Crescent City Randonneurs

200K - Saturday 1/7/2012

2012-01-03T16:12:00.002-06:00

Our first brevet of the year will be held next Saturday 1/7.
We will be pushing off from the parking lot in Audubon Zoo at 7 AM and
will be riding the Ponchatoula route this year. It looks like there
will be a nice size group with a couple of riders doing their first or
second 200K so I don't expect us to set any records for the pace.
Anyone needing a place to stay before or after the ride just give me a
call. There is usually room in the casita.
Lights and reflective gear will be required since it gets dark early
and we may be riding slow.
Hope you all had a merry holiday - Looking forward to catching up on
the ride.
Please call or send me a note if you are going to ride so I can print
up enough brevet cards and que sheets.
pat

2012 ACP Events

2011-09-30T17:43:00.002-05:00

I just submitted our brevet callender for our ACP events - first 5
months.
Please check your calendars and reserve the dates!
YYYY/MM/DD TYPE DIST
2012/01/07 ACPB 200 - Ponchatoula
2012/02/18 ACPB 200 - Abita - Mardi Gras!
2012/03/24 ACPB 300 - Sorrento / Ponchatoula
2012/04/21 ACPB 400 - Baton Rouge
2012/05/19 ACPB 600 - Baton Rouge & West Bank

pat

Time to Ride!

2011-09-19T22:29:00.000-05:00

The weather is near picture perfect! The summer heat is almost past
and our "fall" is upon us. In case you are wondering what is available
here is my schedule for the next few weeks

Saturday 9/24 - Y Ride 306K Perm
Sunday 9/25 - CCC Fall Century

Saturday 10/1 - 3 Subs along da River 385K Perm
Sunday 10/2 - ???

Saturday 10/8 - 408K Brevet Jefferson to Baton Rouge
Sunday 10/9 - ?????

Saturday 10/15 - 307K Brevet in Jackson MS Ridgeland to Jeff Busby
Sunday 10/16 - ????

Saturday 10/22 - Tchoup Stop to Car Wash 212K Perm
Sunday 10/23 - 107K POP Audubon to LaPlace

Saturday 10/29 - 604K Brevet River Ridge to Baton Rouge 1st leg
Sunday 10/30 - Day 2 River Ridge to Vacherie to Gretna 2nd leg

Something for everyone! We will probably have a couple of Crab Tray
101K and a Manchac Mambo 160K thrown in for good measure. Let me know
which ones you want to ride
pat

ACP 300K 9/11/2010

2010-09-09T11:02:00.002-05:00

This Saturday CCR will be holding an ACP 300K. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/37584
The ride will begin and end in the parking lot of the Audubon Zoo -
right side as you are facing the levee.
Ride start will be for 6 AM. Lights and reflective gear are required.
Come out and enjoy the nice change in weather we are having. give Pat
a call (504-957-1768) if you can make it so enough brevet cards and
que sheets can be printed....
Everyone still has a chance to get in an ACP series and one of those
bright shinny SR medals! The 400K is scheduled for 10/9 and the 600K
will be on 10/30...
Hope to see you there
pat

End of Summer rides

2010-08-27T15:56:00.001-05:00

Summer is almost over. The kids are starting back to school and that
means the temps won't be getting as hot, soon I hope..... We have
quite a few rides scheduled in the next two months and I'm going to
try to get in a few bonus miles as well. This is what I'm setting as
my tentative schedule:
Sat 8/21 - Crab Trap 7 AM bonus miles can make this a century easy
Sun 8/22 - Crab Trap 6 AM
Sat 8/28 - Franklinton 206K perm 6 AM?
Sun 8/29 - ??
9/4,5&6 - Labor Day Weekend - medley of 200K 300K and 100K perms - I'm
up for them all!
Sat 9/11 - ACP 300K brevet Audubon-Sorrento-Ponchatoula-Audubon
Sat 9/18 - RUSA 200K brevet Audubon-Sorrento short
Sat 9/25 - Fall Century pre ride
Sun 9/26 - CCC Fall Century
Sat 10/2 - ???
Sat 10/9 - ACP 400K brevet Jefferson-Baton Rouge-Jefferson
Sun 10/10 - new Perm - Best of both banks
Sat & Sun 10/30 - ACP 600K brevet River Ridge-Baton Rouge-River Ridge-
Algiers-Vacherie-Gretna
Also I usually ride the Crab Trap 101K perm on Wed or Thursday about
4:15 PM

