Comment

Comment by Jeff Bull on June 17, 2013 at 10:29am

Eric, how difficult is it to set up an official route?  I'm the guy from Naperville that spoke to you Friday night in Delavan on May 31st.  I know at the time I mentioned having an 86 miler that I thought about adding to so I could get it to a 200K, but I'd be willing to leave it the length it is and administer a permapop.  I could start it the same spot your FVP does, and it sounds like some folks might like the option of having a full permanent or a 138K populaire in the same location.  Is it a lot of work to get it certified?  I'd be willing to set this up if it's not too big of a hassle.

Comment by Eric Peterson on June 17, 2013 at 10:14am

I wholeheartedly agree about the driving thing, which is why I try to start rides from close to where I live (Naperville). Some rides I have to drive to - we used to have a (joking) rule that the ride distance must exceed the driving distance, so driving to Delavan for a 200K is OK ;-)

Comment by David P. on June 17, 2013 at 9:26am

Eric, I'd also be interested in a populaire in the western suburbs. I enjoy driving when it's not in the city, but I agree with kiltedcelt that it's nice not to have to do it for several hours just to go for a bike ride.

Comment by Eric Peterson on June 16, 2013 at 5:23pm

There are shorter randonneuring rides called populaires as mentioned by spencewine, with typical distances of 100K or so. I've not created any such rides, but it is on my list to do so. Such rides would likely start/end in Naperville, or perhaps Wheaton which has METRA service where the cars hold more bikes than the BNSF in Naperville. I would start rides out here because I think an important feature of such rides is to get out of urban areas.

Comment by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 16, 2013 at 2:28pm

The populaires sound very interesting.

I used to drive between Madison and BRF on a fairly regular basis.  It's pretty close to a 2 hour drive from there.  It takes me about 2-1/2 to get to Madison from my place in Logan Square (just off the Kennedy) to Madison on a GOOD day if traffic isn't bad or there are no construction delays (There has been construction on I-90 for as long as I can remember, at least since 2004 or thereabouts when they put in the open road tolling.)  

I'd say plan on nearer to 5 hours from here to there even if you don't plan on stopping for gas or to pee.  The again I'm a pretty slow driver.  

I don't speed much.  YMMV.  Just a head's up.

Comment by Dan Diehn on June 16, 2013 at 1:44pm

Sorry that was supposed to be "back to back" days.

Comment by Dan Diehn on June 16, 2013 at 1:44pm

For another option, albeit a little less convenient, the Minnesota Randonneurs are holding Populaire brevets on back to back to back days on July 20 and 21 in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Its about 4  hours from downtown Chicago on I-94. At this point, I'm not sure how well attended it will be.

Comment by David P. on June 16, 2013 at 4:30am

Dang - that one looks like a nice ride, but I'll have friends visiting.....

Comment by spencewine on June 16, 2013 at 3:00am

GLR doesn't have any but I think what you are looking for is a "populaire." Eric Peterson has much better advice, I'm sure as I've never ridden one, but these seem to run somewhere between 100-120km.

The best option in the area is to sign-up for one of the many century or lesser rides. Keep in mind though that on a century, you will have support and usually many riders and a brevet is completely unsupported with few riders. You can find yourself riding long stretches or the entire ride alone. Que sheet reading is a key skill.

Comment by Marcusn on June 16, 2013 at 2:49am

Ha! I'm very much of the same state of mind. There seem to be many century rides in the area in summer, and this one (http://www.activatorcycles.com/activator-limestone-metric) is organized by my local bike shop, so I'll very likely be riding it on my LHT.

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