Dutch and Belgian Classics.. in August?!

Photo courtesy of Graham Watson and VeloNews.com

Get out the Grolsch and pommes frites- it's Classics season all over again, courtesy of la Veulta a España! The first four stages are in the Netherlands and Belgium before the transfer into Spain on Wednesday. Tuesday's stage will finish in Liège.

Here in the States, Universal Sports is carrying all of the stages with several rebroadcasts daily. In the Triangle, you can find it over-the-air on channel 17.2 or Time Warner Cable channel 218. If you're elsewhere, find it here.

In the meantime, you can find me at Alivia's (formerly Bull City Bicycles.) Look for the heap of bottles and frites.

Look, Ma.. no hands!

Tip o' the chapeau to the fellas at Bull City Cycling for uncovering this.

Note from Peter White On Schmidt Edelux Lights

You'll recall I recently posted about a problem with leaking Edelux lights. You can read the original post here.

Peter White of Peter White Cycles, the U.S. & Canada importer for Wilfried Schmidt, has left a new comment on that post. Since you might not see his comments buried below, here they are:

Some of the early production Edelux headlights don't seal properly. Schmidt will fix any that get water inside. Later production have been 100% trouble free.
If you have a light with water inside, let me know.

Peter Jon White
Peter White Cycles
603 478 0900

Thanks for the update.

scenes from a Yanceyville Ramble

I wanted to pull out a gun on Gunn Poole Road. A shotgun. Pump action, and aim it at my own fat rear end. The three big hills were painful, and blasting 20 pounds off my ass might help me get up the hills easier. Then I remembered LeMond's Law: it never gets easier, you just go faster. And since there was no shotgun in my Carradice, I clipped in and kept going.

John's Yanceyville Ramble 200k permament has been a hit among local randonneurs, but Saturday was my introduction to it. It's a beautifully rural route that includes a few considerable hills, historic homes, North Carolina "Scenic Byways" and some time travel. The time travel part? It's accomplished by simply riding through downtown Yanceyville.

Thanks for designing and hosting such a great route, John. This one deserves to be ridden for a long time. (By the way, John's looking for someone to adopt this route since he and his family are moving to New Zealand. Drop him a line if you're interested.)

A few photos below, more here.

Across the Pond! The NC Randonneurs Present A Two-Hour Tour Of Ireland, England & Scotland

The NC Randonneurs are hosting a special salute to the British Isles this Saturday. Join Adrian Hands at Alivias Bistro in Durham from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. for Fish & Chips, the Tour of Ireland on the Telly and the premiere of "London Edinburgh London 2009," a one-hour video ride report produced and directed by Cap'n John Ende and starring several members of the U.S. LEL team. RSVP please to Branson at bullcitybiker@gmail.com.

Two Girls, One Bike

The fun begins at 2:25 or so.

North Carolina Bicycle Club Randonneurs RUSA Anniversary Ride, 2009

Anniversaries mark important historical events. But they are also celebratory occasions. So, too, was the second consecutive locally celebrated RUSA Anniversary Brevet on Saturday, August 15, marking the 11th year of Randonneurs USA, or RUSA for short.

It was great seeing a number of newbies, but also the oldbies who’ve become a great support structure for NC randonneuring! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet all of you. So you’ll have to come back again!

A special thanks to RBA, Alan Johnson, for organizing and hosting this NCBC event. By all accounts it was another successful anniversary brevet. Although Mike O quipped that Alan was losing his touch with the weather, since there was no rain!

Aside from the lack of rain, everything else was clicking today: the cool morning temperatures; the midmorning overcast skies; the great job done by the volunteers; the relaxing post-ride celebratory picnic at Morrisville Community Park; the upbeat enthusiastic riders . . . Just back from L-E-L, Mike D looked relaxed sporting a cool T-shirt with the L-E-L logo. RBA Tony Goodnight was there as well.

