[RBW] SFR Marin Mountains 200k 10/28/2017 ride report

2017-10-30 Thread William R. 
Epic and inspiring ride report Bill. Well done getting through the ride within 
the time limit.

Bill in Westchester, NY

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Re: [RBW] SFR Marin Mountains 200k 10/28/2017 ride report

2017-10-29 Thread Toshi Takeuchi 
Congrats Bill,

The SR next year will be easy in comparison.

Toshi


On Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 5:35 PM, Bill Lindsay  wrote:

> Epic long ride report for an epic long ride. Grab a beer
>
>
> As many of you know I did a lot of riding over the last three months. A
> big part of the motivation was to prepare for what might be the most
> difficult 200k brevet route in America. The Marin Mountains 200k covers
> ~128 miles, with ~40 miles off-road, and with ~13,000 feet of climbing.
> Despite the unique challenges presented by the course, the same timing
> rules apply as if it was a flat-paved brevet. Riders who want to 'complete'
> the brevet have to make it through the timed controls on time, including
> the finish control which closes at 13 hours, 30 minutes. I'm pleased to
> report that I successfully completed the Marin Mountains 200k yesterday,
> with a precious little 26 minutes to spare. I've done a few 300k brevets
> before which were very challenging and ran a little bit longer than my ride
> yesterday, but I think it's probably safe to say that this was the hardest
> single day ride I've ever done.
>
> The brevet started at 6AM in The Presidio. This is a park and former
> military base at the northern end of San Francisco, right next to the
> Golden Gate Bridge. The group of riders was much smaller than I'm
> accustomed to for a San Francisco Randonneurs event. The trail portions
> require a permit with the park service and that limited the roster to only
> 30 riders. Despite that limit, it's my understanding that only a few were
> turned away. The extreme climbing and off-road portions had most SFR
> members choosing to ride the Winters 200, and/or the Del Puerto Canyon 200
> instead. Two of the riders that arrived were not given a brevet card. One
> wanted to sign up that day, but the limit was reached. Another forgot to
> pack a helmet, so he got a DNH. Both riders chose to ride anyway, but knew
> that they wouldn't receive RUSA credit. At that hour it was still pitch
> dark. Thursday and Friday had both been quite hot, with temperatures in San
> Francisco getting well into the 80s, but the fog rolled in Friday night so
> it was closer to 50F at that hour. We knew when the fog receded, things
> would be a lot warmer, so many chose to suffer a chill and pack light,
> instead of dressing warm and having to carry a bunch of clothing all day. I
> decided to split the difference. I went without knee warmers, but wore arm
> warmers and a reflective vest over a wool jersey. I had a bandanna around
> my neck. No extra gloves. That turned out to be just right. I needed to
> wear everything at the start and everything was back on at the end. I did
> make one big packing mistake. One thing I like to do to pass the time and
> the miles on a long day is to film a music video. I carried my smallish
> movie camera with the intent that I would look out for short shots that I
> would edit together to a rock song. I had two songs picked out (Green Day
> "21st Century Breakdown", and The Strokes "Modern Age"). I ended up getting
> a fair bit of footage, but the battery crapped out before the halfway point
> after which I felt like a dope for carrying it.
>
> We took the traditional SFR oath, solemnly promising not to do stupid
> stuff, and at 6 sharp the intrepid group headed off through the Presidio
> towards Golden Gate Bridge. It's a fast ride across the bridge at that
> hour, with minimal winds and zero tourists. We descended into Sausalito and
> the group quickly split into two equal groups. I hung on with the faster
> group, and looking back, I have to assume that most of the slow half didn't
> finish. I would end up coming in at 13:04, and only a small number of
> riders arrived after me. During my day at the back of the fast half, only
> two riders passed me from behind. It's my guess that all the riders in
> front of me finished and maybe 10 of the 15 behind me at the start got
> DNFs.
>
> After just a few flat miles through Sausalito and Northern Marin, we
> turned onto Highway 1 and headed up Mount Tamalpais.  This is another
> stretch that is infinitely more pleasant in the wee hours of the morning
> with far fewer cars. The route turned onto Panoramic Highway and at
> ~1000ft, we started our first off-road stretch on Gravity Car Road. This
> trail is wide and gravelly, steep in parts but still totally doable on a
> wide tired road bike. One rider in that I ended up riding with a fair bit
> was on a White 53cm Roadeo with a red headtube.  She was running Paul Racer
> M brakes and ~35mm tires and she did great. I was on Bruce Gordon Rock and
> Roads (584x43). The top of Gravity Car Road becomes Old Railroad Grade, and
> the sky is getting light. Here's a view to the west from Railroad Grade:
>
>
> 
>
>
> At around mile 20 we spit out to the road, the

[RBW] SFR Marin Mountains 200k 10/28/2017 ride report

2017-10-29 Thread Antone Könst 
Sounds incredible, and inspiring!  You gotta follow up with a music video link 
soon tho 

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[RBW] SFR Marin Mountains 200k 10/28/2017 ride report

2017-10-29 Thread nash5510 
Great review. Thanks for sharing.  You've really inspired me to get my wife and 
I out on in Marin next weekend on our black mountain cycles cross bikes.  Its 
been too long since I've ridden in Marin.  Really is a great place.  We'll be 
doing a much more modest ride though.