Check out your schedule and let me know if you can ride

July 3 What Is The Shortest Distance Between Two Points? brevet report

2010-07-16T12:09:00.000-05:00

Waking up a Dennis' home for 2:30 for a bike ride? What are we
thinking??? Seeing Steve's face before he gets his first sip of coffee
makes it all worth while though. Two cups of Dennis' fine brew and we
are ready to leave for Franklinton. A stop at Mickies for breakfast on
the way and we are at the Winn Dixie before 4:30. Just enough time to
set the bikes up for the 5 AM start time. Butch pulling into the lot
rounds our group off to four for the brevet.
We take off at about 5:10 (don't know why we never start on time - my
fault I guess) with "be seen" lights on and almost no traffic on the
road. We turn off of 25 and onto 16 and the rollers begin. I love
heading out on a brevet and seeing the sun rise from my bike! The
morning fog has burned off by the time we hang a right on Dummy Line
Rd. I always get a chuckle seeing the Plant Entrance sign just before
the Nursery – only in LA.
We pull into Wilmer at 6:20, 18 miles into the ride and an average of
16.2. We topped off the bottles and headed back out.
Hwy 1061 leads to hwy 1054 with more rollers. I used to think it
contained a couple of killer climbs but either the road has flattened
out a bit or my engine is better tuned. Another right turn back on 16
and we were headed to Amite. A quick stop at the Exxon On the Run for
more fluids and it was back on the road. Butch was feeling a bit
froggie and took off on the front. Dennis didn’t want to have anything
to do with that so he put the hammer down as well and that left Steve
and I to just mosey along. Dennis was going to count the for sale
posters and eat his last biscuit Butch was just going…. We got to
Montpellier at 8 AM 40.8 miles into it and a respectable 16.9 avg. It
had not even started to warm up yet.
Turning onto hwy 43 and heading North it was nice having a mild wind
from our right instead of the usual head wind. This road has a lot of
beautiful rollers. We stopped to talk to Wayne (a CCC rider from
Ponchatoula) and this allowed Butch to catch up. Dennis was staying
off the front, Steve and I were in the rocking chair and Butch was
lollygagging (probably saving turtles or helping girl scouts and
bunnies) in the back. We stopped just before the dog leg at hwy 10 to
regroup and Steve attempted to urinate on another police station so we
left before he was arrested. We stopped for drinks at Nicks at 9:30
with 59 miles down and a 16.7 mph rolling average. We continued north
passing into Mississippi and made a right turn in Gillsburg on 584.
The rough roads continued as we turned on SR 929 until we hit the
state line and pristine asphalt. Unfortunatly this did not last very
long – at least hwy 1053 is is better than the MS roads. We waited to
regroup when we hit hwy 51 and I started having cramping problems.
These would plague me the remainder of the ride. We hit Kentwood at
11:45 and stopped at the Maxx 82.1 miles down and our average had
fallen off to 16.1. It was heating up and that was slowing us down.
Our lunch stop was a dozen miles up the road so we topped off our
drinks and headed out hwy 38.
A right turn on River Rd brought more rollers. I can’t really call any
of these things a climb because I was once told that “it isn’t a climb
unless you have to get out of the saddle” – so much for the climbs. A
left turn onto 1057 brought us past the 12 Star Ranch and then another
left onto 1061 and we were on the modified part of the course. I
hadn’t been on this road for a few years and it was a treat. We passed
one end of M Williams Rd before hitting hwy 38 and the store in Spring
Creek for our lunch stop. I didn’t have the heart to tel Butch that we
were only 3 blocks from where we turned off onto River Rd an hour ago.
He looked bushed. 45 minutes later we were fed, rested and ready to
ride. The ODO showed 97 miles and a 15.7 average. We headed East on 38
and my cramps started right back up. When we turned on Doc Butler Rd I
needed to stop and stretch out my legs – they were killing me. We got
to the store in Mt. Herman at 3:10 with 108 miles and a 15.4 avg. More
drinks and back on the road. I was surprised that Steve passed on the
free puppy someone was giving away. Guess he didn’t want to carry the
extra load – weight weenie! It was fun to hit the downhill on 438 ( a
6% for .2 miles) in the daylight and light traffic. It made for my top
speed of the day. We passed the last info control and took a left on
1055. A mile down the road Dennis started hearing a pinging sound and
found he had popped a spoke on his rear wheel – drive side. I figured
the ride was over for him. He did not want to try a fiber spoke to
repair it so we zip tied it to another spoke and headed off to catch
Steve and Butch. We caught them turning onto Mt. Pisgah Rd. Dennis was
doing fine the wheel was running true and he was babying it. I was
worried about what would happen when he hit the short steep climb but
the wheel held. I guess that is the good part about being such a light
weight…
We turned onto hwy 440 and I knew that Dennis would make it – he could
even walk from here. The traffic got busier and it was nice to pull
back into the Winn Dixie parking lot at 4:55. We had completed the 128
miles in just under 12 hours and a rolling average of 15.1. Another
one in the books…..

