The 300K we participated in would not be considered one of the longer Brevet rides. The series also includes rides of 100K, 200K, 400K, and 600K (375 miles). If you are tough enough to survive all of these, your award is a qualifying spot in one of a handful of 1200K (750 mile) events held throughout the world. The grand-daddy of these is the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200K, an event that draws a few thousand people when it is held once every four years. In the U.S., these rides are sanctioned by the U.S. Randoneurring Association. It is an organization made up of people that put on events like the one that Dave Waldburger and Karen & Dave Etchells participated in last Febuary - 100 miles in upstate New York in a snowstorm. They really know how to have fun.
For this year's Bash Bish 300K, I picked up Eric and Dave at Eric's house in Andover at 1:55 AM for the ride to Westfield. When I left my house it was 48 degrees and clear - it was looking like we'd have a good day with a not-too-cold start. It was not hard to find a parking spot at the start, as only 22 people had signed up for the event, with over 20% of them being from our club. We rolled out of the shop's parking lot at 4:00 AM into the darkness, and quickly settled in with a group of about 8 cyclists. Our combined lights did a pretty good job of illuminating the road, but nevertheless at 12 miles I managed to hit a pothole hard enough so that my water bottle went flying, my rear tire went flat, and my rim took on a new shape. It was not a good start to the day. Eric and I managed to get the tire fixed, but the rim was so dented that I had to disable my back brakes so that the wheel wouldn't hang up on the brake pads. With my bike rolling, we headed westward on Route 20 wondering if we would see Dave and the rest of the gang again. We also wondered if my dented rim, which had suffered not just the pothole, but also over 40,000-miles of life-time abuse, would last for another 180 miles. We surmised that Murphy's Law dictated that the wheel would not self-destruct until we were the maximum distance from the start.
The hill up the east flank of the Berkshires on Route 20 is called Jacob's Ladder, and it goes on for a long way, climbing over 1000 feet to the top. We passed Steve and Judy on the climb, both looking good (actually, it was dark, I have no idea if they were looking good). The event organizer had assured us that it would actually be warmer at elevation due to some meteorological phenomenon he was unable to explain; however, when we got to the top of the hill there was frost on the ground and the temperatures were down in the 20s. Eric looked longingly at my chemical-toe warmer equipped booties and long sleeved gloves and noted that the majority of his appendages had been numb for the last hour. After the big climb up Jacob's Ladder, the route drops down to Lee, Mass. on its way to Great Barrington. The route then hooks south and follows the Housatonic River though beautiful farm country all the way to Kent at the 92 mile mark. Eric and I had found Dave back in Lee and we worked the pace-line thing all the way to Kent. We had some lunch in Kent then wound our way over to New York, where Eric took the State line in a flash of speedy bravado. The course then followed the State line northward, returning briefly into Connecticut and then back into New York, where Eric again had two successful sprints followed by several minutes of intolerble self-adulation. At about 115 miles we turned onto the Harlem Valley Trail, a paved rail trail passing through some beautiful country. The trail ends at the bottom of a daunting 1000-foot climb along Bash Bish Falls. The climb features two 18 percent pitches, and continues on-and-off for approximately four miles. With 120 miles on our legs, it was a tough go. Eric and I arrived at the top of the first long pitch and Dave was nowhere to be seen. A few minutes later we saw him pushing his bike up the last grade with a sheepish grin on his face. Dave Waldburger walking up a hill - now that's something you don't see every day. I promised him I would tell no one - so please make this our little secret. OK? The descent off of Bash Bish was long and rough, and several times I wished I'd had access to that rear brake that had been disabled 100 miles earlier. Eric, Dave and I chugged our way back to Lee, and then lowered our heads for the 8-mile ascent up the western slope of the Berkshires. The last 30 miles or so was a screaming tail-wind aided descent down Route 20 into Westfield, thirteen hours and 22 minutes after we had left. The descent allowed us to regain our pride and return our average speed to just north of the 17 mph mark. Eric's talking about returning to Westfield for the 400K in early June (252 miles). Have I made this sound appealing enough for anyone to join him?
