summary of 2009 TCBC Randonneuring and a preview of 2010. Attached is a pdf of the deck, with lots of pictures and interesting statistics. We had a great year - 2010 will be even better!

On a personal note, I have signed up for the PACTour Elite Tour this year. www.PACTour.com. This is a very tough transcontinental adventure, crossing the US in 19 days, 3,075 miles, averaging 162 miles a day. I am on a work hiatus (i.e. semi-retired) for the next several months so am using the time to focus on training. The ride starts in San Diego on May 16th, ending in Williamsburg, Va on June 3rd. Wish me luck!

This is the first email that is using the combined email lists from Mike Aeling's Rochester group and the TCBC Randonneur group. There was a lot of overlap between these lists so this will reduce clutter for a bunch of you and get the Minnesota Randonneuring message out to all of you in one pass. Mike and I will be keeping this list in sync. As always, if you do not want to continue to get these emails, or we have multiple email addresses for you, let me know by responding to this email. If you know someone that would like to hear about us, let me know and I'll add their name.

Rob Welsh

• 2009

• 2008