Million Meters of Milk - 1000 Kilometers in Wisconsin

"While the world spins underfoot, we start another day with wild hearts and fierce desire"*

Michele, the Great Lake Randonneurs' Regional Brevet Administrator, described the Million Meters of Milk as a 1000k where all riders would receive the same experience whether they were first finisher or lantern rouge.

Crossing boundaries - Lap of Lake Ontario 1000K July 2014

Take a look at a globe, any globe. Look near the eastern side of North America along the US - Canada border and you will see Lake Ontario.  Lake Ontario is 193 miles long and 53 miles wide. Its north shores are in Canada and its south shores are in NY State. The border crossings are bridges at Thousand Islands on the East and Niagara Falls on the West. Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes formed by glaciers thousands of years ago. 

The Lap of Lake Ontario is a 1000 Kilometer (622 miles) long randonneuring event that has a simply stated goal; ride a bicycle around Lake Ontario, carry everything you will need with you, and complete the trip in less than 75 hours. The ride had no drop bags or pre-arranged sleep stops. Each rider would be responsible for figuring out when, where and how long they slept, ate and rode.

I was one of the 42 riders who showed up to take on the challenge. Riding across an international border would be a first for me. Also, although I have completed one 1200K, this would be my first attempt at a 1000K. For several of the other riders this would be not only their first 1000k attempt but their longest ride to date. Completing the ride would put many of us in new territory - in more ways than one. Everyone of us would have a different experience taking on this challenge. This is a bit of mine.

On the day that the sun stands still: East Creek 600K

On the Solstice, the sun pauses in the sky before it transitions to a new season. As long as humanity has looked to the heavens and searched for meaning, we have taken this event as a cause for celebration. Less so now, but there was a time when people danced for rain. A time when we knew the meanings of the shape of clouds and the names of the full moon. We once built structures of stone that aligned with the stars on midsummer's day, the longest day, the Solstice. 

Call it what you will, but a celebration so specific in time yet so global in performance must come from a quality intrinsic to our very nature, one inherent to our humanity. If we, as Carl Sagan said, are made of star stuff, then on the Solstice day we celebrate our origin; our collective journey through the universe. 

 

Riding Grand Randonees The Olsen Brothers' Way - an in depth interview.

“The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.”  Douglas Adams 

While someone can properly call themselves a Randonneur by completing a 200K brevet, successfully completing a Grand Randonnee - a 1200 kilometer (750 miles) brevet - can be considered the crowning achievement of the sport. The quadrennially held 1200k Paris-Brest-Paris may be the original and ultimate Grand Randonnee but there are now Grand Randonnees across the United States and around the world. 

Of the small percentage of cyclists who are Randonneurs, an even smaller number complete a Grand Randonnee. Of that small number, even fewer complete two in a year. Of that tiny number a select few complete more than two.

Mark and Bill Olsen are two of the select few in the country who have ridden more than two Grand Randonnees in one year. In fact, between them, the Olsen brothers have successfully completed over 60 randonneuring distance rides.

In 2013 alone, they rode 12 Grand Randonnees, with Mark riding four and Bill completing all eight of the grand randonnees offered in North America.

Even more impressive (to me), the Olsen brothers complete these epic rides at a pace that allows them to eat, sleep and enjoy the ride. Bill has described his trips as vacations and bike tours.

I want to have that kind of experience on Grand Randonnee. So, having struggled to complete one 1200K, I was eager to learn how they are able to complete so many. Mark and BIll graciously agreed to answer my questions. What follows are their detailed and informative responses.  

Leesburg 400K with ROMA (Randonneurs of the Mid-Atlantic)

I wanted to tell you what the course is like.

Maybe you are thinking of riding the upcoming Shenandoah 1200K and you have learned that this ride covers the first 170 or so miles of that route. Maybe you are reading this in 2014, or 2015, or even years after that, and looking for a clue as to what to expect in the way that I searched the interwebs to find some idea as to what to expect before I did this ride.

If that is the case, here are some facts:

Peter and Mary

Do you have to meet someone to know them?
RIP Peter and Mary and thanks for living.
Really living.

Two videos submitted as evidence:

 Peter and Mary

Cycling Central Asia

Friday Writings for Randos: Speaking of that horrible Rt 2

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from:

Speaking of that horrible Rt 2

 By Chris Nadovich*

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 -- McVille, North Dakota

 

The accursed southeast wind is gone! Today we rode 130 relatively comfortable miles. We received some good advice for a change and were led to an alternative route that was both a short cut and a beautiful rolling road through pretty lakes, farms, and wetlands.

Riding across America

Typically, I save the links to other people's writings for Fridays. But I've been enjoying Chris Nadovich's account of his 2009 bike ride across America. He wrote it en route. It's honest, direct, plain spoken, and funny in an understated way. I don't know how many people have read it so far, but more people should. It rings true, possible and audacious all at once and that makes it all the more inspirational. I left the best parts back at the source, but here's a small sample. . .

Flatbread 200K, sweet and scenic

The DC Randonneurs Flatbread 200K is a flat course that twice crosses the northern end of the Delmarva Peninsula by first going east from Centreville, Maryland, near the Chesapeake Bay, to Slaughter Beach, Delaware, on the Delaware Bay then making a short trip south to Milton, Delaware before heading west back to Centreville.

I rode this course for the first time last year. Then, the incessant wind made for a memorable experience. Despite that, one year later, I decided to give it another go. As the weekend drew near, I realized that I had missed a few highlights of the route the last go around. I vowed to not let that happen again.

Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels - The Documentary

If you are interested in (a) Military History, (b) Bicycle history, (c) African American history (d) American history (e) Adventure/Expedition histories; or (f) All of the above: 

This link is to a PBS documentary you will enjoy:  

Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels


Watch it now. You can thank me later.

Photos taken at Fort Missoula 2011 by Iron Rider

Down the Great Allegheny Passage (2009)

A pre-randonneuring account

Prologue.

My trips always seem to start after nights of little sleep. We arrived last night at 1:30 am delayed by all day rain, those work deadlines that always come up when I want to take a day off and the nagging effects of a cold or sniffles or allergy that have me questioning the security of my stomach and reaching for tissues. The flu the kids had three weeks ago was also on my mind.

I drove for 5 hours while the kids slept. Of course, when we arrived, the baby was wide awake and eager to explore at the top of her voice for the next few hours and no one was going to stop her. Sleep was interrupted for me. For my wife, who stayed awake with her, all I can say is I heard her pleading with the baby and bargaining with God at least once last night. Or maybe it was the other way around.