California Randonneuring Seminar

This came through on the Randon list- if anyone is interested:

Hi Gang--
With the timely re-launching of Randon (thanks, Joe!), perhaps this will be
of interest of folks who hadn't heard about it yet...


The Santa Cruz Randonneurs and the Davis Bike Club are hosting a seminar on
randonneuring next month. We have 83 randonneurs and randonneuses signed up
so far and room for about 40 more--but you do need to register if you want
to attend. So, if you're an aspiring first-time PBP rider, and can travel to
Davis, California in mid-January (Saturday of the MLK, Jr. weekend), this
might be of interest...


http://pages.prodigy.net/scrandonneurs/seminar.html


Bonne Route!
Bill Bryant

I liked the link to Velocio's Seven Commandments of Cycling:

1. Make your stops short and infrequent so as not to lose your drive.
2. Eat lightly and often. Eat before getting hungry, drink before you are thirsty.
3. Never ride until you are so tired that you cannot eat or sleep.
4. Put on extra clothing before you're cold, and take it off before you're hot.
Don't be afraid of exposing your skin to the sun, air, and rain.
5. Don't drink wine, eat meat, or smoke---at least during the ride.
6. Never rush things. Ride within yourself, particularly during the first few hours of a ride when you feel strong and are tempted to force the pace.
7. Never pedal out of vanity, don't be a show-off.

Good advice for non-randonneurs too!

From Bill Bryant, when I asked about the ride without attending the seminar.

No worries, you can ride Sunday without any problem. The DBC has decided to not host an official populaire (darn it!), but we’ll do the route over Cantelowe Road in the Vaca hills. It’ll be mostly flat getting to and from the hills, so lots of opportunities to chat as we roll along if that is desired, or I’m sure there will be some speedy riders up front if that is more what you’re looking for. Total length will be about 100 kms (or more likely, about 110 kms.) I’ll bet there are going to be various groups of all speeds. So, no registration needed, just write back in a week or so and I’ll try to pin down the exact start location and time. I’ll also get that posted on Randon.
Regards,
Bill

Of course, I really wanted to do this ride as a populaire just for the heck of it. Confound my friends and loved ones with a new term. I could lead this ride blindfolded. Good thing is, jo, since there is no official course, we could make Steady Eddy's a rest stop. :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

From Bill Bryant, when I asked about the ride without attending the seminar.

No worries, you can ride Sunday without any problem. The DBC has decided to not host an official populaire (darn it!), but we’ll do the route over Cantelowe Road in the Vaca hills. It’ll be mostly flat getting to and from the hills, so lots of opportunities to chat as we roll along if that is desired, or I’m sure there will be some speedy riders up front if that is more what you’re looking for. Total length will be about 100 kms (or more likely, about 110 kms.) I’ll bet there are going to be various groups of all speeds. So, no registration needed, just write back in a week or so and I’ll try to pin down the exact start location and time. I’ll also get that posted on Randon.
Regards,
Bill

Of course, I really wanted to do this ride as a populaire just for the heck of it. Confound my friends and loved ones with a new term. I could lead this ride blindfolded. Good thing is, jo, since there is no official course, we could make Steady Eddy's a rest stop. :rolleyes:

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Oohh this ride is sounding better all the time. I love it when Jo navigates us to a stop like that.:D

We've got a lot of discussion going on bikejournal about this ride, so hop over there for the "who's going" answers.

Unofficial 100 km Brevet Populare
January 14, Sunday, 8:30 am
T3/P3-6/61 mi (100K)

The day following the PBP seminar we will host an unofficial Brevet Populaire. No controls, no brevet cards. Everyone is welcome; you don’t have to be a brevet rider. This will be an opportunity to ask questions about brevets in an informal setting and/ or simply get in a nice ride with friends. Ride starts from the Starbuck’s in West Davis. The route will go out Putah Creek Rd to Pleasants Vy Road over Cantelow and Steiger Hill, back along Pleasants Vy Rd and returns along Putah Creek Rd to the start. No Sag. Bring sufficient food and water for 60 miles. Rains cancels.

Starbuck's map

Don't know whether to post this here or on today's ride report thread. Maillotpois, her SIL, the Bobs, TrekHawk, Mr SK, 3 folks from bikejournal and I collected for what jobob renamed the UnPopulaire since it didn't have official RUSA sanction. California has been hit with very cold temps for our area so we all had some trepidation about getting on our bikes. Here's the report I posted in BikeJournal. Jo took a cool pic and posted it over there also.

Bad news when the local university weather equipment is reporting 22F when you leave the house. Good news when MaillotPois calls and says "We’re here. It’s 26F." Hey, it’s going to be a balmy day!

