[OrRando] May12th 200K Report

Mon May 14 03:40:39 PDT 2007

The 2nd China brevet is now in the history books.

>From the dates I picked, I know NOT to pick lottery tickets.  Of these days, guess which was the brevet day: Sunny, Sunny, Sunny, Rainy, Sunny, Sunny .  Right.  I didn't pick a Sunny day.  

The morning of the brevet saw a light mist and four possible new "randonneurs" said "Not today."  with forecasts of high winds and a 40% chance of the wet stuff.   

Three did show up at the start: Hitoshi Yonai from Japan, Graeme Holmes, and Yas K (need to get that last name.).  While we were waiting to see who else might venture out to Suzhou and back, a group of four Chinese older cyclists saw my recumbent leaning against the wall and came over to take a look.   Hitoshi speaks Chinese and soon he and one of the gentlemen were engaged in a lively conversation at which time the Chinese cyclist pulled out a book the size of an encyclopedia and proudly showed Post Office cancellation stamps of the places he visited on his bike.  A group photo and we were off.

I decided to lead the first 40 kilometers and would bail at the CP#3, the Rendezvous Cafe, in Zhudi Town because a meeting with Mr. Road Rash had my left leg begging for mercy.  On the way, with rain falling Yas decided he'd ride another day.   It figure that 10 minutes later the rain stopped and most of the rest of the day was overcast.

Graeme and Hitoshi headed out to Suzhou from Zhudi Town.  Later meeting up with Graeme at CP#5 he said: "My legs felt okay.  My mind felt okay.  But at 100 kms my body said: "Not today.".  

Calculating the time Hitoshi would get to CP#5 I waited and then headed backtracking to find him a short ways from Zhudi Town where we rode together for awhile and then he was off to Shanghai to finish successfully the 2nd official brevet in China.   

Congratulations Hitoshi.  

I'm very much grateful that Hitoshi came all the way from Japan to help launch Randonneurs of China and he's promised to come back next year for a 200K and 300K, routes I hope to construct with the help of Bernie, Brad, and Damien and some others in Pudong area.

Some pics from the 200K here:  http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v642/jkeenan7/2007%20Brevets/

Ride Long and Prosper

Slo Joe Keenan

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