Interior Make-up Weekend Report
200 - 300 - 400 - 600, August 9, 2014
by Bob Goodison

As with the rest of the season leading up to the Interior Make Up Weekend, the turnout was disappointingly low. Cheryl and Nigel's tent spot under the willow looked very empty. Two Interior riders and three Lower Mainlanders braved the heat and summer traffic for a fun weekend in the Shuswap. Some had more fun than others, but everyone finished.

Paul Whaley made the trip from the coast to ride the 200 km. This was the first time it had been ridden as a brevet, and since I had not had time to pre ride the whole route, he managed to find a point where the information control was no longer there. He obtained enough information to satisfy me that he had been at the right spot, so there was no problem. It was a fairly hilly route, with a couple of gravel sections, but mostly on backroads with little traffic.The route had plenty of places to get water and ice cream, and he was able to keep fed and hydrated. He did however, manage to forget to look for the rock pillar at Pillar Lake (not a control, just a point of interest). This finish, combined with his finish of the Signs of Spring 200 km in the Peace region earns him the coveted Rambling Randonneur Award.

There were no takers for the 300 km, but Ron Stewart was the guinea pig for another untried route-the Falkland-Revelstoke 400. This was Ron's first 400, and as if riding your first 400 isn't tough enough, he had to do the whole ride solo, accompanied only by the nearly full moon. He handled it well though, survived the traffic of highway 1, and finished before his expected time, despite having to backtrack a bit to the truckstop in Sicamous when everything else in town turned out to be closed. His record of never having a flat on a brevet is still intact- sort of. When he was loading up his bike after a sleep, we noticed that his front tire was flat.

A longer solo trek was completed by Roy Neifer on the Princeton Loop (counter clockwise) 600. He had an easier time with the wind and traffic than Richard and I had on the pre ride, but a bit more heat. His finish, and Richard's, completed their Super Randonneur series. Having just ridden the route a few days previously, I had been able to warn him of most of the hazards of the route, but I forgot one- The weird psychic/psycho girl in Princeton. Richard and I could not decide if she was born that way, had been dropped on her head, or if it was chemically induced, but it was an experience. Due to headwinds, lack of sufficient long rides since the spring series, heat and dehydration, Richard struggled a bit to finish. We were chasing the time limits the whole ride, actually leaving Penticton after a much needed sleep with a 40 minute deficit. However, as i knew where all the controls were, I figured we could make it up. We did, but barely. We finished with 12 minutes to spare, a new record for both of us.

Once again, with a low turnout, I asked myself if it worth running these rides. Two Super Randonneur series completed, one Rambling Randonneur completed- YOU BET IT IS! See you next year. If you've ridden one of these, and enjoyed yourself, tell your friends. The more the merrier.

200 km: Paul Whaley    12:08
400 km: Ron Stewart    22:48
600 km: Roy Neifer     35:46
        Richard Blair  39:48
        Bob Goodison   39:48

Go to: Results
Go to: Photos (Flickr -13 Images)

August 10, 2014