Bad news when those with water in opaque bottles end up lugging around ice cubes for most of the day. Good news that most of us nailed the perfect clothing combos. A few opportunities for improvement but unanimous agreement that our Amici Veloci thermal jackets from Voler were perfect for the day (and stylish, of course).

Good news that the weather warmed into the 40s. Bad news is the wind hit 18 mph from the north so brutal head or crosswinds for the last 30 miles and some serious wind chill.

GRAND news is that a bunch of folks made new friends, spent time with old friends, got in lots of laughing, survived unusually cold temperatures for California weenies – and ate fudge*, of course.

*I've promised to supply locally-made world class fudge for a couple of rides that haven't panned out. This time it did. Maillotpois appeared to be in paroxysms at one point as it was inhaled.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

Jo took a cool pic and posted it over there also.

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Cool indeed ! :cool:

I took this mid-morning. Someone left their sprinkler running and a frozen ring of lawn was the result. You don't see this very often in Northern California (or at least, not in our neck of the woods) !

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...re/icylawn.jpg

THAT sounds like it was a great ride!

It was a GREAT ride.

The ride was my longest in 6 months and I was so happy at how I felt (at least after the first few miles when it was so cold no one was talking and we were all just wondering if we would have to have anything amputated). It was great to meet the legendary Pansy Palmetto from Bike Journal - though I have to admit it wasn't really warm enough to be very sociable or friendly. Lee and my SIL and I got off course a titch at the beginning, but it worked out perfectly. We turned right, should have turned left, and just when we decided "Well, let's ride back to the group instead of slowing down to wait for them" I realized we made a wrong turn! We had a "We meant to do that because we needed the training" moment when we returned to the group.

It was shortly after that, around mile 5, that I realized my water bottle was frozen solid. At first I thought it was because it had been on the car on the way there, but Bubba realized his was solid as well. Crazy!! At least I had sports drink, extra thick! :rolleyes:

The Canteloupe (the one hill of any substance) was just beautiful. Everything was so green, and the views were great. It was a short climb, and the rollers and down hill afterward more than made up for it!

Overall, I was very happy with how I felt. I still have to climb slowly because the silly lung doctor says my HR should be below 160, but I was feeling my oats on the flats and rollers, seeing how hard I could push it. It is just a good feeling to be back on the bike!

Conversation between me & Trekhawk near the end of the ride, on the bike path heading into Davis, accompanied by a brisk and annoying head/side wind:

me (in between huffs and puffs): Look at MP up there, gah you can tell this is as easy as can be for her !

Trekhawk (nose in the air, but that could be because it was runny): Well then, we just won't speak to her !

me (huff puff): That should be no problem 'cuz she's way ahead of us !

:D

Ha! You probably were talking about how I looked after the wind blew me over, and I had that little nap in the ditch :rolleyes: and got all rested up!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

Ha! You probably were talking about how I looked after the wind blew me over, and I had that little nap in the ditch :rolleyes: and got all rested up!

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Naps can be soooo refreshing.:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

Ha! You probably were talking about how I looked after the wind blew me over, and I had that little nap in the ditch :rolleyes: and got all rested up!

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LOL - but you told the story so well. So now I know your funny as well as pretty and bl**dy fast Im really not talking to you.:D

I had a wonderful ride (even if I did consider hitching a lift to escape the wind) with the crew from TE and BJ. The yummy food at the end made my day.:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trekhawk

The yummy food at the end made my day.:)

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Yeah! I need a panini maker....

I believe that would be a "toastie" maker. Maybe you can get your "rellies" to give you one for Xmas. My vocabulary is expanding so much for knowing TrekHawk. :D

Toastie maker. What a good word! In a pinch, a George Foreman Grill makes a passable panini maker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trekhawk

I had a wonderful ride (even if I did consider hitching a lift to escape the wind) with the crew from TE and BJ.

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Oh heck, when we were passing through Winters and my Steady Eddy's Hot Chocolate Radar was going off in my head, I was honestely considering stopping there and calling a cab to take me back to the start in Davis, figuring it wouldn't cost tooooo much.

I'm sure Lee would have gone for it at that point (esp if it involved his hanging out at Eddy's with a cuppa hot chocolate, supervising the bikes while I drove back with the car), and perhaps even TrekHawk could have been talked into it. ;)

Ah, but we soldiered on. Yay us!

Remember, this was the Group Stupid Ride. Glad you didn't let your smarts get the better of you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snapdragen

In a pinch, a George Foreman Grill makes a passable panini maker.

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We've used our pancake maker. This was ever so much better and faster.

I wonder if I could use my Belgian waffle iron....

You should be happy to know that the last piece of fudge kept me from bonking while I overhauled my bikes this morning. :D