Upcoming Events

Please pre-register on the Mn Rando web site.  If you create a Mn Rando login id, you can see all the registered riders for a particular brevet and it will prefill many of the fields for you when you register for an event. The next event is the  2012 Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together. The next brevet is in Rochester, MN on June 2-3, 2012 – the 200k and 300kbrevets. Be sure to sign-up.

Ride Reports

Michele Brougher

I had a great 200k, but I also was probably the only one that never rode in the thunderstorms or heavy winds. I got to Henderson at about 10 and Green Isle at around 11:15. I was riding with a new rider who had no rain gear and I had given him my jacket already. At Norwood, it was starting to splatter so I made a preemptive stop at the hardware store for a poncho. This made me look like the stay puff marshmallow man; the other rider was a co worker of mine recently relocated from New York (he looked fabulous in my rain jacket). We were almost to Mayer by the time it was starting to rain more than a splatter and we immediately took cover at a farm house. For the next 2 hours, 2 very nice people made us hot soup, dried anything that was even remotely wet, gave us towels and we watched everyone else ride by in the storm. I tried to feel guilty, but failed as a prize winning show dog laid down on my feet and licked me.

The whole system had blown out and I had no rain or bothersome winds for the rest of the ride. Sure my coworker kind of wimped out and took the rail trail home, but I caught up with people in Delano and had a fine, dry ride in my dry clothes. A good randonneuse always knows when and where to wait out the bad.

Jeff Rhodes

I don’t know if  the fates were trying to tell me to stay home -bicycling accident earlier in the week, worn tires, rear wheel problems, or the nasty weather forecast (my wife gave up asking me if I really wanted to do this a long time ago). Yet, I still showed up. I had joined the Minnesota Randonneurs in 2010 and accomplished a few rides, missed out the 2011 season and was ready to work at earning my first SR series in 2012. I wasn’t going to let a few “inconveniences” stop me!

By the time I got to the Baker Road turn, I had to stop, fix a problematic rear whee and suit up for the impending rain. By then I had fallen way behind It was looking to be a solitary ride. I wasn’t going to let this deter me. The rain started shortly after and kept coming. I pulled into the Holiday store in Chaska for a quick break and to repack things on my bike for the wet weather and then continued on.

It was about 10 miles out of Henderson that I saw the familiar shade of yellow of in the distance. Could it be other intrepid riders from the group? By the time I got into Henderson, I met up with a few others. It was then I realized I wasn’t that far behind everybody.

Henderson to Green Isle was pretty uneventful. I would eventually see some of the group up ahead. At Green Isle, I took a few extra minutes to evaluate my progress and see what others were doing. At Green Isle, I could see storm clouds gathering again. I left with a group and stopped at the information control at Assumption Cemetery.  Shortly after, the rains came in force. I managed to witness lightning strike a lake off to my right. This prompted me to ask myself “Why am I doing this?”. By Norwood Young America the rains had subsided and I managed to miss the Faxon Road turnoff (cue sheet said it would be easy to miss), so I got to see a little more of the town than I planned on. This little detour slowed me down enough that by Delano I found myself in the company others.

For the rest of the ride, it was pretty uneventful. There was a wrong turn that added a few extra miles, but I got a chance to see some deer and other wildlife fairly close up. Eventually the group I was with arrived at Michele’s house to rousing cheers, great refreshments and great company. As I got off my bike, this was a nice little warm-up for the Ironman tomorrow.

At the End of the Ride….

The first edition of the Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together will be held on May 18-20. Four teams have signed on to participate in this unique and challenging event.

All four teams will converge on Wisconsin Dells for a Saturday night reception and a Sunday morning randonneur breakfast. A Fleche (French for arrow) is a team ride with 3-5 bicycles and riders working to complete a course of their own design in 24 hours. This follows the tradition Velocio established in the 1930s where riders from all over France would converge on a specific location, usually a resort type area in the south of France, to talk about randonneuring, hold special events, like hill climbs, and party a little. We are holding off on the hill climb, but plan to talk rando and party a little at the finish and enjoy a nice breakfast on Sunday morning, after a good night’s rest.

Team Iowa, starts their ride in Waterloo, Iowa and is made up of three veteran randonneurs, Mark Olsen from Rochester, Bob Booth from Madison, and Mike Fox from Waterloo. Their route will take them from the hilly bluff country in NE Iowa, over the Mississippi River bluffs and up the Wisconsin River before descending into the Dells.

A team of three experienced riders from the Great Lakes Randonneur led by Eric Peterson will start in Naperville, Illinois, travel to the Great Lakes Randonneur’s favorite brevet starting place in Delavan, Wisconsin before skirting Madison and crossing the Wisconsin River on the ferry at Merrimac. In accordance with fleche tradition, the team has named itself “Badgers Ripped My Fleche.”

Two teams will start their quest to the Dells from the Twin Cities metro area. The first of these teams is Team Twin Cities, made up of five riders, Gary Bakke, Jonas Nygard, Steve Redelsperger, Doug Carlson and Bob Elias, will leave from Woodbury. Their chosen route will take them on a path which loosely parallels Interstate 94 through the rolling hills of West Central Wisconsin to Black River Falls before heading south to join the Sparta-Elroy trail before swooping into the finish.

The second metro team is Team Apple Valley which will start in Apple Valley. Team Apple Valley is made up of 6 riders on 5 bikes, including Bob and Lisa Kingsley on their tandem, Bill Bennett, Dave Overlein from Black River Falls, Michele Brougher and Rob Welsh. Their route will take them down the Mississippi River to Winona. From Winona, Team Apple Valley will head south to Trempealeau in search of the first of 100 miles of rail trails to a spot just west of Wisconsin Dells.

Each team will ride a route of 230 miles or more in the 24 hour challenge and will undoubtedly have many stories to tell over Sunday’s breakfast. Stay tuned for results and some of the stories.

Sometimes it is just “the look” I get and sometimes it’s explicit, “Are you crazy?” “I could never do that.” “Why would anyone want to do that?” Ok, I understand that long distances on a bike are not for everyone. But, if you are curious or interested in Randonneuring, I have two thoughts. First, there is only one requirement for Randonneuring and that is that you must love riding and cherish the opportunity to get out and enjoy the Minnesota seasons. Second, if Randonneuring were anywhere near as difficult as it sounds, I couldn’t do it—really. Randonneuring is available to anyone that loves to ride.  Let me give you an introduction.

Minnesota Randonneurs are closely affiliated with TCBC. Our rides are called Brevets. From those names, you have probably figured out that Randonneuring and Brevets are from the French language. “Randonneur” is a French term that, loosely translated, means long distance bike ride. The actual rides are termed “Brevets”. You may have seen the brevets on the TCBC calendar. They are listed in pink and the ride key says brevets are rides “with time limits and required checkpoints. Randonneurs USA rules apply. Cooperative spirit.”

All Minnesota Randonneur riders are TCBC members and all of our brevets show up on the TCBC calendar. TCBC mileage credit is given for our rides.

The most common brevet distance is 200Km (124 miles) although earlier this spring we offered a 100Km (62 mile) “Populaire. Other local rides are 300 Km (186 miles), 400Km (248 miles) and 600 Km (372 miles). Other Randonneur clubs in the US offer rides as long as 1,000Km (621 miles) and even 1,200 Km (745 miles). Last year 14 Minnesota riders rode the Paris-Brest-Paris 1,200Km. What gives?

I frequently ride with this group and know them quite well. I can give you my perspective on who we are and how we ride. We have doctors, business owners, software developers, a stay-at-home dad, a PhD economist, a carpenter, a translator, a woodwind repair man, lawyers, retired people, programmers, a Fortune 500 CEO and about any other trade or profession you can think of.  It’s a diverse group with a shared love of bike riding.

Brevets are not races. The on-bike riding pace normally ranges between 12 and 18 mph.  Most of us probably ride 1-3 mph slower on a brevet than we would on a shorter TCBC ride. The routes include mandatory stops at checkpoints that are typically convenience stores where we restock food, candy and water or our favorite drink. These stops can be anywhere from 20 to 50 miles apart. Some riders rush through the checkpoint in minutes while others relax for an hour or more. There is a time limit cut-off for all brevets but it is really not a factor under most normal circumstances. The limit for a 200 Km ride is 13.5 hours, which calculates to an overall pace of less than 10 mph. I am told that there is also a minimum time limit to prevent a pace that is too fast. But I personally have never been in danger of riding a 200Km distance is less than 6 hours so I have never paid much attention to that limit.

