The Brevet cards each Randonneur carries, travels to Paris, France after the brevets for inspection and approval. The French take this very seriously and no detail is over-looked. Then they send back the cards with medals.
Here is my first medal from back in January of 2005. At the start of the ride, everybody was really wanting to take off fast and there was an urgency in the air. Then I saw these two guys with Paris-Brest-Paris jerseys calmly waiting in front of me. I decided I would stick with the Veterans and maybe learn a thing or two about randonneuring. Lucky for me those two guys happened to be Steve and Mike.
Steve and Mike
If any of these medals has special significance, it is this 300 K pictured above. This medal was hard-earned because the ride was brutal. Rain, cold, flats, mechanical mishaps--everything that went wrong did go wrong--to each one of us. It was a randonneur's nightmare, and according to Mike, the toughest 300 he had ever done.
Mike Alexa, our Captain on the infamous 2005 300K Brevet from Hell.
Rain and flat tires all day, and rain as in very hard driving rain for about 15 of the 17 hours we were on the course. Between all of us we had 10 flat tires. My back tire came apart on Oracle Rd--and my worst fear was realized--the pack went on without me. I jogged down to where I knew a bike shop was, luckily just about a mile away, and surprised the guys working there. They kind of wondered what I was doing out riding in the pouring rain--soaked and covered with grime--but they got me a new tire, and I rode like a Bat out of Hell to catch up to Steve, Mike, Rich Combs, and Susan France. I caught them right outside of Saguaro Nat'l Park--they were very surprised to see me because they thought I was through. They pulled me the last 60 miles or so throught the rain and lightening. I was completely exhausted I had ridden so hard.
As we rode into Casa Grande and the finish, like two or three blocks from the last controle, Mike had another flat but we kept going. We just wanted to be done. As we arrived, Mike's other tire went flat--two flats in the last two blocks.
Mike
My 400 K medal. Steve and I rode this baby strong. Mike Alexa was not with us this time. For most of the ride, we had a nice pace-line going with Steve, Mike Allen, Rich Combs, and myself. The other good thing is that I knew most of this course like the back of my hand, having trained on many of the roads with Dave Glasgow and Gerry Goode. I really pushed on this ride--I think I had too much coffee--I was wired! It felt good to go fast since the 300 was so tough. At the next to the last controle in Marana, I wanted to go faster, but Rick and Mike Allen wanted to slow down. Steve and I took off for the last 50 miles and I was feeling stronger as we neared Casa Grande.
Steve
It was dark and a Saturday night. As we were going through Eloy, we were riding about 21 or 22 mph down main street--that is fast for a big guy like me... A fellow a little intoxicated came out of one of the many bars there on the road with his girlfriend--watched us coming up the street--and at the last second stepped off the curb right in front of me. I almost collided with the guy--in fact I grazed him. It was so close I could smell the cheap scotch on his breath. Had I hit him at 22 mph it probably would have killed him or both of us... Eloy. Evil Eloy...
Bon journee, mes amis!
Sorry to say that the 600 k medal eluded me. During the 600, I got dehydrated, got diarrea, and just couldn't get it together--I had to drop, mes amis. It would have been sweet to have completed the first Arizona Brevet Series ever done. It would have been historic. Had I realized that back then, I might have tried to push myself to finish--but when you're about to pass out and physically can't make your legs work, well--time to throw in the towel. Luckily Steve called Kim and she drove down and picked me up--But Steve had to come with me as I limped about 10 miles to Benson, AZ to get to our pick-up/rescue point.
Stay tuned as the next Brevet Series begins in a few months!
Allure Libre!
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