{"id":1572,"date":"2010-10-11T10:32:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/?p=1572"},"modified":"2010-10-11T10:32:57","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:32:57","slug":"a-randonee-is-not-a-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/11\/a-randonee-is-not-a-race\/","title":{"rendered":"“A randon\u00e9e is not a race.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I did this<\/a>.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"Breaking<\/a>Let me provide a translation.<\/p>\n

This event is a randonn\u00e9e, which is a waymarked ride rather than a race. This randon\u00e9e had three different lengths for three levels of mountain-bikers.<\/p>\n

(1) Fit,
\n(2) Super-Fit, aka Jens Voigt<\/a>,
\nand (3) Chuck Norris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s called a “Benefitsride” because a cyclist who is not in great shape should check his or her level of health benefits before attempting to ride the route. <\/p>\n

From the website<\/a> for the randonn\u00e9e, we find the sentence:<\/p>\n

Den 10\/10\/10 as nees eisen Benefitsride, d\u00e9i Randonn\u00e9e wou den Erl\u00e9is integral fir e gudden Zweck gespend g\u00ebtt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My loose translation of this as follows:<\/p>\n

Will should stay home on 10\/10\/10, lest the consequences of his unhealthy lifestyle become apparent when he is about 8km into the ride and looking up a series of switchbacks consisting of uneven rocks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also from the website, we find this, in Luxembourgish:<\/p>\n

D\u00e9i lescht Jo\u00ebren waren et \u00ebmmer Don\u2019en a Form vun Mountainbike + Equipement fir divers Kannerheemer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which means:<\/p>\n

People here don’t just go out for a spin on their mountain bikes, and they think that the ravines around Luxembourg are gentle and easy, so you better have done more than once-a-week rides since August.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I didn’t cycle more than once a week, every Sunday, this summer.<\/p>\n

And I nearly died.<\/p>\n

First, my lungs and my heart said, “Enough!” There may documentation of my distress, as a few cruel photographers<\/a> were stationed along the course.<\/p>\n

Just after I talked my cardio-vascular system back on board, my legs said, “You think we can keep pumping away like this? Not without some serious pain, buddy.” <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I learned how to translate “Passing on your left”<\/em> in at least five languages.<\/p>\n

By the 20km mark, my legs and arms were limp,
\nmy brain was dangerously oxygen-deprived,
\nand most of my fellow cyclists were scooting off to the 45km and 60km loops.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It was a great time, in the sense that I didn’t require the rescue helicopter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

(Not that I didn’t think, “This would<\/em> be a convenient place to set down,” when I reached the top of one hill.)<\/p>\n

But seriously, my two loyal and generous companions kept me going until the end. I did appreciate the challenge and, once in a while, I marveled at the autumnal colors of the lovely sunny morning, deep in the woods outside Luxembourg-Ville.<\/p>\n

Plus, I felt like I earned the new machine that I’d bought the day before, a Trek 8000 that looks just like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The bike wasn’t ready to ride quite yet, so this was my last adventure on my ancient Stumpjumper (1994). Here’s a good photo of someone else’s trusty old steed. Mine has a Specialized-branded Rockshox front fork. It carried me up and down trails in old coal mines in east-central Illinois, prairies in southeastern Wisconsin, the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, and the forests of Luxembourg.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

After years on forgiving steel<\/a> with gentle cantilever brakes, I’m going to acquaint myself with an efficient aluminum frame and touchy disc brakes.
\n\"Steel<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’m also going to get into shape, so I can have some unbridled fun on my next randonn\u00e9e — and live up to the potential of my new machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I did this. Let me provide a translation. This event is a randonn\u00e9e, which is a waymarked ride rather than a race. This randon\u00e9e had three different lengths for three levels of mountain-bikers. (1) Fit, (2) Super-Fit, aka Jens Voigt, and (3) Chuck Norris. It’s called a “Benefitsride” because a cyclist who is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[620,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1572"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}