Pritchard Plummet 200 Pre-ride
by Bob Goodison

Peter Mair and I pre-rode the Pritchard Plummet route on April 12. Randy Benz came along for the ride, and we were careful not to violate any rules by drafting behind him. It was a cool foggy start, which we soon climbed out of. The route is a little more difficult than I remembered from when I rode it last summer. That may be because I have less than half the miles I would normally have ridden at this time of year (Peter had only a couple of 50 km rides). When I had put it on Bike Route Toaster last year I came up with an elevation gain of 1600 metres. Randy's GPS showed closer to 1900 metres, which, comparing it with Cheryls results from last fall's six pack rides, puts it second only to the Cache Creek route in total elevation gain. This route however, concentrates the climbing into a few shorter steeper climbs, with long easier sections in between. I found the headwinds we encountered around Falkland and Westwold to be more challenging than the hills. Hopefully ride day will be calmer. There are also lots of quiet rural roads with little traffic. The highway portions have good shoulders. Winter has not been kind to the Interior roads, and there are a few sections of broken pavement. Also, not all of the sand has been swept off yet, although that is a work in progress and I expect it to be better by ride day. The gravel portion of Tappen-Notch Hill Road is firm, but with some potholes. I found them much easier to avoid than in the dark on my morning commute. Road construction at Pritchard provides us with another half km of gravel road. There will be a couple of minor changes to the posted route sheet: The first two controls will now be staffed, with the second one being moved a couple of kms further to the intersection with Highway 97. Although no controls are at stores, there is generally no more than 30 kms between convenience stores. More important, Johnny's Java in Falkland appears to be open, although we did not stop there this time. There will be minor adjustments of distances on the final route sheet, but not enough that anyone using the old sheet would have any problem. Please let me know by email or Randopony if you plan to ride so I can make enough control cards and route sheets.

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April 13, 2014