Best DNF Ever.

Today was my first Randonneur DNF. I ended up riding with Chris and Robert, and I could not have had more fun. Tires and tubes did us in. This was my second or third Mountain Populaire 100K.

But don't you rando guys carry everything you need? One would think so. Between the three of us we had a metric crapton (about 2.2 thousand pounds for those of you from the UK) of tires and tubes, but it wasn't enough. I suspect we also had enough patches to construct a new tube from scratch. We used our last tube where the course was pretty close to the start/finish line, so instead of venturing off to Carnation, we coasted down the hill and called it day.



Notice any excellent color matching?



Did I mention it rained? This wasn't cooling mist rain; it was full-on Stevie Ray Vaughn Texas Flood rain. Boy was it fun.

Just before we got to the parking lot, Chris decided to lock his rear wheel and slide around for a while before pulling over to the side of the road. Who knew those Paul brakes were that strong? Oops, it wasn't the brakes. A couple of miles before, I mounted my spare tire on his wheel for him because the bead was a bit funky. I didn't do such a good job. We had just enough time to check it out and watch the tube burst out before it blew up. Most excellent.



Thanks so much to the orgainzers.

Now let's play, "That's Rando!"

As you might imagine, a 100K in the rain was ample hunting grounds for the next winner of "That's Rando!" I'd like to express my gratitude to all who played today; you put forth an excellent effort. For a while, this entry of the rear facing front bag (complete with wheel sucker map window) was in contention.



But then, during the first of many, many flat stops to work on Chris's stunning Tournesol:



I noticed this chunk of fabric missing where a rat ate his Berthoud bag. Clearly today's winner. Nobody else bother playing: