On Saturday, June 6, I completed the GLR 400 km Brevet out of Delavan, WI. And for those of you that no your history, the title is not coincidental. I am fully aware that that Saturday was the 65th anniversary of the true longest day, D-DAY.
A ride of 400 km would be the longest ride I had ever done. Its 250 miles. I had done the 300 km brevet three weeks earlier, so i thought my fitness would be OK. But I knew those extra 60 miles would be hard. There would be more hills. The weather would play a factor as it always does. And there would be more night riding. A significant challenge for sure.
The weather. Always an issue on these things. Early in the week the forecast called for partly sunny and 67. By Friday, it had deteriorated to a high of 56 with a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Still, I decided to go and persevere through.
We started out at 6:00 AM from the Super 8 in Delavan. Temperature was about 55 degrees and the sky was clear. There was a wind from the east of about 10 mph, and this was good since it would give us a tailwind on our first leg. There were 18 riders at the start. We quickly formed into different groups based on the speed everyone was comfortable with. I was in the second group, a group of 4. In front of us were two riders. We did ride with them for about the first 10 miles, but one of them had completed Race Across America, and it was clear that he was a different category of athlete. Still, our group of 4 settled in and we maintained a brisk pace of 20 mph on the first legs.
The first 150 km (97 miles) is the same route that is used for the 300 km. In fact, the first 100 km is the same route that is used for the 200 km, so we were all familiar with the roads and the controls. The rides to Edgerton and Verona were uneventful. Unlike the 300 km were we battled a headwind the whole way out and every mile was a struggle, the miles just clicked off. After Verona, we got into the hills west of Madison. Some of these are tough. On in particular I remember is probably only a quarter mile long, but pitches up to probably 15%. All you can do is work your way up them.
We arrived in Sauk City around noon, and took a little bit longer break to refuel. While we were stopped, the rain started drizzling, so we put on our rain gear before heading to Baraboo. The rout to Baraboo was tough. Very Hilly. At mile 112, there was a very difficult hill that was 2 - 2.5 miles long. It had three sections that pitched up around 12%. I think all of us were spent at the top of it. By this point, it had stopped raining, so some of the rain gear came off. However, i left my booties on because the temperature had dropped down to about 45 degrees, so it felt pretty cold. But the booties kept my feet warm.
The ride from Sauk City to Baraboo is very scenic. Wooded hillsides are the norm. In Baraboo, we had a sandwich at a Cousins subs that was attached to the convenience store that was a control. Coming out of Baraboo, a light, steady rain had started. It wasn't a deluge, but it made the roads slick and made things cold. We headed through Devils Lake State Park, which was the most beautiful part of the ride. Just terrific wooded country, From here, we took the ferry across the river at Merrimac and headed into Lodi, our net control.
In Lodi, we were greeted by our local RBA Jim Kreps. Its always good to see the RBA out on a ride checking up on how people are doing. However, Jim had bad news. There was a line of thunderstorms moving in expected to hit our area between 5:00 and 7:00 PM. But at this point, what were you going to do. All we could do was refuel and head out towards Columbus.
The stretch from Lodi to Columbus was mentally the most difficult one of the ride. We were now heading into that east wind across flat, boring farm fields. The wind was not as bad as the 300 km, but it was blowing pretty hard, around 15 mph. And we were all tired from having already rode 150 miles and climbing numerous hills. So our paceline was pretty ragged. We did take a couple of short stretch breaks just to get out of the wind. Finally, mercifully, Columbus appeared. We were now at about mile 174, so just 75 to go.
In Columbus, right across the street from the control was a Burger King. One thing that all of us noticed was how much we were eating during the ride. It was a lot. This was probably due not just to the riding but also to the cooler temperatures. Our bodies were having to burn more calories just to stay warm. A double cheeseburger was mighty appealing at this point. So all of us went over to Burger King for dinner. Yes, its not the healthiest food, but it probably was about 1000 calories. And after that, I didn't feel hungry or behind on my eating the rest of the ride. I needed a lot of calories and I got them.
The other good news in Columbus was there was still no rain. In fact, the clouds did not look as threatening and the roads were dry. By a stroke of luck, the rain held off, even clearing up a bit after dark so we could see the full moon. This was magnificent news. Riding in the dark is hard enough. Riding when it is also raining, yuck.
We headed out towards Lake Mills, thankfully heading south so the wind was not nearly as much of a factor. Sunset came and we turned on our lights and donned our reflective gear. Riding to Lake Mills was for the most part uneventful. But in town, we did miss a turn and ended up wandering around a bit until we figured out where we went wrong. We backtracked, found our turn and found our control. At this point, everyone was tired.
The route then took us south through Fort Atkinson, where we missed another turn and had to backtrack some again. And then south some more to Whitewater. We wandered around a bit in the dark and finally found the control. This was nice because they had an indoor seating area, so we took a bit of a break here. And we were only 20 miles from Delavan.
One of the amazing things about these rides is people see you and they ask you where you are going. And then you tell them you are riding 250 miles in a day and they just can't believe it. This happened to us in Whitewater. I think the two girls working at the Citgo thought we were nuts (and they may have been right).
About 10 miles after Whitewater, I was feeling pretty low. My energy just felt very low and I was very tired from riding all day. I had a bag ok Skittles with me and I ate those, and immediately I felt better. I didn't have legs to spring up hills, but I just felt better. Unfortunately, about 8 miles out of Delavan, we made another navigational blunder in the dark. We missed a turn and went about 4 miles past it until we realized we were going the wrong way. So we backtracked, sound the right road, and started heading into Delavan. When we got to Delavan, everything was so quiet. The Wendy's and Perkins across from the Super 8 were closed. And I was never so happy to see a Super 8 sign in my life. At 2:53 AM Sunday morning, we had finished.
We signed our brevet cars and left them at the front desk. We congratulated each other and then proceeded with the business of getting some rest. I went up to my room, took a quick shower and went right to bed. It had been a long day, and I was ready to rest.
With our navigational errors, we accumulated quite a few 'bonus' miles. At the end, my computer read 261.75 miles. Wow. What a total. That is better than I do most weeks. Our ride time was 16:32, for an average of 15.8 mph. I think that is actually pretty good considering the distance and terrain. Our total time was 20 hours 53 minutes. We probably could have improved here. But what the heck, we finished. We were the second group in. What more can you say.
I'll right some more posts about my experiences. A ride this long deserves more than one post.
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