You do not need a special bike to ride a brevet. We ride what we have. At the start of a Brevet you will see a wide variety of bicycles from standard road bikes to special Randonneur models to recumbents to odd one-of-a-kind designs. I ride a standard type Specialized carbon road bike, the kind you will see at every TCBC ride. Special Randonneur models typically have steel frames, larger and softer tires, Brooks or similar saddles, fenders and large storage bags for extra clothing.  The theory is that these designs are more comfortable for long hours in the saddle but they are usually heavier than a standard road bike. I love my ordinary road bike and it works well for me.

I am living proof that neither speed nor power is necessary to enjoy Randonneuring. The key to successful and enjoyable brevet riding is proper nutrition and hydration. Our bodies cannot store enough water or fuel to complete an 8-hour ride, much less an 80-hour ride. Eating and drinking during the ride is necessary. Some riders use gels and other “artificial” nutrition products. Others, like me, rely on convenience store food: pizza, hot dogs, donuts, V-8, candy bars., tea and water. The food intake of some Randonneurs is legitimately weird. I find that V-8 juice and a glazed donut make a nice combination at a checkpoint/rest stop. And “no”, I’m not pregnant. Learning how to refuel and hydrate your body presents a learning curve. As beginners we make mistakes. With experience we get better and therefore, faster.

For 2012 Minnesota Randonneurs scheduled 15 brevet dates. Some dates offer more than one distance. They are listed on the TCBC calendar Most of these rides start in Apple Valley, St. Louis Park or Rochester but this year the selection has been expanded to include rides starting in the Northern suburbs, from Western Wisconsin and even Black River Falls in central Wisconsin.

For more information go to the Minnesota Randonneur website:  http://www.minnesotarandonneurs.org/   Or, for specific questions, contact our Regional Brevet Administrator, Rob Welsh at tcbcbrevet@aol.com

Give us a try. We will love to have you.

The St. Louis Park start on Minnetonka Blvd is turning out to be a great location for many riders.  We had several people ride to the ride, including a group organized by Tim Rand who put in a TCBC Ride-to-the-Ride from The Midtown Greenway Freewheel.  We even had a couple of groupies (Jim Joy and Patrick Morford ) ride out to say hi and wish us well.

The Than Do restaurant was our host for many of the riders at the finish, offering a warm place to relax for a bite after a good day’s ride.  Thanks also to Erik’s Bike Shop for handling populaire cards for some of the early finishers.  A special thanks to Jerry Hofmann for collecting the early finisher cards and for a great finishing time, along with Rolv Slungaard.

For those that did drive to the ride: Randonneuring 101 hint - bring your street clothes to change into after the ride – especially if the weather might be nasty.  It really feels good to get dry and have clean, warm clothes on.

Congratulations to our several new randonneurs on the completion of their first rando event this Saturday, or back on March 31.  Our two Populaire events garnered over 80 riders, despite some cool and wet spring weather, so we are looking forward to a strong turnout for our next event, the Cry Me a River 200k on May 5th, also in St. Louis Park.

Please pre-register on the Mn Rando web site.  If you create a Mn Rando login id, you can see all the registered riders for a particular brevet and it will prefill many of the fields for you when you register for an event.

At the End of the Ride

Everybody pretty much got on the road at the official ride start. I was riding near the back so I couldn’t see for myself, but based on the ride results, it looks like everybody pretty much formed into small groups, finishing about every half hour, starting around 12:00 – 12:30 pm. The stops were nicely spaced out and it looked like everybody was taking advantage of them to relax, chat and get warmed up. Additionally, it looked like there were plenty of additional places to stop at and get warmed up before heading on.

I thought it was a great start to the season. After a year off, it was great to be back in the saddle and seeing familiar faces as well as plenty of new ones. Don’t forget, the next ride is on April 21, 2012.

Editor’s Note

As Rob mentioned at the start of the ride, I am helping with collecting and presenting information on our website. If you have something you would like to contribute – your ride experiences, randonneuring advice, photos, etc – you can send them to me at news@minnesotarandonneurs.org. You can find this link on the Contact Us page as well.

At the End of the Ride…

The Upper Midwest version of the Fleche event, sponsored by Minnesota Randonneurs this year, has designated Wisconsin Dells as the meeting place. We won’t have any hill climb events but will get everyone together to talk about our adventures. And there may be a little partying too.