We can’t say enough about volunteerism and its importance to RUSA events. A number of volunteers pre-rode this event last Saturday on a sweltering day. Others took time out to help with the picnic and other duties. The water at the corner of Chicken Bridge and NC 87 in the white Styrofoam coolers, still cold on the return in the afternoon sun, was a nice touch, Jerry and company! Thanks to all the selfless volunteers for making this another successful anniversary ride.

Riders filing out on the 200km ride before sunrise at 6 AM.

It was nice to see a number of newbies tackling their first 200km brevet today. I’m disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to meet them all. But congratulations are in order, anyway!

Three riders at Snow Camp tackling their first 200km event, from left to right, Lynn, Scott, and John.

Although I finished with a time of 9:33, I got off to a sluggish start, probably due to the fact that I hadn’t ridden in a week. At any rate, I liked the pre-dawn start. Due to overcast morning skies, I wore reflective gear and burned my flashing taillight all the way to Snow Camp.

I teamed up with Mike O just past Snow Camp and we took turns pushing the pace to Siler City. We rode pretty much together for the remainder of the ride. His company made the miles go faster in more ways than one. Mike has ridden most of this area and can tell you where each road goes that we pass. He’s also good at spotting hawks, deer, and interesting items along the road.

Here is one interesting item we saw. Ever wished you’d had your camera when you saw that UFO no one believed you saw? Well today, I was prepared.

Here’s the picture that I’m forwarding to NASA and more importantly to Mulder and Scully.

Since I’m not an engineer or a physicist, I can’t offer an educated opinion about the technical sophistication of this contraption. But as a biologist, I’m thinking there may be the possibility that the Clampett gene pool may be “out there” somewhere.

Mike O on the return.

Watch out, Mike! My tandem riding buddy, Mt. Fuji, is about to pounce!

Note my bike listing to the left? Toting Mt. Fuji all across creation is no easy task. Maybe the reason for my slow start and struggle up Jack Bennett hill today. That’s my story, at any rate.

Congratulations to all for yet another successful anniversary ride! We hope to see you and everyone else sometime soon! Let’s ride!

Great Lakes Randonneurs RUSA Anniversary Ride, 2009

Just got home from Illinois . . .

In the latest edition of American Randonneur, President Lois Springsteen pegged it for me when she enumerated a few of the reasons some of us ride: “travelling to other regions to do some exploring . . . [and] . . . find new scenery and make new friends . . .” The RUSA Anniversary ride sponsored by the Great Lakes Randonneurs (GLR) on August 8th provided such an opportunity.
Ever since RUSA ride schedules were posted on-line last fall, I’d been looking forward to this event which corresponded with my “summer” vacation this year. Judging from the lead-in picture lifted from the GLR web site, I thought there was a good chance that this group of folks would turn out to be a fun bunch. Indeed, they were!

The ride seemed easy enough on paper. A relatively flat, west-east, out-and-back course across northern Illinois starting at the Forest Preserve outside of Hampshire, IL, a western “suburb” of Chicago.

The route passed through ever-so-gently rolling farmland . . .

. . . and miles and miles of corn and soybeans sixty-eight miles to the turn-around control in Byron, IL.

Experience tells us that things don’t always turn out as we plan. In this part of the country, there is always the possibility of strong winds whipping across flat, treeless farmland. But that was only the half of it. There remained one thing for which the locals could not prepare this year. Because the month of July had been the coolest ever on record, there was no time to acclimate to the sweltering weather on ride day.

And there it was: forecasters projected a triple-digit heat index. Unfortunately, they’d gotten it right. They’d also predicted 15-20 mph winds blowing in from the SW, translating into head winds until the turn-around in Byron. Right again. Lastly, they’d warned of possible thunderstorms until 1 PM. We got a break on this one, the only thing they’d missed. The rain stopped just before our morning launch, while the upstart wind dissipated the fog.

That’s South Carolina riding buddy Tom B on the left and brother Bill on the right, both vanquishers of the Tar Heel 200. Tom has completed several Morrisville, NC, brevets.

