Ride reports 2025

[Karl42]

I'll start this thread for reports of Brevets and other long-distance rides made this year. Feel free to add your own reports here, or start a new thread for each, whichever seems best.

300km Brevet "To the Externsteine" in Germany

Yesterday I participated in a 300 km (186 mile) brevet in Germany, titled "To the Externsteine", a distinctive rock formation and popular tourist destination in the region.

The event drew a good number of participants. I rode my V20, as usual. At the start, I reconnected with Karsten, a rider I met last year who was on his self-built carbon MBB.

The route was relatively gentle compared to my previous week's 200 km (124 mile) ride, which featured constant climbing and descending with about 2600 meters (8,530 feet) of elevation gain. Yesterday's 300 km (186 mile) journey had 2100 meters (6,890 feet) of elevation gain, primarily concentrated in the middle section around the Externsteine. Without any prolonged difficult climbs, this ride felt considerably easier, especially with pleasant temperatures around 20°C (68°F) for most of the day.

The entire route offered a peaceful, almost meditative experience on quiet country roads with views of expansive fields. As evening approached, I was treated to spectacular panoramas with dramatic cloud formations illuminated by the setting sun.

 

[IyhelM]

Funny, I just rode a nightly 300 last night
I’ve always had issues with « standard » 300 starting at 5am - and finishing, realistically, in the evening: I don’t want to drive to a brevet and it is not possible in France to get a train this early from or late back home which means that you basically have to get 1 day before and stay a 2nd night. So this night brevet starting 40 km from where I live at 7pm was the just the perfect occasion to try this distance - I’m starting to get familiar with 200s, I try to do one at least every year.
302 km, 1900 m of elevation, on my regular training roads 100 km south from Paris.
190 started, 184 finished.
First we crossed the Fontainebleau forest

Then followed the Loing river to bring us to the hilly Puysaye area. Not much to show - it was night after all… - but there was a warm and friendly bar and pizzeria half way through.


By sunrise I was leaving the banks of river Yonne for the last 60 km after a very chilly night - dumb as I am I forgot my toe covers!


The rolling hills terrain suited me well so I guess I started a bit too fast and burned myself - I did my best time on 200 km… and I suffered a lot for the last 100 km - also because of the cold.
Finished in 14h, including 1h40’ of various pauses and stops. Overall happy but awfully sore, I reckon 200 in one day really is the maximum for me to fully enjoy the ride.

 

[Karl42]

The 200 and 300 km brevets here usually start around 8am and therefore finish in the evening. Last Sunday I finished after 13h42, so just before 10pm, with a pure riding time of 12h05. I usually come to the Brevets by car, so depending where they start I get up at 5am and leave the house at 6am, or a bit later when they are closer.
The upcoming 400 km Brevet will also start in the evening, inviting people to ride throughout the night, so that the organizers can receive the finishers in the afternoon instead of the middle of the night.
And the 600 km Brevets will start in the early morning again, because they usually take well over 30 hours anyway.

 

[IyhelM]

10 days ago, I rode the Vél’Auvergne, a 2-day tour in the Massif Central (as the name suggests, it’s… in the middle of France).
Saturday Clermont-Ferrand to the Cantal peaks (they call them plombs there) and back on the Sunday, 3 routes from 130 km and 2400mD+ to 190 km and 3800mD+ on each day.
I signed in for the 190 km routes but because of the heat I downgraded to the shortest ones: I lose 10% of power for each Celsius degree above 25ºC (77ºF) so with expected highs over 35ºC (~100°F) there was no way I’d be able to cope with the brutal Pas de Peyrol (seen on the Tour de France last year) and its last 4 km above 15% at the end of a long day!
Organisation was awesome from the registration process, lots of info, routes were well marked, feeding stations well supplied, volunteers always smiling and helping, accommodation and catering well worth the price, I reckon all 1,000 riders had a great time thanks to them.

The journey started on Friday 20th with a train ride from Paris to Clermont, the AC was out of order yet we survived. Climbing from downtown Clermont to my rented flat was a real ordeal, almost 40ºC, no air, and a straight 5% average slope for 5 km on melting city tarmac.
Left my bags and hopped on the bike again for another nice climb to the gathering point to collect my number plate and welcoming beer. (If you asked me, that’s bad policy: if I have the beer before even starting, what’s the point of the ride ?!) That went better as out of the city there was a bit of air.