Teams are free to choose their own start location and route. No two teams can have exactly the same route. You must ride a minimum of 360 km (225 miles) and follow various RUSA/ASP rules about length of stops, etc. A complete set of the rules is available on the RUSA website – check the following link for details. http://www.rusa.org/flecherules.html
In general, teams should start their ride sometime on Friday afternoon/evening to arrive in The Dells at the same time on Saturday. The end location is at the Wintergreen Resort and Conference Center located in Wisconsin Dells. Teams will be greeted by our welcoming committee with a variety of snacks and refreshments. Teams can then check in at the resort and relax for the rest of the day. Following a restful night and a full service buffet breakfast the next morning, each team will have the opportunity to share their story about how they made it to The Dells with the rest of the group and other guests. The fleche committee will also present some fun awards for such things as: longest distance ridden by a team, oldest team, youngest team, best story, etc.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Wintergreen resort. Standard rooms are available for $79 per night. Whirlpool rooms are available for $89 per night. Teams are encouraged to book their rooms as soon as they are confirmed as registered for the Fleche. Teams can book extra rooms at the same rates if needed. The resort has an indoor and outdoor pool as well as many other amenities. Nearby are several indoor waterparks and other family oriented theme park facilities.

We are researching the feasibility of providing some transportation options back to the Twin Cities area if enough people are interested, but teams are responsible for their return logistics. With all the attractions of The Dells, we hope this will encourage other family members or friends to come to enjoy The Dells for the weekend, be there to greet you at the finish and provide a convenient, safe way home when it’s all over.

So, get your riding buddies together, appoint a captain, and register with Dan Diehn, Fleche Director, at DDiehn@DiehnLaw.com and start planning your route. Routes must be approved by the Fleche Director and the Minnesota RBA by May 1.

Cost is $100/team to cover the breakfast, arrival snacks and administrative costs. Riders are responsible for booking their own rooms. All riders must be RUSA members.
If you have questions about fleche rides or want more details on our event, please contact Dan Diehn (DDiehn@DiehnLaw.com) or Rob Welsh (TCBCBrevet@aol.com).

1. Our website has been updated! Kelly Hines has added more functionality, particularly around the ride registration features that make it possible for you to see all the rides you have registered for, and to see what other riders are signed up for brevets you may be interested in. To see these features, you need to have a Mn Rando login, which is easy to create from the main page of the web site (on the right side). Kelly is also putting together some features that will give us forum capabilities to share information on rides or discuss other randonneur topics. More information on this will be coming soon.

2. The Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together has been set up – our destination this year is Wisconsin Dells. A Fleche is a team event, with 3-5 riders completing a 360 km (minimum) route of their choosing, ending up at the same place as several other teams. This is a fun ride, with lots of chances to meet other randonneurs at the finish. More details are coming soon. Contact the Fleche Director, Dan Diehn, at DDiehn@DiehnLaw.com for information and to register your team.

3. We have a full slate of brevets coming up, riders could complete 2 Super Randonneur series on Minnesota brevets if they plan their year well. Some of our special brevets are:

4. I am looking for someone that would be interested in helping to publish and organize web content for the web site. Mostly this would be posting articles and items to the web site, but if you have a creative side, you can really make the site stand out. Please contact Rob at TCBCBrevet@aol.com if you are interested.
I look forward to seeing all you experienced randonneurs and hopefully some new riders giving randonneuring a try on the road soon. I’m heading to Arizona and California for a few weeks to get ready. See you soon.

Rob Welsh
Minnesota Regional Brevet Administrator

As Randonneurs, we would all like to ride more effectively and more comfortably for our long rides. Joe Friel believes that the key to performance on long endurance events is Economy of effort. He identifies three markers of endurance fitness: aerobic capacity anaerobic/lactate threshold and economy. Each is an important physiological determiner of fitness but the relative importance of each depends on the duration of the event.
Friel makes it clear that riding economy is the dominant factor for success in long events such as Randonneuring.

Aerobic capacity is a measure of our bodies to perform at maximum effort. It is usually measured by VO2max, a test of our maximum ability to process oxygen. We intuitively understand that this is the key to success in events requiring short bursts at maximum effort.
Anaerobic threshold, also call lactate threshold, is a measure of the maximum effort our body can sustain over an extended period, usually measured as 30 to 60 minutes. This is the highest level of effort sustainable without building an oxygen debt that forces the body to operate anaerobically which it can only sustain for seconds, not minutes. The anaerobic threshold is probably the most important factor in a time trial type event.