Then came the all-important pre-ride instructions you hope your riding buddies are listening to in case you weren’t paying attention. Of note, the official cue sheet had been changed the day before, causing me to hurriedly exchange the one I’d downloaded from the web site a week earlier to the one provided at check-in. Not to worry, however, since GLR volunteers had been busily marking each of the turns that morning with bright orange arrows painted directly onto the roads. I guess they wanted to make sure no one had to rely on a corn field as a directional landmark. The reason the cue sheet had changed was because the DOT had been busy, first asphalting and then dumping gravel over several select roads the previous week. The cue-sheet updates didn’t mean that we would altogether avoid travelling on graveled roads, just that they’d be kept to a minimum.

Speaking of corn, notice the corn leaves pointing our way. I hope that’s not pop corn! Do you see the cooling towers of the nuclear energy plant in Byron, IL?

Here is a closer view.

Here is the deceptively flat route. It was especially great to see Tom B come barreling down one of these “hills” on the return toward me on his fixie with a big grin on his face, shouting huge words of encouragement: “It’s much faster on the return!” Thanks, Tom! Holding onto those words, I pushed a little harder toward Byron.

At the Byron control, I wasn’t sure if the heat was making me delirious or what. But if you look closely at the sign on the bar across the street from the control you’ll see a reference to a particular part of a Tom turkey’s anatomy that distinguishes him from hens. And I’m not talking about non-edible items like wattle or beard. It appears they’ve dedicated a Festival of sorts to it. Last October, it was reported that the Turkey Testicle Festival in Byron, IL, drew some 5,000 people—mostly bikers (not spandex wearing cyclists)—and raised $25,000 for various charities. Even the local sheriff supported the event.

Talk of the Festival amongst our group provided a welcome distraction from the sweltering heat and humidity. Taking a longer-than-usual break to cool down, our group of six took turns icing feet and femoral arteries with a bag of ice, something I’d learned from the Texas randonneurs.

Our new friend Mike (on the left) recounted fascinating randonneuring jaunts in Wisconsin and Illinois with the great Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo, sharing some of their riding wisdom. Mike also told an interesting personal story about how a bag of pretzels got him back on his feet so that he could finish a brevet after a severe leg-muscle cramping incident that occurred early in his randonneuring career. He’d been leading a pack of six riders when he cramped shortly after the half-way point. One guy in the group pulled over, surmised that Mike was dehydrated and gave him a small bag of pretzels. He told Mike to eat them and rest in the shade before continuing. Later, after getting back on his bike, Mike purchased a big bag of pretzels which he completely consumed, chasing it with fluid. It saved the day. The hydration triangle: carbohydrates, salt, water.

Following our shadows home on graveled road, knowing it’s in the bag. What a wonderful feeling! We got in before dark in spite of a “late” 8 AM start.

It’s true that randonneurs get a huge rush from completing brevets. We know this because it incites reports such as this one. But this is not the entire story by any means. One hundred and twenty-nine miles provides ample space to reminisce about the many supportive randonneurs whose paths we’ve crossed and to whom we are grateful.

For the present, thanks to Tom, Bill, Mike, and all the other riders, the GLR folks, including those who were busily marking the route the morning of the ride for this out-of-towner on vacation. Let’s ride again!

Viral Bicycle Video

Okay, 3 people have now sent this to me, so up it goes. Enjoy. Even if it's making fun of ya.

Schmidt Edelux Water Issues

About a year ago, I put a notice on the blog about the SuperNova LED light being somewhat less than waterproof. At least in that regard, the Edelux by Schmidt seemed the better choice.

Guess what? The Edelux lights apparently suffer from the same flaw. I've had three friends with those lights report water problems. Here's what one said:

"The housing allowed water to enter shorting out the light. It was sent back to Germany and repaired although I haven't tried it out since."

I was riding with him when the light failed. We'd been through about five hours of hell and high water when his world went black. Luckily, he had a helmet light as a back-up.

Another friend who just finished a rainy LEL reports:

"There was water in the Edelux splashing around at the end. It dried out once I returned but there was some h20 residue.... The water did not affect performance at all (yet)."

