As I've said before, I'm pretty much an unracer. Last weekend I did my
first ever mountain bike race, so I called that un-unracing. Yesterday I
did my 22nd brevet with San Francisco Randonneurs, and since randonneuring
is not racing, unracing, or un-unracing, I'm calling it un-un-unracing.
The event was the San Francisco Randonneurs Valley Ford 200k. It's a
course I've done twice before and covers roads that I know well enough that
I didn't need to carry a cue sheet (but I did carry one). Compared to many
other SFR routes, this one is comparatively flat with under 7000 feet of
climbing. The route starts and finishes at Crissy Field below the Golden
Gate Bridge. Randos cross the bridge into Marin, head up around Nicasio
Reservoir out through cheese country into Petaluma, then shoot across to
Highway 1 and hit the Valley Ford Market up next to Bodega Bay. On the
return the skirt the oyster joints along Tomales Bay into Point Reyes
Station, and then take Sir Francis Drake Blvd through Samuel P Taylor Park
back to Fairfax and backtrack through Marin to the GG Bridge again. It
sounds like a pleasant day out on the bike and that's how I was feeling
about it. The weather outlook was 100% perfect, with the slight chance of
some wind. At the start in Crissy Field, it was in the low-50s and so I
decided to not bring knee warmers or a jacket. I wore a thin wool
baselayer, my lightest SFR shortsleeve jersey, armwarmers and my 'moonbeam'
reflecto-vest up top, Rapha bib shorts down below. I felt like a
minimalist wearing and carrying so little in the way of clothing.
I had done 21 brevet-distance events before (200s mostly and a few 300s),
all of which on 650b bikes. I had a 58cm 650B A. Homer Hilsen, which I
used a lot in 2011 and 2012 events. I also used to have a Rawland rSogn,
which I used for a couple events. In 2013 I replaced my Hilsen with an
epic lightweight Rawland Stag build. Most recently I did a mixed terrain
200k on a Niner RLT9 converted to 650B. This was going to be my first ever
200k on a 700c bike, the longest tenured bike in my stable, a 56cm
single-top-tube, cantilever Rivendell Samuel Hillborne. I bought Sam in
December 2009, and it marked a complete reboot of my approach to bikes and
cycling. The Hillborne has gone through several build iterations over the
years. It's been a touring bike, a monster-cross, commuter, and now is set
up as a 1x9 all-road. A little while back we had a thread about sub-20
pound steel road bikes and I weighed my Black Mountain Road bike at 20.5
pounds and Sam at 30.5 pounds. With two full water bottles and some food
and two more tubes in my handlebar bag, Sam was probably closer to 35
pounds.
Executive summary, yesterday was probably my strongest day on the bike
ever. I think this is the first 200k where I never once had the feeling
'Why am I doing this?' I never had that feeling of 'it's never going to
end' waiting for a control or a turn to approach. It's the first 200k
where I was actually a little disappointed that there wasn't more. I
honestly felt like I could have sat down for a nice meal at the finish, and
hopped back on the bike to do the course again, and just make it a 400. I
really, sincerely don't know what planing is. People describe it all the
time, but it has no objective meaning to me. Some people say a more
flexible bike than an overbuilt Rivendell will "encourage the rider to
pedal harder". I felt encouraged to pedal harder, and it was just me and
Sam out there. Did I have a great day? Am I fit? Or was Sam 'planing'?
Some people say a stiff heavy overbuilt Rivendell "pushes back on your
pedals and bogs you down on hills". The Tomales Bay section (miles 80-90)
of this course has countless 100-200ft rolling hills, and I would build
momentum on the downs, and hammer the ups, sometimes seated, sometimes out
of the saddle. Sam loved it, if a bike can do such things. The breezes
that were promised in the weather report didn't kick up until the
afternoon, and at that time those breezes were a tailwind pushing us home.
It felt kind of like cheating, but it was intensely exhilarating. I
definitely was in an excellent rhythm with my bike. Was it 'planing'? Or
do I not know what I'm talking about? The other 'first' was that this was
my first 200k with a 1x drivetrain, and it was fantastic. I ran a 42T ring
with an 11-32 9-speed Shimano cassette, shifted friction with a Silver
shifter mounted on the stem. I'm completely sold on 1x for the right kinds
of riding. I respect those single speeder and fixed gear riders who don't
even want 9 gears, and I respect those who insist they need one-tooth-jumps
across their gear range. I'm really happy to be finding that middle.
Again, it probably had a lot to do with the great day I was having, There
are a few short steep climbs back up to the Golden Gate Bridge at the
finish that I'm normally throwing into my lowest gear and spinning weakly
up hoping it will be over soon. This time, I was in my much higher 42x32
(or the 28), and stomping it.
I definitely didn't need my full metal fenders on that warm sunny day, and
I carried so little stuff that I could have easily done without my
handlebar bag and front rack. If I had used a tiny battery headlight for
the ~45 minutes of lighting I needed at the start, then I could have left
my dynamo lighting off. At that point Sam might have been 6 pounds
lighter. I finished in 8 hours 54 minutes, which was a personal best for
that route and my fastest ever SFR brevet. How much faster would I have
been on a six-pound lighter bike? Probably several minutes. How much
slower would I have been on a six pound heavier bike? Probably several
minutes. Would a lighter bike have made my best day ever even better?
Would a heavier bike have ruined my best day ever? It's hard to say. A
few randos playfully mocked my "touring bike". There were a lot of riders
doing just fine on conventional crabon bikes, and a few running even
tankier tanks than me. I'm using my Sam as my 2018 brevet bike because
it's so dialed in road feel. With 700x38 Barlow Pass ELs, the bike just
sings on the road. It's supremely comfortable, and it's a super reliable
build.
Socially, I ran into Toshi all day. We bumped into each other at the
start, and leapfrogged a few times on the route. He finished at the same
time as me on his Roadeo, and seemed to have a great day as well. Here's a
photo at the turn at the Valley Ford store. I think Toshi and his Roadeo
are just out of frame to the right.
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bxdv5tXjatU/WoCEoBwNGjI/AAAAAAAADwE/bGH84HG-iQol9VWNd6WcvJ7tmsyZAnZjwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0155.jpg>
Bill when's-the-300 Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA
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