Economy relates to the amount of oxygen it takes to turn the pedals at your pace. The less oxygen it takes for us to turn the pedals at any given workload, the more economical we are. For long events, our economy is more important than either our maximum aerobic capacity or our lactate threshold.

Friel says:
“The longer the race is the less important aerobic capacity becomes and the more important economy is. This is because at the longer distances you exercise at a lower percentage of your aerobic capacity. So having a big VO2max won’t be of great benefit. But wasting even a little energy per stroke or stride due to poor economy will add up to a lot of wasted energy – and a slow performance – in a long race.”

Friel also discusses Economy in the context of an Ironman Triathlon:
“The longer the race, the more critical economy becomes. For a triathlete doing an Ironman this is a huge determiner of performance. For the road cyclist racing a 45-minute criterium economy is still important, but not nearly as critical to the outcome. The same is true of a 5km race for a runner. The reason for this is that the Ironman bike ride is done at a significantly lower power output than a 45-minute criterium or an 18-minute 5km. The crit and 5km are raced at an intensity between AT and VO2max. So these fitness markers are critical to such a performance. The Ironman is raced at around 70 percent of AT. During such long durations the rider can’t afford to waste energy as the gut has a limit as to how much energy it can process from food and drink while racing. If the rate at which energy is expended due to low economy is greater than the intake rate then the athlete will “hit the wall.” On the hand, the crit racer and 5km runner can afford to waste some of the energy as their race outcome will not be decided by how much energy is wasted as there is plenty of stored fuel available for such a short race and none will need to be replaced. The key issue for the road cyclist and runner is how to optimize economy in order to produce more power or speed.”

Basically, we are not very efficient at turning food and oxygen into pedal power. Friel notes that our economy is typically between 20 and 25 percent, which means that 75 to 80 percent of all the calories we burn are not producing power or speed. Most of that lost energy is expended as radiated heat. That huge loss of energy is common. That may seem like a lot of lost energy, but it’s common.

Those numbers leave a huge potential for improvement. So how can we increase our Economy when riding? Economy is dependent on many factors, several of which are outside of our control. For example, long femurs relative to leg length pedal more economically than short ones. And for endurance sports slow twitch are more economical than fast twitch muscles. The best way to improve these factors is to carefully select your parents.
Other than selecting appropriate parents, what else can we do to improve our Economy on the bike? There are significant aspects of economy over which we do have control. Our pedaling style is important. Friel says pedal “mashers” are less economical than “spinners.” How rapidly and smoothly we apply torque to the pedals has a significant effect on performance. We all understand that a smooth pedal stroke depends not only on cadence but also on bike fit and learning to pedal the full circle rather than just force the down stroke. And we all know that we can reduce our body weight to improve our power to weight ratio.

We can also purchase economy. Lighter bicycles will move us farther up the road for a given effort. Aerobars and other adjustments can improve aerodynamics. Race fit clothing is more economical than a jacket flapping in the breeze.
Most importantly, we can train to improve our economy. Although Friel has not recently discussed economy training for cyclists, his observations for runners probably applies equally to cyclists. He cites the benefits of interval training, weight training, hill training and plyometrics for runners. Evidence supports the conclusion that these workouts improve the Efficiency of runners. All of those should apply equally to cycling.

________________________
Joe Friel is an endurance sports coach best known as an elite triathlon and cycling coach. He is the author of Cyclist’s Training Bible and several other training books for triathletes and cyclists. He holds a masters degree in exercise science, is a USA Cycling certified elite-level coach.
This article is a summary of information found on his blog: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/

First: to get more information on this event go to:
http://xt-uz.com/brevet_1200km

Second: Before you book your flight, check out this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1238242.stm

Going Low at PBP

Upper Midwest Fleche Get Together 2012

Fast wheel technology

Winter Training for Randonneurs

Building your Randonneur Bicycle

Minnesota Randonneur Ride Statistics

Riding your first Super Randonneur Series

Brief history of randonneuring in the US

1200k Grande Randonnee Planning

Thanks to Steve Redelsperger for the use of the atrium, and to Craig Futterer and Bill Bennett for helping out with registration and logistics