The 300km Belchen Brevet 2010

Eventually spring arrived. And I was in Freiburg for a while. Fortunately this year in Freiburg a full BRM series was offered for the first time. While I missed the date for the 200km Brevet I was participating the 300km ride. Wow - and what a ride that was! There are a few diffrences to the Brevets I did in Großenwieden/Weserbergland: many more participants (about 70 compared to about 30 in Großenwieden). And a very different track profile: The mountains here are actually *real* mountains.
The weather was brilliant, my mood quite good, the pockets filled with some Swiss Franken for getting food on the road (part of the track was crossing Switzerland). I also took my video camera with me. I did this Brevet on my good old Bergamont bike again - the Specialized I hadn't taken with me to Freiburg.

The start was nice and the first serious uphill passage came quickly and went straight over the Blackforrest offering a good view to the Belchen. This climbing action was tough but quite nice. On the peak (about 1000m) I took opportunity to go downhill with a few fellows from Switzland who had a rather tough pace. But it was a great ride. Just before the Rhine a few steep hills were awaiting us (Nordschwaben). Still with the "Swiss express" I rode it up quite fast and probably lost a bit too much energy at this still early state of the brevet.

Anyway, we reached Bad Säckingen at a good time (3h for 80km) and instead of taking a little break to have a breakfast I tried to start off immediately again with those Swiss guys. But at the first ascent after the border (a really impressive old bridge over the Rhine), I wasn't able to keep up their pace. Instead I directly fell into a powerless state and had a hard time to climb up the not that steep hills. I didn't took a break, but tried heading to the next control at the Oberbölchener Haus where I heard a pasta buffet was arranged.

But before that control there was serious work to be done to reach that height the Oberbölchener Haus is located. 15% - tough if you feel powerless. I fought for each kilometer and finally reached that control (@ km116 - 5 1/2h). Unfortunately my appetite was gone and the noodles were way too al dente.

I didn't recover there as I hoped and just realized that I had to discard all my speed ambitions and do the remaining 180km really slow. I was happy to know that from km 200 the landscape was said to be flat again.

The route until there was crossing the Jura mountains. Beautiful sceneries just like taken from a Swiss picture album. The next control a bit west from Delemont was hard again, because it seriously went uphill once more and I also had a tube failure - exchanging the tube costed a little additional time. The control (Souboz, km 167) was at a car workshop. And a few randonneurs were pausing there, they all didn't looked fresh, too. I just went on, was too exhausted to even take a break. The way downhill from there was really impressive: tight rocks limiting the road through an impressing ravine.

Then I somewhere crossed the border to France, not even noticing where it actually was. I tried to take break to recover a bit, but didn't fell asleep and just wasted an hour time. Then the evening came and I finally reached flat lands. I crossed the industry areas of Mulhouse when it was dark already. The working plants were kind of impressive and a stark contrast to the nature-beauty of the landscapes just before.

At midnight (a time I originally not only wanted to have finished, but also be showered and being in bed already) I crossed the border to Germany and was just happy to realize, that I still had enough time to finish the last 30km by coasting. Each kilometer closer to Freiburg were a relieve.

Late, very late (at about 2:30 AM - 18 1/2 hours after the start) I eventually reached the finish and was very happy that this was finally done. I think it was my worst time ever.

I wasted way to much power at the first mountains. Also my fitness state was not good yet (the winter was too long) and once again I ate and drunk too little too late. The beginning was great, but the overstressing at the beginning literally killed me. 2/3 of the tour were a big fight for each single kilometer and height meter. If I had had the chance to abandon the tour at km 100 I had done so, but I needed to go on, so I kept on cycling. Nice to know though, that 200km w/o any power is still a thing that can be done. But actually it wasn't big fun. The weather and landscapes were brilliant though.

Again, a lesson learned. Never ever exceed your inner pace!

winterwonderland

Winter. Snow since weeks. No, since months already. And it is cold. Too cold for my taste.
Or, differently phrased: it is a real winter this year. And while that isn't a good or bad thing in general, it is a bad thing for cycling. I finished the first two months of this year with cycling less than 400km - both months together!
I am desperately waiting for the spring to arrive. In a few weeks I need some shape and condition to do the first brevet of the year. Unfortunately the forecasts aren't too optimistic for the foreseeable future. I really hope they are wrong. I can't stand this winter any longer!