That light is also being sent back to Germany for repairs.

Look, Schmidt folks, we're spending $200-plus on these lights. Where is the reliability we've come to expect from your products?

With these kinds of problems, is it any wonder that some are forgoing the Schmidt set-up in favor of cheaper battery powered lights, which are now close in brightness, half the weight and with much less financial sting.

During LEL I saw the Ixon IQ in action. It was not as bright as the Edelux, but it wasn't too far off, either, and it can run on AA batteries. No expensive Schmidt hub required.

New NC Randonneurs Website

You've seen the jerseys, now visit the Website...

The NC Randonneurs have seen explosive growth in the past few years, thanks to the efforts of lots of folks -- RBAs Al Johnson and Tony Goodnight, former RBA Richard Lawrence, the leaders at NCBC, and an active corps of volunteers that I won't name for fear of leaving someone off, and of course all of the riders who show up month after month. To help pull things together, Branson Kimball has just launched a new Website at www.ncrandonneurs.com. The preliminary site has local news and info about upcoming rides -- including this weekend's anniversary celebration. Come on out. Thanks, Mr. B.

Ride Report -- 200K RUSA Anniversary Volunteer Ride

Honestly, all I wanted to do was to show off my LEL jersey. Problem was, the only good place to do that was the start of a ride -- the pre-ride of Al's RUSA anniversary 200K brevet, scheduled for August 15. Once you're at the start of a ride, and somebody hands you a brevet card, well you got no choice but to join in the fun. We had a good-sized crew, including Al, Geof, Byron, Tom, Mary and Jerry.

It was a tough day on the bikes. For one, despite a couple of short-lived bursts, my legs were still whupped from 1400K of effort 10 days ago. Also, the pre-ride fell on the hottest day that we've ridden all year -- 94 degrees and lots of humidity. Where are those rainy, fall-like days of Scotland when you need em? When we hit the black sections of asphalt on Chicken Bridge, the heat hit us like a brick out of an oven. Water stops were mandatory -- about every 20 miles. Here's the first at Andrews Store.



We managed to find an oasis of shade under an oak at the Snow Camp gas station. We picked up one rider along the way -- a fellow named D who lived just west of Snow Camp.





Ride time was 9:36, very respectable given the many stops along the way.

We volunteers are now ready for next Saturday's official ride. Several of us will be working the grill at the ride's finish. Come on out and join us. If 200K is too much for you, there's a shorter 108K route that tours the hills of Bynum.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Crank Problems

You've heard the advice many times -- don't change anything on your bike before a big ride. Still, I had a lot of miles on my Coho's drivetrain, so I had Ed, my trusty mechanic, put on a new cassette, chain, as well as an FSA bottom bracket and crankset, which is one of those modern designs with the outboard bearings. All seemed fine on the 100-mile test ride here in the states, and on a 20-mile trial run on the LEL course.

So what happens on the ride itself? I'm probably 15 miles in and I can no longer shift into the large front ring. Thinking I had a derailleur or cable issue, I stop to check things out. The crankset now has as 1/4-inch of side-to-side play -- so much that it slides to the right out of range of the front derailleur's ability to put the chain on the large ring. I knew how to tighten it -- loosen the bolts on the left crank arm, tighten the crank arm cap bolt. But I didn't appreciate the subtleties involved. I should have loosened the crank arm bolts more. The volunteer mechanics along the way were more like me -- they knew all about the old school square taper bottom brackets, but were pretty clueless about these new-fangled designs.

Bottom line: I never really got it right and had to stop, sometimes as often as every 100K, and readjust. In my lowest moments, I wondered whether this mechanical issue would be a show stopper. But I lived with the annoyance and got er done. Lesson learned -- leave well enough alone before the ride or get a quick lesson in roadside repair beforehand.

