On Saturday, August 25, 2007, the Third Annual Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnee (D2R2) started at 6 AM at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The ride will benefit the Franklin Land Trust. This RUSA populaire is breathtaking in both senses of the word: 107 miles, 70% on dirt roads, with 11,300 feet of climbing.
However, PyZahl finished with about 120mi and over 13611 feet of climbing.
A little unconventional, but greatly suited, he used his new and Custom made Stonebite Cobalt Cross Race 28" mit 700x30 Michelin Cyclo Cross Mud 2.
** a special machine **
Friday early afternoon PyZahl took off to meet with some buddies to travel to Greenfield, MA.However, PyZahl finished with about 120mi and over 13611 feet of climbing.
A little unconventional, but greatly suited, he used his new and Custom made Stonebite Cobalt Cross Race 28" mit 700x30 Michelin Cyclo Cross Mud 2.
** a special machine **In Northhampton, close to Greenfied, they went to the famous Northhampton Brewery for a Pre-ride pasta dinner and a little bit of local brewed beer.
Going to bed early, as they took off at 5am to get ready at the start at Greenfield Campgrounds -- rolling off at 6:06am.
The start was fast -- PyZahl always wonders why they all race out so fast for such a long thing, does it matter, is it good at all? -- they passed by an crash situation of an (to PyZahl) unkonown rider, he hopes he is fine and wishes all the best. -- Hell, this is not a race!
Little ahead of the group with Phil and Kevin they missed a turn, got behind without the others knowing. Next, on some rougher sections, Kevin broke a spoke, they lost more time and got further behind there group. Managing the bike to roll again, but not good to proceed, Kevin made it back to his car, went to a bike shop and got it fixed.
In the meantime PyZahl proceeded with Phil and enabled his GPS D2R2 2006 track log navigation to prevent further missed turns, which worked great. As there are not always local route aware riders around, streets and turns unnamed at times and the Que Sheet is hard to follow on the fly going fast. At the first secret Water Stop and Checkpoint:
Riding on, great country sites, and roads, but getting hot and staying very humid, here taking a photo of fellow riders and waiting up the only one remaining in his "group" -- and Yes, PyZahl is taking along his big and heavy digital SLR for great shots!
Meeting Kevin at the 2nd stop, the rest of group seams lost, confusing, however, we need to proceed as the cut-off time comes closer. Here the second official Checkpoint and Water/Food stop settled at a scenic setting across a covered bridge:
Checkpoint #2 well stocked with food and water, gels and drinks:
One more view:
So PyZahl proceeded now again with Phil and Kevin, passing great valleys and river sites. Here on left of Phil one unkown rider tackling the course on an MTB.
Very scenic river with some kind of art, too tempting to take a dip, now!! But they needed to proceed....
That nice gently down stream dirt road along that river was too soon to be left, PyZahl felt a bit like sh*t and mentally tiered that moment, however the following climb after a sharp almost U turn (which can be miss easily, but thanks to the GPS we did not :-) woke him up and at top a short and fast road downhill came up, he topped his speed close to 75km/h, that was a great cooling wind... At that point Kevin must have bailed... as we waited at the bottom for nothing.
Crusing a few easy roads at good speed made PyZahl feeling much better again, but not for long, the next, and he thinks, longes and steeped climb came up on them, here, at the end of the steep part -- waiting and taking a few photos :-)
That trees spending shade were really great and life saving at this brutal hot and humid day.
Most of the steep off road climbs, PyZahl was really happy having plenty of gearing, good grip tires, so he was able to pedal up all the steeps, not even goofing on a single one and confidently making fast turns on descents :-)
Pushing "big" gears may work the first and second time, but most riders got in trouble later. At least a compact or better triple chain ring is recommended.
Me and Phil ready for take off from the last Checkpoint to the finish :-)
...finisthing the tour with some fellow riders ;-) GPS runs out of battery at last 7mi, making it to the finish by the Que Sheet without any troubles.
