Riding 200km is difficult, and it seems to add a needless degree of difficulty to do it in the dark, but if you consider that the next distances on the randonneuring calendar are 300km, 400km and 600km (not to mention the 1000k), at some point it is helpful to inure yourself to riding in darkness.
Last weekend, our resident randonneur extraordinaire Brad, fresh from this exploit, took on the NER 200km overnight brevet.
“Everything is funnier in the dark,” he says. “At 2am, what keeps you going are the ridiculous things people say and dreaming about your next snack.”
Leaving at 9pm on a Saturday night, this 200k, sent riders out onto quiet roads and brought them back in around 5am, just in time for breakfast. Of the 14 randonneurs who participated, three were prepping for this week’s 1000k event, and a few were tuning up for the granddaddy of them all, Paris-Brest-Paris.
