The Birds and the Bees (and the Bikes)

Ride: Night Time 200k Brevet
Organizer: Marcello Napolitano
Date: Saturday April 2, 2011
Start Time: 5:00 PM Registration from 04:00 PM – 05:00 PM
Start Location: 6675 SE Borwick St, Hilsboro, OR (near Baseline Rd/Cornelius Pass Rd. intersection)
Finish By: 06:30 AM ( on Sunday morning)
Entry Fee: $10 (additional $5 fee for non-RUSA members)

Register Now! See who is already registered!

The Route: This will be a repeat of my New Year’s day 200k brevet, with a twist: the late afternoon start means several hours of night riding on the quiet, flattish (about 3500 feet elevation total for the route), low traffic roads between Forest Grove and Dallas. The out and back route starts at my house on the east side of Hillsboro, goes west on rural roads through the farmland south of Hillsboro and Cornelius, and then turns south along familiar backroads to Lafayette and Dayton, then to Amity, and Perrydale. From there, it’s seven somewhat hilly miles (the only significant climbing along the route) to the turnaround point in Dallas. Then you return the way you came. I plan to ride, so there will be no support along the route. My wife Kathy will be available in case of an emergency.

Map, elevation profile, GPS files are here.

The January route sheet is here. There will be a minor change in Hillsboro due to the feedback from the riders, and a new route sheet will be posted in the next few days, well before the day of the ride.

A relatively flat ride, familiar to many people who have done it as a
permanent in the past couple of years. The out and back route starts at
my house on the east side of Hillsboro, goes to Forest Grove and then
turns south along familiar roads to Lafayette and Dayton, then to Amity,
Perrydale and - after a few final rollers - to the turnaround point in
Dallas. I will have some roving neutral support along the route (hot
cocoa anyone?). I am aware that this is on New Year's Day, and people
may have been up all night and may not want to get up early, or they may
prefer watching football on TV, but if someone wants to get a head start
on their mileage for the year and/or on their PBP qualification (this
will be an ACP brevet), what better way to spend a day?

UPDATE: 2-1-11 – The final route sheet can be downloaded from here, if you would like to print your own copy. The file contains two tabs, one for the 200k route, and one for the 300k route. Printed copies of both routes will be available at the start.

I created routes for each loop at ridewithgps.com, and you can view the route and elevation, and also download the files to a GPS, if you have one.

• Loop 1
• Loop 2
• Loop 3 (300k route only)
  

Ride: “Grab Bag” February 200k/300k ACP Brevet

Organizer: Marcello Napolitano
Date: Saturday February 5, 2011
Start Time: 7:00AM Registration from 06:00 – 06:50
Start Location: Travelodge Suites Hotel – 2816 Portland Rd, Newberg, OR (please park on Hayes St. if you are not staying at the hotel).
Finish By: 200km brevet 20:30 (8:30 PM, 13.5 hours) – 300km brevet 03:00 Saturday morning (20 hours)
Entry Fee: 200k: $12 – 300k: $17 – Non-RUSA members pay an additional $5.00

IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to choose between the 200k and the 300k route before registration. You will not be able to change it later. If you choose to ride the 300k and only finish the first two loops (for a total of 200k), you will not get any credit if you don’t finish the final loop.

Register Now!

The Route: It consists of a series of roughly 100 km loops, all of them starting and ending at the same location in Newberg. This means that you will be able to get back to your vehicle/room/bag half way through the ride, perhaps for a change of clothes, or a refill on your food reserves. I plan to have a room at the hotel to use as the finish control, and riders may be able to change/clean/shower after the ride (bring your own towel, please).

The first loop heads northwest along North Valley Road and Spring Hill Road to the first control in Forest Grove. After some baked goods at Maggie’s, we head east along the Washington County farmland, to the second control in Sherwood. From there we climb on the way to Newberg to about 1000 ft elevation, the only significant climb of the day, and back down to where we started.

In the second loop we head West along 99W to Lafayette, and from there along back roads west of McMinnville to the Sheridan Dairy Queen. We ride more back roads around Amity, on the way to Dayton. From there it is a straight shot back to Newberg along 99-W.

The third loop (only for the 300k riders) is mostly an out-and-back along the French Prairie, with the turnaround point in Silverton.

Please note that the route is still tentative, and may be changed depending on the weather between now and the day of the ride. The section between Sherwood and Newberg reaches higher elevation, and may see some snow, even if the rest of the route is clear.

Safety: Lights and reflective gear are required on this ride. The ride will be held rain or shine, but it may be postponed or canceled if the weather makes it unsafe to ride.

Route sheet: The updated route sheet is here. (Excel file)

Maps: I will post Bikely routes after the preride, but here are the maps from 2007: loop 1, loop 2, loop 3. Please note that the section from Newberg to Forest Grove in the map for loop 1 is incorrect, and we will not go up to Bald Peak as shown on the map, staying instead on the valley floor along North Valley Road.