Apart from that issue, the bike performed flawlessly and was a delight for the entire 1400K journey. A special thanks to Chuck for building such a fine randonneuring machine.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Technology Marches On

It was pretty clear before the ride started that LEL organizers were not planning to offer online updates of riders' progress, like those that had been done two years before by PBP07 officials. A week before we headed to London, I found something that would let my family and friends know how we were doing and where we were. I have an iPhone and I bought a data package for England. I also bought a iPhone application, TweetMic, that allowed me to easily post audio messages to my blog via Twitter. The process was a bit frustrating. Many of the tweets I recorded would not upload, but enough got through to let folks know that we were moving steadily along and doing just fine, despite some atrocious weather conditions. Next time, I'll know to type in an ID tag and put more identifying info in each message, but by and large TweetMic worked well, and several friends thanked me for the updates, saying Ende and I sounded good the entire time. The tweets accurately reflect our mostly upbeat moods. The fact is, there were very few low moments on this ride.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Connections

For two or three days I exchanged hellos with an English rider I'd see at the controls. We were on a similar timetable. He seemed vaguely familiar, but I could not figure out why. Finally, on Day 5 of the ride, we were in the cafeteria together and I introduced myself. And his name? Ian. Then it clicked. "Ian? By chance, did we ride on PBP07 together?" He smiled and suddenly made the same connection. "We may have," he said. No wonder he looked familiar. On PBP07, I'd left Mortagne-au-Perche at 2:30 a.m., having been mistakenly awakened after only 15 minutes of sleep by the control volunteers. Out in one of darkest sections of the course, I was falling asleep on the bike. I needed someone to talk to, and as I rode along I finally heard someone say something in English. I asked if I could ride with him, just to have a bit of conversation to keep the mind occupied. He said sure, so we rode together to Dreux. Of course, it was Ian. I never suspected we'd connect again, since there must be a million cyclists named Ian in England. It's a small world after all. That is his pix at the top of the page. Ian, great connecting and riding with you once again.

Speaking of connections, a shout-out to Gabriele and Carina (sp?), two German riders we had dinner with before the event, and who we saw numerous times along the way. They looked like they were having a great time, and the ride marked Carina's longest ride ever. A big congratulations.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Local Knowledge

It's a safe wager that most LEL riders did bonus miles. No matter how careful you were to synch your mileage with the cue sheet, missed turns were inevitable. The reasons were varied. Some lanes didn't have names, leaving you guessing when you got near a scheduled turn. Other lanes were so narrow or inconspicuous that it was tempting to write them off as the correct choice. Only after the cue sheet stopped making sense would we circle back and give the road we'd passed a second look. The safest way to stay on course was to hook up with a British rider who 1) knew the local roads or 2) had a GPS. Thus, on the run into Lincoln, our group put a local on the front whose club regularly rode the streets we were on. He probably saved us an hour as we twisted through the central shopping district. We later heard that some of our friends got lost and climbed two or three steep hills in town. As for the GPS, fellow RUSA rider and friend George Swain rode nearly the entire event with a Brit named Robin who had meticulously programmed the route into his GPS, including waypoints at the turns. Here's his picture.



We were the lucky recipients of his labors on the last two days. Robin was a steady rider with tireless legs. He led us home with only one wrong turn, and that was within a mile of the finish where the GPS file uploaded by LEL folks deviated from the final cue sheet.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- In Camera Conference

On the afternoon of Day 2, we stopped for a food break at a cafe in Middleton-in-Teesdale, a small market town in County Durham at the foot of Yad Moss, our one significant climb of the day. Looking for a food miracle in northern England, I went against my better judgment and ordered a hamburger. The folks in this part of the world probably have a dozen recipes for leg of lamb, but their preparation of the lowly hamburger still needs a bit of work. But all of these details are a distraction from the real story. I left my camera sitting on the chair beside me. I didn't miss it until I was two-thirds the way up Yad Moss. There was no way I was going to ride back down the hill to retrieve it. When I got to the Alston Control, I recruited a little help to hunt down the restaurant where we'd stopped. By now, it was closed, and the chances of being reunited with my camera grew slimmer by the minute. I was growing resigned to the loss, and mentioned that fact once more as we prepared to leave. A cyclist standing nearby heard me talking and asked, "What did you lose?" I told him I'd left my camera down the hill. With a sly smile, he whipped the camera out from behind his back. Happy day! He told me his name, and I promptly forgot it. But I did get his picture. Here it is. A million thanks.



