Newsletter - 2004 Archive

BC Randonneurs Cycling Club

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Richard Blair wrote a brief e mail message to Cheryl when he submitted the time results for the Kamloops 600 km - a glimpse at the conditions faced by the eight riders: Kamloops 600 Report by Richard Blair Cheryl: Yes, I know that I am a day late reporting on the June 12/13 600k, but it took me a while to round up all the times. The route was Kamloops, Cache Creek, Williams Lake, then return by Hwy 24 through Little Fort and Hwy 5 back to Kamloops. The weather. Well there was a tail wind which took all of us up to Williams Lake. The early arrivals had to fight it for awhile when they turned south but for us slower folk the wind died by about 2000 hours when we turned south. It rained a bit on the first day, but nothing too serious and the weather was cool which was nice for riding. The fast folk encountered rain as they approached McDonald Summit (1,311m) on Hwy 24, just before dropping down to Little Fort. Peter Mair described the ride down into Little Fort in the dark on a damp road as the "scariest bike-thing I've ever done". The slow pokes ie. Bud MacRae, your scribe, and Mike Eder who slept Saturday night at Lac La Hache after completing the first 385km in 18 hours, had the pleasure of showers of rain, hail and sleet as they reached McDonald Summit. The front group managed to avoid some or all of the southerly wind which scoured the North Thompson valley commencing later on Sunday morning, but us tail enders worked all the way back to Kamloops into a brutal headwind which occasionally near stopped us. The route is hilly in a major way. Ken Bonner put the altitude gain at 5,200 metres over the 606km. It builds character, we are told. Anyway, the times. Peter Mair finished in 25:33, Bob Goodison in 28:25, Randy Benz in 30:10, Ken Bonner in 33:20 (he stayed in 100MH on Saturday night); Richard Blair and Mike Eder in 37:50 and Bud MacRae in 38:45. Rob Bernhardt bailed just north of Clinton. I will get the ride fees and control cards to you as soon as I have gathered the material. Regards, Richard . June 15, 2004

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