Anybody want to come to Portland for PDX-OLy flèche?
We’re shooting for a full 24h 360-400km distance.
Randonneurs (randos), use metric for distances; it'll make them feel like a longer ride: rando chat‽
What route do you have planned?
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Olney gothic to Astoria bridge 101 to Aberdeen and take a right
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Bet that will go right in front of my apartment. I can leave out jugs of water and a few burritos.
Edit: unless that brakes the rules.
Route is still tentative
I bet it will go right by
If we start at 6-7a then we’d be in Astoria by 12-2
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Aside from the bridge that sounds pretty good; I’d hook back to Cathlamet and take the ferry instead of that infinitely long bridge!
It kinda breaks the rules unless you offer water re-ups to all fleche teams, or else make your house a controle (according to a recent analysis of “no en route support” rule that i helped write with someone else from BC Randos). But it’s minor and people do this a lot and get away with it.
Bro we’re gonna make Astoria an open control gtfo
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Parfetto you’re all set
Like i said typically noone cares though. I have seen or heard of randos popping in their house when it’s en route or accept snack from a spouse who drove to meet them way outside any controles. I myself stashed ensure in a bush en route but hors controle on the way to the ride start (also a no no as i learned). This is not really ok but the main thrust of the rule is to prevent people on tt bikes with no luggage from crushing pbp in 37 hours with raam ish follow cars.
Ps
Post was addressed to a question raised by mad.rains and sorry that it looked exactly like i was scolding you
Which is allowable, no? If I can stop at a non-control convenience store to stock up, the happy coincidence of a route passing my house is pretty much the same.
IMO not the same as the corner store is equally available to all riders.
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There’s probably a rule
“home court advantage”
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Take note 2023 PBP crew - begin cultivating relationships with French countryside homeowners now
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IMO it’s violating the spirit of “no en route support”. The way to get in the clear there is to mention on your clubs email list that anyone who wants to can come fill bottles etc.
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The actual rule is pretty non-specific! We actually worked on an analysis/ clarification for the exact reason that it is pretty vague and primarily supposed to address luggage-less riders with support cars.
Sup
Still a little tired after 2+4 hours sleep but it’s bright in my room and I’ve got the post ride hotness and headache from
ORR 3 capes 400k
The 3 capes 300k is a crown jewel in ORR’s schedule, this new route adds an out and back to an idyllic lil valley just north of tillamook on the Nehalem river.
We started the morning at the grand lodge (mcmenamins - beer food hotel) in forest grove at 6a and head out over hwy6. There were 7 riders signed up + 1 late entry for the 400 ride, only 6 were there for the 6a start but one has an hour to register and get on the road. There were 3 for the 300. Headed out we see a pair of bald eagles chilling right off the road, they see us and take flight - big fugn trash birds. The first climb is an up and back to timber which is pretty classic for an ORR route. Turnaround is a ziptied rough road sign.
There were 5+1 of us together which made for a pretty quick start and we basically stayed together up and over hwy 6. This climb kind of sucks because it’s Saturday morning and all the moto sport folks are speeding out to the sand dunes to braap and do whatever it is they do. It’s either horned honked, close pass, or slam the pedal down on the diesel rig when they pass. There are some considerate drivers! But there are also many inconsiderate drivers.
It was difficult to get these photos because at all stopped times someone was peeing.
In tillamook the single 300 rider split off to go their way and we continued north. As I mentioned, the 300 is fantastic but the 400 ride takes a 50km out and back past a Rando Mecca:
We didn’t stop because I try to not eat meat on long rides. But I’ve been there. And it’s good.
Light headwind all the way up. At the turnaround it was determined that the 2 dudes really pushing would have to split off because they were making it hard for the 3 of us, then the other 2 dudes showed up. One dude (on a green nobilette) wa a pretty fast so he stuck with those guys, the other on a ritchey cross breakaway dropped as soon as we left. The fast dudes dropped us pretty quickly out of the valley and it was just the 3 of us for the majority of the ride back to the start.
Back into tillamook we stop for provisions at Safeway, I get some max and cheese from the hot case because when in tillamook? We pass the TILLAMOOK CREMATORY and had a good laugh on our way out to the first cape, Meares. For the last 10 years cape meares has been closed off for erosion concerns but now it’s open to hikers and cyclists.
One of the riders on my team’s parents have a little cottage on the other side of the cape and they were waiting on a grassy sunny spot so we obviously stopped for some illegal mental doping - or just a chat, because cmon. Back on the road we head up to cape lookout with a nice tailwind.
I love hills but my desire to ride up them is the opposite. My group of 3 split up along the climb but we get back together at the top. This is where we decide that if we stick to 20kmph we can make a 20hr 400. 2/3 of us are experiencing some bonk symptoms so we eat the snacks we have and get ready for the descent. I need to get a wind vest. (Note:I’m a size club L)
We descend to the rollers into pacific city and the solo rider we dropped earlier shows up. His names Bob and he’s planning to ride the Tel Aviv 1200 later this year. He had those bone conduction headphones on so I asked what he was listening to - he said nothing, it was for his gps. HE SAID HE HADNT TRIED LISTENINF TO MUSIC ON THE BIKE. Wtf. Anyway, he ends up falling behind and we drop into pac city - we don’t really want to do a sit down so we stop at a fine shell gas station food mart.
WE WALK IN AND THEYRE BLASTING JUDAS PRIEST. We stopped at the right place is what I’m saying. I grab some pickles, chips, and a gallon of water, the other dudes get chips and pretzels and stuff. We take a sit and snack our snacks and head out to lil nestucca road headed into grande ronde.
Lil nestucca is another idyllic valley with a babbling stream, bridges and it just makes me want to sit in a hammock and sleep there. Again, climbs and descents and bonk feels - one of the riders in the group is a cookie connoisseur and passed out some oatmeal raisins and a orange cranberry and they were just enough to get us up and out. It’s now approaching 11 and we’re on hwy 18 next to the casino - that is to say, lots of assholes using their horn or buzzing us. Like, why? We’re in the fucking bike lane? Whatever, we get to willamina and stop in at a minimart, I get a coke and a packaged pastry, the others get other stuff. This is our last store stop for the night, ~90km to go.
When you spend approx 20 hours exercising with others you get pretty deep in conversations. We covered lots of work topics and how to be a better person. I feel like I’m generally a reasonable person and present myself that way irl.
In to Dayton the minimart has closed but we all have snacks and chill out under the awning for a few minutes to rest and try to eat stuff.
Rollers headed north and we see a cyclist on the side of the road - it’s one of the 300 riders ~hours past their cutoff. He was cold so stopped to put on layers. He was talking about going slow but after some conversation and emotional doping he’s rolling with us. He said he had been singing the first 6 bars of Tom Pettys “won’t back down” for a while. We had a laugh.
Finally we turn onto hwy 47 and into the stop.
Handshakes, side hugs and well wishes for all, I nap in my truck for a couple hours before driving home.
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I haven’t been out to Rockaway in a few but Pronto Pup has new owners apparently.
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I hope they didn’t change recipes
I mean, there are 2 flavors of corndog: gas station and bougie
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