Last Saturday I set out with the
D.C. Randonneurs for their 400K brevet. This is the distance that I really get to enjoy on these rides. You start predawn, in the dark, ride all day and into the night. Plenty of time for the mind to wander and let things get weird.
There were about 40-50 riders at the start of the ride. Rolling through the streets at 4am in a group this size is pretty awesome. Lots of lights, lots of reflective gear. Feels totally safe. Typically the front group on the shorter brevets will charge out from the start rolling steady together for the first 40 -60 miles at around 20mph. When the rides get to the 400K distance, pacing becomes much more important and the initial speeds drop some.
If you have never ridden into the sunrise, you might be missing something that you need. I'm not a great photographer and this doesn't do it justice. I made a few attempts to capture it and this was the best of them. For the best results though, go catch one yourself.
Riding all day means getting to spend the entire day outside. What a gift it is to see an entire day unfold and move through it as a witness. Anything can happen any day.
The group was pretty scattered along the course by mile 50. I fell in with a couple that I had ridden with before Ed and Mary. They almost always ride tandem. I have never gone on more than a test ride on a tandem, so it's pretty cool to watch the techniques employed to make it work. They spend the day working to stay in sync with each other, and from an outside perspective, do so admirably.
I offered to pull, but Ed said that a tandem can't effectively draft a single. So I learned how to fall into my own rhythm with them. Went something like, ride next them on the flats (or behind depending on my energy), get out in front on the climbs, and then stay right on the descents waiting for them to rocket by, and then try and jump into their draft until our speeds matched again and I could pull up next to them. Conversation would be had in this same pattern, which was nice because there was plenty of time to think of response.
This was around mile 160 or so. One of the last big climbs of the day, and it gave an awesome vantage point to look back on where we had come from. This was kind of a theme for me that day. Through out the day I kept seeing things that reminded me of other places I had been. I thought a lot about places I had not been in years.
We got rained on a bit near the end of the day light, but never enough to warrant putting on a rain jacket. Just enough to make me grateful it wasn't raining more.
This was the last picture I took from the day. The rain had stopped, and we were coming off of the last high spot on the route. I could see this entire valley floor with all of these holes in the clouds acting like spotlights on the farms down below.
So no more pictures. After this the real work of the ride started, back into darkness. Staying on route is always a little more challenging in the dark. The pay off though is getting to watch the sun set, the moon rise, and stars fall. All of it from the saddle of my bike.
.JPG)