Finish together with to fellow riders the official "115mi" at about 6:20pm:
At the Finish PyZahl found out the rest of the group got lost and bailed at about 100mi total.
PyZahl GPS Track Log (some missing mi and ft):
http://trail.motionbased.com
See also the overview pages of all photos with comments below the photos:
http://www.kasinonet.ch/bike
This was an extraordinary tour, close or at PyZahl's limits. Especially with that hot weather in place.
And special thanks to all the organizers and volunteers and secret water stop volunteers along the route... if you want to figure out your limits, that is the tour to do -- you have to do it, to get the idea of it and what it means, to ride almost 200km on dirt with over 4200m of elevation gain!
*** D2R2 180k Results, taken from Newhorizonbikes site (search for D2R2 results) and sorted this looks like this table. ***
Great report! I was on ride but a stick attacked my derailleur. Took out my gears and I rigged one to limp back to Greenfield.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who are idiots about using gps on bikes, can you please let us know what equipment you were using and how you plotted the course, etc?
Thanks and congrats!!
Thanks and sorry to read about your bad luck.
ReplyDeleteI have the Garmin Egde 305 and used a course (D2R2 2006) I found by searching the web at Motion Based and took the one trusted most and downloaded it also via web on the device.
If you just go here:
[url]http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3763626[/url]
you can find out even the device I used, look at all kind of data, like speed distributions etc. and you can also download now my track (but including all detours I may made).
And one more thing in addition, the track on the screen -- I used about 300m by 200m field of view -- helped me to foresee "blind" upcoming turns on fast descents (behind crests), so I was prepared or just could let go.... That was great, almost like a radar... and I was able to point out turns before they were even visible!
I should also say, you can create a turn by turn route manually from a Cue Sheet and convert/download it to the device.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a digital mapping software it usually will allow doing this, so you have to find and click any turn or reference point you want for the route to appear on the device.
With some hacking experience it is possible to use Google-Maps in conjunction with a few tools -- but that is (by today) for experts only I have to say.
The difference between "track" and "route" is that a route usually only shows the position of turns/intersections, etc. (as the Cue Sheet), not the exact path of the road in all detail, as a track does, it can contain up to one point per second on my device, what is pretty precise.
Very helpful. I plan to return this weekend and do the ride on my own since I hate not finishing these things. I had my mechanical around mile 40 after that first official checkpoint, on that narrow stretch of track connecting the two dirt roads.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that people had problems with their Garmin's bouncing loose from the mounting and losing their power, if that makes sense. But your seems to work well...?
Thanks again...I have to get one of these.
I have to say both issues I not yet experienced. I used the Edge now for over 5000 mi on my road bike and it never came loose. I properly mounted it with the two cable ties to the stem and it is stitting there and never popped off acidentily -- even as I had a crash recently it stayed in place.
ReplyDeleteSame for my newer Full Carbon Hardtail MTB I used with 28" wheels for this ride, it is mounted in exact the same way and holds well -- I rode the MTB with 26" wheels four days in the Alps on roughtes terrain including very technical downhills -- not one single problem!
Switzerland, 4 days Trans-Wallis
And about the battery, it holds quite exact the 12 hours as specified for the device. This D2R2 I had it the first time happening, it run out of battery after quite exactly that time a few miles before the Finish -- nothing really to complain.
I turned the device on at about 5:45am and it was down around 5:50pm. I used it with heart rate monitor only here, as the Cadence Sensor is on my road bike -- I heared it lasts a bit less with CAD enabled.
And by the way, it is possible to hook up any mobile USB charger to it while riding - so you can extent the battery life as long as you carry exter power sources (third party)!
I forgot to say -- have a good ride and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHey Stuart,
ReplyDeleteI saw a name "Stuart" in the 2008 D2R2 participants list, just wondering if that's you and if so, I am looking for some buddy(s) to ride with, as my local's are all bailing this year... else I guess I will be able to hook up to some one randomly...