Brevets in Beautiful Canuckistan

[Randochap]

Well, we just wrapped up our spring brevet series here in Leftern Canuckistan.

If you'd like to see what a 600k event looks like on the outmost West Coast (just this side of Japan) have a gander at the new slideshow here.

If you like what you see, there's time to book your flight for the next (summer) series that starts on the 14th and runs through to another 600, on July 25!

We also have a 1,000 and "Ultimate Island Explorer" 2,000 k in between.

 

[Greenbank]

Ooh lovely!

We haven't got mountains to rival those, but there are some spectacular rides in the UK. Here are some from a Welsh 600: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26008756@N08/sets/72157618324571017/

We also have a 1,000 and "Ultimate Island Explorer" 2,000 k in between.

Shhh! *sticks fingers in ears to avoid temptation*

One year I'd love to do one of the SR-in-a-week jaunts like the Eau de Hell. No-one does them over here in the UK (although I am doing LEL which is 100km off a full SR in one go).

 

[Randochap]

Ooh lovely!

We haven't got mountains to rival those, but there are some spectacular rides in the UK. Here are some from a Welsh 600: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26008756@N08/sets/72157618324571017/

Gorgeous! I love Wales. Very disorienting though, looking down the "wrong" side of the road! I wonder what would happen once I got tired?" Maybe I'd revert to my old ways. I'm a caggy, after all.

One year I'd love to do one of the SR-in-a-week jaunts like the Eau de Hell. No-one does them over here in the UK (although I am doing LEL which is 100km off a full SR in one go).

Talk to the guy in photo #14 -- he's the organizer of EdH. Incedentally, he'd just finished pre-riding the UIE 2,000, six days before, and wasn't sure how he'd do on this very difficult 600 (most of which he'd just ridden as part of UIE).

We might have known. He put in the fastest time of 27:43 -- slow for him.
He'll be heading to LEL, along with another chap from the Island who was supposed to be on the Pacific Rim 600.

I hope he's getting some miles in somewhere or, as he's only done one full series before, he'll be in for a surprise.

 

[Alves]

Wonderful photos which tell an intriguing story.
So like our own events and so completely different.
The biggest hazard on my last 600 in May was another fierce native mammal, not a bear but the inebriated locals turned out of the pub after midnight and looking for entertainment. Jeez you guys are lucky, you only have to deal with black bears and grizzlies!
Beautiful scenery too.
There should be more crossover from our side of the pond to yours and back.

 

[skwerl]

Wonderful photos which tell an intriguing story.
So like our own events and so completely different.
The biggest hazard on my last 600 in May was another fierce native mammal, not a bear but the inebriated locals turned out of the pub after midnight and looking for entertainment. Jeez you guys are lucky, you only have to deal with black bears and grizzlies!
Beautiful scenery too.
There should be more crossover from our side of the pond to yours and back.

Well. There are no grizzlies on Vancouver Island. One did swim over from the mainland once. It was promptly shot.
I've driven through the hills on the road through to the Pacific Rim. Nasty, very Alpine in nature and largely mangled by the winter in a lot of places. the good thing is the speed limits are low and strictly enforced (I know to my cost), unlike the Alps.

 

[Randochap]

Wonderful photos which tell an intriguing story.
So like our own events and so completely different.
The biggest hazard on my last 600 in May was another fierce native mammal, not a bear but the inebriated locals turned out of the pub after midnight and looking for entertainment. Jeez you guys are lucky, you only have to deal with black bears and grizzlies!
Beautiful scenery too.
There should be more crossover from our side of the pond to yours and back.

If only! On one 400 last year, at night, we had beer bottles and a frizbeed car mat thrown at us in the space of an hour.

 

[Randochap]

Well. There are no grizzlies on Vancouver Island. One did swim over from the mainland once. It was promptly shot.
I've driven through the hills on the road through to the Pacific Rim. Nasty, very Alpine in nature and largely mangled by the winter in a lot of places. the good thing is the speed limits are low and strictly enforced (I know to my cost), unlike the Alps.

Those griz are persistent. There have been several sightings now, around Woss, on the North Island. Seems there is a mass migration happening.

The road to Tofino has been somewhat improved this year, but it's never going to be great (subsidence, etc.) until they put in a roadbed.

The similarly afflicted West Coast Highway to Port Renfrew is another matter entirely and suffers from neglect. Most of the highways money is being poured into the Sea to Sky -- which leads to Whistler and the site of the alpine events of the 2010 Olympics.

One small surprise though for the upcoming Tsunami 300, which has used that road. Look for that gallery at the end of the month.

 

[Randochap]

A bump for the VeloPix page which now has most of the galleries added and I just finished a complete gallery for the last edition of the Rocky Mountain 1200.

Last night, three intrepid randos -- one from Japan, two from Vancouver, BC -- finished up the difficult (60,000 ft. vertical) Ultimate Island Explorer 2000 in just under six days.

 

[Randochap]

Another new route for the archive and a new iteration for the "Tsunami" 300, on the newly-paved "Pacific Circle" Route. Report and flash photo gallery.

15 riders entered and 14 completed this fantastic new route on the wild Western Pacific shores and forests, with an evening tour of the British Columbia capital. Best time: 14:04.