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[RBW] SFR Marin Mountains 200k 10/28/2017 ride report

2017-10-29 Thread Bill Lindsay 


Epic long ride report for an epic long ride. Grab a beer


As many of you know I did a lot of riding over the last three months. A big 
part of the motivation was to prepare for what might be the most difficult 
200k brevet route in America. The Marin Mountains 200k covers ~128 miles, 
with ~40 miles off-road, and with ~13,000 feet of climbing. Despite the 
unique challenges presented by the course, the same timing rules apply as 
if it was a flat-paved brevet. Riders who want to 'complete' the brevet 
have to make it through the timed controls on time, including the finish 
control which closes at 13 hours, 30 minutes. I'm pleased to report that I 
successfully completed the Marin Mountains 200k yesterday, with a precious 
little 26 minutes to spare. I've done a few 300k brevets before which were 
very challenging and ran a little bit longer than my ride yesterday, but I 
think it's probably safe to say that this was the hardest single day ride 
I've ever done.  

The brevet started at 6AM in The Presidio. This is a park and former 
military base at the northern end of San Francisco, right next to the 
Golden Gate Bridge. The group of riders was much smaller than I'm 
accustomed to for a San Francisco Randonneurs event. The trail portions 
require a permit with the park service and that limited the roster to only 
30 riders. Despite that limit, it's my understanding that only a few were 
turned away. The extreme climbing and off-road portions had most SFR 
members choosing to ride the Winters 200, and/or the Del Puerto Canyon 200 
instead. Two of the riders that arrived were not given a brevet card. One 
wanted to sign up that day, but the limit was reached. Another forgot to 
pack a helmet, so he got a DNH. Both riders chose to ride anyway, but knew 
that they wouldn't receive RUSA credit. At that hour it was still pitch 
dark. Thursday and Friday had both been quite hot, with temperatures in San 
Francisco getting well into the 80s, but the fog rolled in Friday night so 
it was closer to 50F at that hour. We knew when the fog receded, things 
would be a lot warmer, so many chose to suffer a chill and pack light, 
instead of dressing warm and having to carry a bunch of clothing all day. I 
decided to split the difference. I went without knee warmers, but wore arm 
warmers and a reflective vest over a wool jersey. I had a bandanna around 
my neck. No extra gloves. That turned out to be just right. I needed to 
wear everything at the start and everything was back on at the end. I did 
make one big packing mistake. One thing I like to do to pass the time and 
the miles on a long day is to film a music video. I carried my smallish 
movie camera with the intent that I would look out for short shots that I 
would edit together to a rock song. I had two songs picked out (Green Day 
"21st Century Breakdown", and The Strokes "Modern Age"). I ended up getting 
a fair bit of footage, but the battery crapped out before the halfway point 
after which I felt like a dope for carrying it.  

We took the traditional SFR oath, solemnly promising not to do stupid 
stuff, and at 6 sharp the intrepid group headed off through the Presidio 
towards Golden Gate Bridge. It's a fast ride across the bridge at that 
hour, with minimal winds and zero tourists. We descended into Sausalito and 
the group quickly split into two equal groups. I hung on with the faster 
group, and looking back, I have to assume that most of the slow half didn't 
finish. I would end up coming in at 13:04, and only a small number of 
riders arrived after me. During my day at the back of the fast half, only 
two riders passed me from behind. It's my guess that all the riders in 
front of me finished and maybe 10 of the 15 behind me at the start got 
DNFs. 

After just a few flat miles through Sausalito and Northern Marin, we turned 
onto Highway 1 and headed up Mount Tamalpais.  This is another stretch that 
is infinitely more pleasant in the wee hours of the morning with far fewer 
cars. The route turned onto Panoramic Highway and at ~1000ft, we started 
our first off-road stretch on Gravity Car Road. This trail is wide and 
gravelly, steep in parts but still totally doable on a wide tired road 
bike. One rider in that I ended up riding with a fair bit was on a White 
53cm Roadeo with a red headtube.  She was running Paul Racer M brakes and 
~35mm tires and she did great. I was on Bruce Gordon Rock and Roads 
(584x43). The top of Gravity Car Road becomes Old Railroad Grade, and the 
sky is getting light. Here's a view to the west from Railroad Grade:




At around mile 20 we spit out to the road, the highest paved road in Marin 
County.  At this point it's natural to feel pretty good.  Nearly 20% of the 
climbing is done, and one of the five dirt sections is complete, but the 
real tough sledding is coming.  The next