Note: mystery solved! The riders are Brett and Chris. See the comments section.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Black and White and Wet All Over

A few miles outside the village of St. Neots, we came into a small village with a farm store. I ducked in, picked up a lemonade, a candy bar and a bag of chips. As I paid for the items, one of the storms that had been shadowing us finally moved in, dumping a heavy rain. That's when the newspaper stacked in front of the meat counter caught my eye.



When we got to St. Neots, we were hit by a hail stones, and several of us ducked under a storefront to wait it out. Coincidence? Neots is an anagram for stone.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Scotch Anyone?

I've seen beer and wine served at the controls during PBP. But in Scotland? The volunteers offered up another sort of prized local beverage -- single malt Scotch. There were two varieties available. My riding companion Ende went with Islay, a Scotch whisky made on Islay, the southernmost of the Inner Hebridean Islands located off the west coast of Scotland.



Spencer opted for a Biere D'or Des Flandres, which, despite its highfalutin name, apparently is found in the supermarket economy bin.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Control Volunteers & Food

Kudos to the volunteers at the many controls along the route. Pre-ride, there had been some listserv chatter about volunteer efforts being in disarray, with some helpers threatening a full-blown mutiny. We prepared for the worst. In fact, nothing could have been further from reality. The small armies of volunteers at the stops along the way were among the true joys of the event. No question that the majority of the helpers were cyclists just like us. They were sympathetic to our pains and took unabashed delight in our progress. Many of them put in hours equal to our own -- I was surprised to see the very same workers at some of the controls on our return leg -- two days after we'd first passed through. Those volunteers looked as bleary-eyed as the riders, but they remained enthusiastic and engaged. Thanks to the whole bunch of you; your efforts were greatly appreciated.

Overcrowding was a problem at some checkpoints, especially the Eskdalemuir control. The control fell at about the 300K mark on Day 2, making it the natural destination for the many randonneurs riding a moderate pace. By midnight the place was jammed with bodies. The one sleeping room was overwhelmed, so exhausted riders began falling out wherever a square of floor space could be found -- in the hallway, under tables in the dining area. I tried to grab a little sleep under a table, but there was a beehive of activity just above my head. It sounded like a poker night at the frat house. Worse, quarters were so cramped that at one point a rider planted two wet socks, with the dogs still inside, squarely across the old kisser. That did it. Sleep was officially off the menu. Despite the unpleasant prospect of rolling dead-tired through the next day, I filled the water bottles and headed out into the night at 3:30 a.m. Thankfully, the sky began to lighten within the hour, which helped to revive me, and I was able to grab a precious hour of sleep at the Dalkeith control as I waited for Ende to arrive.

As for food? As a rule, English cuisine gets a bad rap; the common complaint is how bland the menu is. But I can tell you that the food was every bit as good as that on PBP. For one breakfast I enjoyed a plate of eggs, bacon on a roll, potato and leek soup, a bowl of cereal. I capped it off with a bowl of ice cream. Now, that's what I'm talking about. Finding food between the controls proved difficult. This was not America, where every corner has a 7-11. On the entire route I think we saw no more than three of what we'd call convenience stores here in the U.S. Of course, riding buddy Cap'n Ende apparently sniffed out the only MacDonald's in northern England and stopped in for fries and a burger.

London Edinburgh London 2009 Stories -- Romancing the Stone.

Cap'n Ende and I shared a hostel dorm room with four other cyclists, including Andy from England and Barry from Australia, who is a RUSA member. That's Barry on the right in this photo.