2009 summed up

I skipped posting in 2009. Well, it has been a year w/o too dramatic highlights. I did the 200km and 300km brevets at the Weserbergland. Also a few fun tours (a nice 300km day-tour to cologne is worth mentioning). The 400 km brevet I was not able to participate because I had no time at that date. And the 600km brevet I eventually kind of failed due to missing the group: I had been appointed at a gas station, but went to the wrong one. Rode a few km of the expected route, but after about 150 km I eventually abandoned. I had no roadbook and no map - I doubt I could have done it sucessfully.
In summer I did a longer tour across Italy (about 1500km) which was extremely nice. The year ended with several nice mid distance tours in the black forrest region. All in all I did close to 10.000 km that year. 2010 I should do a 400km and/or 600km brevet again.

A triathlon handle bar

The Specialized bike I bought earlier this spring is very nice, but I was a bit disappointed because of too much wind resistance. Thus, I bought a triathlon handle bar extension for that bike (it is a Syntace C2).
The effect is awsome! The quite difficult tour to Kassel (only 140km) has been much less exhausting than the last time and also much faster.
Now this bike is really a great fast and convenient maschine and the diffrence between the Specialized and the Bergamont became stronger. The latter got new wheels recently and is now more shifted to touring and every day/bad weather usage.
A tour a bit later to Münster was great fun, too. The good 80 km were done in 2:30. That's an average faster than 32 km/h. That was a ride!

I hope I'll be able to do a long distance brevet next year and am looking forward to London-Edinburgh-London. I hope I am allowed to use the triathlon handle bar extension there.

400km brevet and tour to Hamburg

Since I do not need the Superrandonneur qualification this year I decided to skip the 300km brevet and did a tour to Hamburg on the same date instead.
That was a quite easy tour, I had mild winds supporting me, only a few hills during the beginning and after about 10 hrs and 250km distance I reached Hamburg.
An easy and nice tour.
Two weeks later I started the 400 km brevet in the Weserbergland. The weather was brilliant but a bit windy. I went 280km with a small group, but then I suddenly felt bad and exhausted and decided to take a brief rest.
But I felt worse and decided to slowly proceed the the next control at about 300km and then to rethink further actions. When I reached the control I decided to take a longer break and get a bit of sleep. Afterwards I aboandoned the brevet and returned directly to the finish, skipping a good 50km.
Of course the 50km would have been possible to do and not even the time limit was a matter, but I enjoyed the kind of luxury to just return.
I am undecided yet whether I should start the 600km brevet this year or not.
I am not as trained as last year, maybe the 600km brevet would be a good highlight for this year.

The first Brevet was surprisingly hard

Wow - rarely I am that much behind my own expectatons. The first
brevet of this year's season I thought I would do with an impressive
time. But I didn't. Well in fact the time was impressive - kind of. I
needed good 11 hours to do the 200km. Okay, threre was wind and there
were heights, but anyway I was quite shocked how slowly I have been. A
good excuse may be the lack of sleep the night before. I had about 3-4
hours of sleep, that was a bit to less. But it was kind of fun anyway
and reminded me to take every distance seriously. Only because I rode
600km already and nearly PBP doesn't mean 200km are nothing. 200km is
still a pretty long distance. Nothing too hard, but also not to
underestimate. Cheers!

A new bike

I spent some sweet Euros and bought an additional bike. A nice
Specialized Sirrus Comp. It's another speed bike and in many regards
similar to my Bergamont Beluga Speed. But with better components and
the frame is a tad smaller.
It's a below 10kg, but not especially light. I modified it to have the
same Specializes Avatar Gel saddle and Ergon grips like I put on my
Bergamont bike.

But the main reason I bought it was not to get better material, but to
have a dedicated bike for sports. Yet I used the Bergamont for
everything. But the winter was hard for the bike, the dirt, the rain,
the ice, etc. The bike goes easily to bad condition during every day
use. The Specialized will be reserved from these hard every day
conditions and stay in better shape.

Originally I intended to get a pure racing bike, but the ones I liked
most were a bit over my budget (e.g. Specialized Rubaix 1750 EUR) I
had good experience with this type of bike on my long distance rides
last year. Paris-Brest-Paris failed not due to my Bergamont bike.

Coming weekend the this year's brevet will saison start, if the
weather will be fine this will be the first hard test for the Sirrus.
But if the weather will be rather I bad I'll start with my Bergamont,
because I have no luggage carrier for the Sirrus yet and no fenders,
too.

After my first rides on the Specialized bike, I guess I'll gain about
5% more speed due to the better material. But I should not forget that
the Bergamont performs quite good, too.