The Ride Report from Hell

A lot of randonneurs, when they first start, do ride reports on every brevet. Some are realistic, like My Sexy Randonneuring Lifestyle -- a great write-up on the 2006 Cascade 1200K. I remember reading a strange stream-of-consciousness report from the 2007 Paris-Brest-Paris that really captured the essence of the event, which was plagued with rain and wind.

Some ride reports are more like advertising for the next time the event is held. They will wax on about how beautiful the scenery is, while never mentioning the fact that the average temperature was 100 degrees, the wind was always in your face at 40 mph, the mosquitoes were like something out of a Hitchcock movie, and the tractor trailers with which you were sharing every road had bike-shaped decals on their noses to indicate their "ace" status.

Most ride reports, however, love these details. Last week, I made a movie to illustrate:

Of course, my inspiration for this was the following:

Kind of makes it easier to understand why the London-Edinburgh-London 1400K is so tough.