On Saturday morning, up around 5:30am, same 5 km climb as a warm-up and then on for the out leg. Traffic was very low so it was quite enjoyable, lots of forests and pastures, nice villages, a handful of nice climbs but nothing brutal before the end of the day.
It went all right until 11am when I started suffering from the heat.
Good atmosphere, I was the only recumbent rider so as usual everyone was very supportive - they don’t get they all are the ones actually suffering
The last and only difficult climb to the Lioran ski resort was a nightmare: for safety they directed us to a secondary road with very bad tarmac; average slope was ‘only’ 8% for 5 km but there were stretches closer to 20%; because of the heat I had to pause twice and I used the excuse of supporting another rider in distress to walk 300 m through one of the steepest sections.
Eventually I covered the 127 km in less than 9h (7h on the Silvio) which is not so bad considering the weather.
No regrets for not climbing up the Pas de Peyrol, I did it last year already - stunning landscape for sure!

We were treated to a nice beer and diner, the night was cool so we all recovered rather well.
I’d have loved to be able to start very early (5 or 6am) on the morrow but due to breakfast hours I only left a little before 8am on Sunday.
Same scenario, everything went well until 11am; I really tried to pace myself better than on Saturday in the climbs but to no avail on the end: from noon on, every climb was awful as we had less shadow than the previous day.
The crossing of the Cézalier plateau was breathtaking but without a tree to be seen we did not enjoy it as much as expected.
The only thing that saw most of us at the top of the climb out of Saint Nectaire (famous for its cheese) was the water hose in the middle, being drenched in fresh water helped us finish.
The last 30 km were a sweating agony (also I had pinched my 2.5 l water bladder on the morning and had to learn to manage a mere .75 l bottle).
There was one last nice descent to finish the tour, the shear coolness of the air at over 70 km/h did me good and I actually passed the line rejuvenated.

The one and only critic I have regarding the organisation: no finish line beer!
So I did not linger, I picked up my stuff, rolled down to my flat and after a good long shower went to the city to enjoy a pint or two.

All in all, despite the heat, a good time; this was the second edition only but apparently it’s here to stay, I can only recommend it if you want to discover the Massif Central’s iconic spots - la Chaîne des Puys, le Sancy, le Pas de Peyrol, les Estives, etc.

I have 3h of video rushes I need to edit, in the meantime here are a handful of pictures.

 

[Karl42]

10 days ago, I rode the Vél’Auvergne, a 2-day tour in the Massif Central (as the name suggests, it’s… in the middle of France).
...

I have 3h of video rushes I need to edit, in the meantime here are a handful of pictures.

Thanks for the report. I want to visit the Massif Central now. Looking forward to your video.

 

[LarryOz]

I'll start this thread for reports of Brevets and other long-distance rides made this year. Feel free to add your own reports here, or start a new thread for each, whichever seems best.

300km Brevet "To the Externsteine" in Germany

Yesterday I participated in a 300 km (186 mile) brevet in Germany, titled "To the Externsteine", a distinctive rock formation and popular tourist destination in the region.

The event drew a good number of participants. I rode my V20, as usual. At the start, I reconnected with Karsten, a rider I met last year who was on his self-built carbon MBB.

The route was relatively gentle compared to my previous week's 200 km (124 mile) ride, which featured constant climbing and descending with about 2600 meters (8,530 feet) of elevation gain. Yesterday's 300 km (186 mile) journey had 2100 meters (6,890 feet) of elevation gain, primarily concentrated in the middle section around the Externsteine. Without any prolonged difficult climbs, this ride felt considerably easier, especially with pleasant temperatures around 20°C (68°F) for most of the day.

The entire route offered a peaceful, almost meditative experience on quiet country roads with views of expansive fields. As evening approached, I was treated to spectacular panoramas with dramatic cloud formations illuminated by the setting sun.

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Thanks for sharing - great pic of you and your Cobalt Blue V20!