Half way

2010-07-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

I just finished posting the results of July 206K brevet and was
reminded that half of the year is already over! However, I wanted to
remind everyone that half of the year is still in front of you! We
have a lovely slate of brevets stilled planned for 2010. Coming up we
have
Type Date Distance (km)
ACP brevet 8/7/2010 200
ACP brevet 9/11/2010 300
ACP brevet 10/9/2010 400
ACP brevet 10/30/2010 600
RUSA brevet 11/6/2010 238
RUSA brevet 12/4/2010 238
Please check your calender and see how many you can fit in. We also
have permanents available which can be ridden any time you would like
so just give me a call when you would like to do one. Our members have
been busy this year To check out your total Ks go to
http://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/resultsearch_GF.pl and plug in your RUSA
#. Some of the results you will see include:
Name RUSA # RUSA Ks
Butch Ammons 5839 612
Steve Graves 4549 3378
Dennis Horchoff 2723 2151
Doug Morgan 4759 1500
Even Posey 6334 107
LeRoy Richard 5878 706
Sayers Robert 5874 500
Lewis Smith 5763 500
Michelle Williams 3609 1839
Keep up the hard work!
pat

206K perm 7/3/10

2010-06-22T08:44:00.002-05:00

The July brevet is scheduled for 7/3/10 - Franklinton 206K.
We are thinking about starting the ride at 5 AM and using a minor
modification to the course which would allow for a cool place to rest
at around mile 100. If we ride at a nice pace we should make the stop
at the convenience store in Spring Creek before it gets to hot and lay
over for an hour and a half before knocking out the last 27 miles. The
burgers, chicken and potato logs make this a nice stop.
Let me know what you think about this and if you will be able to join
us!
pat

200K RUSA brevet 6/26/10

2010-06-22T08:43:00.000-05:00

This Saturday, June 26, we will be holding a RUSA 200K brevet starting at the
parking lot in Audubon Zoo. The route will be an out and back to
Ponchatoula (125 miles) and starts at 2:30 PM. We pick this starting
time for the June brevet each year to allow us to ride in the heat
while we are fresh and to allow for a few hours of night riding for
those not used to riding with lights.
If you are interested in more Ks I am planning on doing a 101K perm in
the early morning - give me a call for more details
pat (504-957-1768)

New rides

2010-03-14T20:54:00.003-05:00

I added two Populares to the schedule! These will be great Intro to
Randonneuring rides - if you have some friends ready to try
randonneuring but they may not be up for the distance talk them into
one of these 107K rides. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/36722
The updated schedule is:

ACP brevet 2010/03/13 300
ACP brevet 2010/04/10 400
RUSA populaire 2010/04/24 107
ACP brevet 2010/05/15 600
RUSA populaire 2010/06/05 107
RUSA brevet 2010/06/26 200
RUSA brevet 2010/07/03 200
ACP brevet 2010/08/07 200
ACP brevet 2010/09/11 300
ACP brevet 2010/10/09 400
ACP brevet 2010/10/30 600
RUSA brevet 2010/11/06 200
RUSA brevet 2010/12/04 200

Pat

300k brevet 3/13/10

2010-03-04T09:23:00.000-06:00

Anybody up for a little bike ride? We have a 300K brevet scheduled for
3/13. The ride starts at the Audubon Zoo and goes to Sorrento, LaPlace
and Ponchatoula before returning to the zoo. I will try to send a link
to the route when I finish it in Ride with GPS> Since the sun is
coming up earlier and we have 20 hours to complete the ride I'd like
to start at 6 AM. Lights will be required for this brevet.
In addition - if you want a few more K and don't mind riding with an
older fat guy on a funny bike with a broke leg this is my plan for the
month:
3/6 - Ponchatoula 212K Perm
3/13 - 300K Brevet
3/14 - 101K LaPlace Perm - might be fun to try after the 300K to see
how your legs do on multi day rides
3/20 - 206K notnilknarF Perm (What is the Shortest distance between
Two Points in Reverse)
3/27 - 306K Y Ride perm

Anyone wanting to stay at the Horchoff Hilton (casita) for the 300K
brevet please let me know. Hot shower and room for sleeping bags for
all.

