Indiana Randonneurs 300k 2016

187 miles with 6100' of climbing.  

Bike:

 

Arkel handlebar bag

Testing my knew Arkel tail bag for rack. 

Gear:

Bread bags for feet --- wet ride

Frame pump

2x tubes

watch (I only wear a watch on rando rides)

cycle gloves

wool long finger gloves

Black latex gloves over my wool gloves (great water protection)

Helmet light

GPS

tums

Ibuprofen

Tylenol

Cliff bars

Recoverers

Spare shift cable

Tool seat bag with general tools. 

Butt butter

Ziploc bag for Brevet card, phone, and wallet.

Pen

reflective gear

Solar battery

phone cable

GPS cable

 xtra AAA

Helmet

Spare light

Gen light

2x Rear lights

Bike shorts

swim trunks

frogg togg jacket

cycle SS jersey

cycle LS wool jersey

5.10 shoes

sunglasses

night glasses 

                                                                       water bottles

2x Sandwiches 

Still "Testing" the knee, as I am not fully confident in it.  My knee does get sore, a sharp type feeling later in rides.  We'll see how it works with some climbing. 

We were in for a very chilly, windy ride with a wet start.  Thankfully the rain stopped at the start because it was a cold ride. 

I had my 1st real mechanical issue on a brevet on this ride.  About 10miles into the ride, when I pedaled the cassette would stop?  I didn't take long to discover that my cassette lock nut came loose and the cassette was against the dropout.  I thought my day was done, I had no tool to tighten the lock-nut. 

Loose cassette lock nut.

Eventually I was able to use my multi-tool flat screwdriver bit and tap the lock-nut tight/ish again.  I didn't think it would hold so once the bike was operational I turned around and headed for home.  If I continued with the ride I didn't want to get to a point a 100miles away and not be able to repair the cassette if it happened to fail again.  After about a mile riding back to the car everything seemed well, so I turned back around to press my luck at see if I can finish.  I'm glad I changed my mind because the bike handled flawlessly the remainder of the ride. 

My knee was a little sore, but I am still satisfied on how well it is healing.  My ankle was sore and it definitely hurt worse than my knee.  I'll buy a brace for my ankle to hopefully help promote healing.

Because of my knee injury last August I can definitely feel that my lack of training is making these rides very difficult.  The 200k wasn't bad, the fleche wasn't bad either, though more miles than the 300k but no climbing.  The 300k really wore me down.  I was tired, sore, and slow when I finished.   I'm hoping this improves.