A relatively flat ride, familiar to many people who have done it as a
permanent in the past couple of years. The out and back route starts at
my house on the east side of Hillsboro, goes to Forest Grove and then
turns south along familiar roads to Lafayette and Dayton, then to Amity,
Perrydale and - after a few final rollers - to the turnaround point in
Dallas. I will have some roving neutral support along the route (hot
cocoa anyone?). I am aware that this is on New Year's Day, and people
may have been up all night and may not want to get up early, or they may
prefer watching football on TV, but if someone wants to get a head start
on their mileage for the year and/or on their PBP qualification (this
will be an ACP brevet), what better way to spend a day?

Just for fun, I tried to use Google Maps to give me directions from my house to the start of PBP:

View Larger Map

No luck, all I get is a message that says: We could not calculate directions between Hillsboro, OR and Gymnase des Droits de l Homme, Rond point des Saules, 78280 Guyancourt, France (Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur).

Bummer.

December 27 update: Due to potential flooding of the Tulatin River south of Forest Grove on a section of the original route, the first few (and last) miles of the route have been changed. This makes for a much more pleasant ride, along scenic farmland, with relatively low traffic, but it adds about 4 miles to the original route. If you have downloaded the route sheet file, please download it again.

Ride: New Year’s 200k Brevet
Organizer: Marcello Napolitano
Date: Saturday January 1, 2011
Start Time: 7:30AM Registration from 07:00 – 07:25
Start Location: 6675 SE Borwick St, Hilsboro, OR (near Baseline Rd/Cornelius Pass Rd. intersection)
Finish By: 21:00 (9:00 PM)
Entry Fee: $5

Register Now!

NOTE: You do not need to be a member of Oregon Randonneurs or of RUSA for this event. But it does not hurt.

The Route: A relatively flat ride (I estimate about 3500 ft total elevation), familiar to many people who have done it as a permanent in the past couple of years. The out and back route starts at my house on the east side of Hillsboro, goes west on rural roads through the farmland south of Hillsboro and Cornelius, and then turns south along familiar backroads to Lafayette and Dayton, then to Amity, and Perrydale. From there, it’s seven somewhat hilly miles (the only significant climbing along the route) to the turnaround point in Dallas. Then you return the way you came. I plan to have some roving neutral support along the route (hot cocoa anyone?). If you want to get a head start on your mileage for the year and/or your January R-12 and/or PBP qualification (this will be an ACP brevet), what better way to spend a day?

Safety: Lights and reflective gear are required on this ride. The ride will be held rain or shine, but it may be postponed or canceled if the weather makes it unsafe to ride.

The map on bikely shows the first half from Hillsboro to Dallas. The return leg is almost identical.

The route sheet is here. I will have paper copies at the start, but feel free to resize and print it, if you like.

A relatively flat ride, familiar to many people who have done it as a
permanent in the past couple of years. The out and back route starts at
my house on the east side of Hillsboro, goes to Forest Grove and then
turns south along familiar roads to Lafayette and Dayton, then to Amity,
Perrydale and - after a few final rollers - to the turnaround point in
Dallas. I will have some roving neutral support along the route (hot
cocoa anyone?). I am aware that this is on New Year's Day, and people
may have been up all night and may not want to get up early, or they may
prefer watching football on TV, but if someone wants to get a head start
on their mileage for the year and/or on their PBP qualification (this
will be an ACP brevet), what better way to spend a day?

This was not supposed to be such a long time off from writing. Life got in the way in the past year, and this blog was left behind.

Some remarkable changes took place in the backyard farm, and in our cycling life. And there are big plans in the works for the next couple of years. Time to get some writing done.

We’re back.

Marcello completed the ride at 7:06 am this morning in 85 hours and 6 minutes. Congratulations we are proud of you!

Just talked to Marcello he’s about 90 miles from the finish and predicting he will be done around 4 or 5 am. He is in good spirits other than having missed a chance at real hot food as all real restaurants are closed at 9PM. One last junk food stop and hopefully he will be able to get a real breakfast after the finish but before passing out at the hotel.

As of late last night Marcello had napped 2 times less than 90 min each time and was headed out again. He was figuring to be out of phone range for about 24 hours. Some of the guys are past the turn around and headed back.

Marcello is off on his adventure to GRR!  You can keep up with the riders here for times, (Updated after everyone gets through the control.) and here for written updates. ( updated about once an hour give or take a bit.)

Back in March, I wrote a series of posts looking at each leg of the Gold Rush Randonnee route, from the start in Davis to the turn around point in Davis Creek. Now that we are only 8 days from the start, I realize that I never finished looking at the rest of the route. Here is a quick rundown of the climbs on the way back. Since the elevation at Alturas is at 4400 feet, that means that there is going to be more descending than climbing on the way back to Davis. The course profiles are on the previous posts, and since this is an out-and-back ride, we can just look at the same profiles in reverse… [Read more →]