pat

200K Mardi Gras Brevet

2010-01-11T22:45:00.004-06:00

The 200K on 2/13 is our annual Mardi-Gras ride! It is always a hoot.
For those who want few bonus miles, we push off from Dennis's house
about 5:45 and ride a leisurely 6 miles to the ride start at the Koop
Rd Trail head just off of I-12 and hwy 59. We pick up a couple of
stragglers there and officially start the brevet at 6:30. It is a
short 4 mile ride on the trace into Abita Springs where we take Hwy 59
to Lowe Davis and then do an information control at a local Alligator
Farm. Allen Rd takes us to Tallsheek Hwy which we follow for about 10
miles before turning on to SR-41. We take Watts-Thomas Rd to get off
of the highway for a while and pass through the crowds forming up for
Bush's Mardi-Gras parade. If you are running behind be careful - once
the parade pushes off (usually 9 AM) you can't get through till it
passes and it may make you late at the Bush control. We regroup in
Bush and get a hot biscuit before heading out on Hwy 40. The rolling
hills on 40 are my favorite part of this ride and we take it all the
way to Lee Rd. A quick left turn on Kenzie leads you to 437 and then
the nice rollers on Section. We order lunch when we hit Lee Rd again
and take it to Louisiana Tung, 437 and North Factory before turning on
to 40 for the final leg into Folsom. The Po Boys at Sellers make the
trip more than worthwhile. We then turn around and ride the route in
reverse back to Koop Rd.
The route can easily be done in 10 hours but we regularly take 12 - 13
just so we can enjoy each and every roller we cross! Next it is hot
showers at Dennis's and then to the Chinese buffet to gorge
ourselves.
Sunday is usually a relaxing ride starting in River Ridge through New
Orleans and has been known to include anything from the French Quarter
to the Lower 9th Ward to the Battlefield where Andy and Jean meet the
British in 1812 to Lake Pontchartrain to the West Bank to Algiers
to ???? Who knows where we could end up.
Monday is ofter spent doing a "best" Bank Tour of both the east and
west bank levee. Tuesday the Ponchatoula Perm is available for anyone
who still wants to air out their legs.
No one is ever goes home hungry or wishing they could have cycled more
after this long weekend!
Hope everyone can make it
pat

The route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/30096

Brevet schedule for 2010

2010-01-10T07:20:00.000-06:00

Proposed schedule from www.rusa.org:

1/2/2010 200K ride report

2010-01-08T10:22:00.000-06:00

My post from this thread on the Bacchetta forum: http://www.bacchettabikes.com/forum2/tm.asp?m=61921&mpage=1&key=

I got there late, at 6:48. I was on the red Strada with the fairing. I rode with Leeroy and Doug for a little bit, but their pace was a bit too high for me to maintain. At the end of the levee top trail I fell in with the New Orleans bunch along with John from Memphis and Louis from Sheveport. Definitely more of a tour than a race with those guys. Glad I did, since it was my first ever brevet and longest ride that I've made since starting back riding in July. Reminded me of Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club, a Big Easy pace for sure. I learned much about pacing myself and really enjoyed the experience. I will definitely be there for the Feb. Mardi Gras brevet. That one is in the hills on the north shore. Then they ride the parade routes the next day. Yeah You Right!!

2010 Brevets

2010-01-07T14:20:00.000-06:00

The brevet season will be opening in New Orleans with a 200K on Jan 2nd. It is a very flat 131 mile course going from Audubon Zoo to Sorrento and back. All brevets in New Orleans are self supported rides - there will be no SAG.
The route starts with 21.6 miles of levee top bike path. There are no road intersections, however, several businesses on the batture cross the path and they have the right of way. We will then descend to river road and head up river. If construction work at the refinery is still under way a 4 mile detour will need to be taken. This includes riding a little over a mile on Airline Hwy which is heavy traffic and a very wide shoulder with rumble strip. River Rd will take you across the Spillway, through Reserve (heaver traffic here), Grammercy, Lutcher and into Paulina where we hang a right onto hwy 642. We then take a left at 3125 and take it till it tees into hwy 70. We take hwy 70 for 4.2 miles - traffic can be heavy on this 2 lane road. There is only a small shoulder and it even disappears at a narrow bridge crossing. Another right at hwy 22 brings us into Sorrento where we will stop for lunch. We will then turn around and retrace our path back to Audubon Zoo.
Plenty of parking is available at the Zoo. We will meet up at the right side of the parking lot (as you face the river). Participants should arrive for about 6:30 for the required bike inspection and push-off will be for 7 AM. Temperatures are expected to be from the low 40's to the mid 50's, winds will be low to moderate and we are not expecting any rain.
Anyone planning on riding in this brevet or any other New Orleans RUSA event should contact Pat Horchoff at LARBA1955 at AOL dot COM to ensure they will have a brevet card and que sheet.

Laissez les bon temps rouler,
Pat
Crescent City Randonneurs