Chewing the fat as we prepared our drop bags, the talk drifted to PBP 07, and Barry launched into the story about some RUSA rider who'd finished despite being hauled off to the hospital with a kidney stone. Ah, yes.... I interrupted Barry. "The guy you're talking about? That's him, right there," I said, pointing at Ende. Barry got to hear a first-person account from Ende himself. I'm amazed by the legs that story has -- the stone heard round the world. If you haven't read it, check it out here.

Stories from London Edinburgh London 2009 - Winding-Up at the Windmill

Before the ride started, the North Carolina crew, as well as cyclists from around the globe, gathered for beer and bicycles at the Windmill, a small pub that was a stone's throw from the ride start. The tap dispensed Guinness while the TV showed Le Tour's Mont Ventoux mountain stage. There is no finer way to spend a pre-event afternoon with your rowdy friends. Here are Jimmy and Cap'n Ende enjoying a pint.



Speaking of friends, we made many new ones including Spencer from Missouri. He was a constant riding companion the last couple of days, and he kept things fun. Here's the proof.

London Edinburgh London 09 Pictures

Pics I took before, during the ride.

RUSA Members at London Edinburgh London 09

It's unclear whether the LEL organizers will be publishing a list of riders, somewhat odd behavior from folks in the land of CCTV, where every street corner has a camera. The organizers did list the number of riders from each country, which indicated there were at least 13 U.S. riders signed up.

Before the event, we were in the dark as to who they were. I knew about the four NC riders, including Cap'n Ende, Will and Jimmy, and I knew Phil from SC was riding. I'd also corresponded with George in NY, and I'd seen that Spencer from Missouri planned to be there.

Luckily, RUSA has lots of official clothing, and that made it easy to spot many of the other fellow Americans. All that gear also gave our riders a strong national identity -- riders from other countries occasionally commented to the effect of "there's the RUSA team." Here's one of my favorite shots from the ride. That's Spencer from Missouri, representing the U.S. fixed gear contingent, Cap'n Ende from North Carolina and Phil from S.C.




The above shot shows three RUSA riders -- Laurent, Rick and Todd -- lined up for the 8:45 start. I love that SF jersey. And Rick's sash. I've corresponded with Todd, who sounds like he had a fantastic and successful LEL, apart from someone making off with his only pair of socks at Eskdalemuir. We saw Rick at the finish, sporting an impressive shiner from his accident.



Lev, above, is a RUSA member who lives in Israel. We connected with him before the ride as we walked up to the Windmill pub for lunch. That's him sitting with Ende. Check out that crazy rooster picture in the background. Lev was great company and we enjoyed two days of his delightful humor. Unfortunately, he packed at Thorne, I believe, but loaned his Independent Fabrications bike to Rick after Rick's bike was totaled in an accident. For that selfless act, the N.C. Randonneurs made Lev an honorary member and presented him with one of our official, albeit slightly aromatic, jerseys. Thanks, Lev.

Here are the two other North Carolina riders at the event: Jimmy and Will. A big congratulations to Will for finishing the event. Prior to LEL he had not ridden anything longer than a 400k, but he managed the additional 1000K with no apparent difficulties other than a strained knee. That's Will with his foot in the soup -- what a joker! ....



And here's Jimmy waiting for a train to pass.





The above picture shows George, a NY rider who blogs as the Hudson Randonneur. We rode with him quite a bit, especially during the last two days. He is a strong rider who often set the pace in our little peloton. I believe it was his first ride of more than 600K, so a tip of the hat to him on his successful finish.

One fun connection was with Mark R from Seattle. The last time we met we were both on the train heading to bike inspection at PBP 07. It was great seeing him at LEL. He sent me a note to say he made it to Edinburgh, where he had to pack because of back pain stemming from an injury last spring.



And below is Glen from Pennsylvania, who has joined the N.C. Randonneurs on at least one of our brevets.



There were others, including Ole from Seattle and Barry, a RUSA member from Australia, that I failed to photograph, and there were a few I didn't meet. If you have any other updates, please pass them along.

A big congratulations to all of the participants.