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Great Trial of Strength



 
 
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  #11  
Old June 27th 06, 02:59 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Great Trial of Strength

In article
,
David Dermott wrote:

On Sat, 24 Jun 2006, Tim McNamara wrote:


Is it longer than Paris-Brest-Paris (1200+ km)? Many people ride
that in one go, other than stopping in at the required checkpoints.

Do (or can) people ride the whole 1200km P-B-P without a rest stop? I
thought the ckeckpoints forced a minimum time for completing the
course (min 40 hr max 90 hr??).


The controles along the course are open for specific time windows, set
by a maximum and minimum average speed. There are no required rest
periods in the randonneur PBP which is ridden "allure libre" ("free
pace"). However, there are required checkpoints (controles) as well as
secret controles where the riders have to stop and have their route book
stamped to prove they rode the entire route with no shortcuts.

So even while there are no required rest periods one does not ride the
event non-stop, although the fastest riders are probably off the bikes
no more than an hour total over the 1200 km. The fastest riders finish
the event in the low to mid-40s. In 2003, however, the fastest group of
riders was disqualified for violating the spirit of PBP. PBP is
peculiarly schizophrenic, emphasizing the democratic nature of
randonneuring and bicycling, yet hailing the "winners" with great
fanfare while proclaiming that it is not a race.

IIRC the absolute fastest time was around 38 hours, when PBP was a
professional race. The route has changed and is somewhat harder now,
and of course it is no longer a UCI event.

I've been trying to sort the different names for "Challenge_riding"
events. What's the difference between "Brevet", "Audax",
"Cyclosportive" and the Swedish concept of "motionslopp" (for example
Vätternrundan) What does GTOS fit into?


"Brevet" is just French for "certificate" but refers to rides sanctioned
by Randonneurs Mondiaux that comply with the rules. There are standard
distances (200, 300, 400, 600, 1000 and 1200 km) and some variable
distances rides (fleches). There are "brevets populaires" which are
usually 100 km and intended for the general public to get a taste of
randonneuring (there's a Franglais word for you).

"Audax" was the original term for such riding, and the promoting club
for PBP is the Audax Club Parisien. The root of the word is "audacieux"
or "audacious" in English. However, there was a split in the long
distance cycling community many years ago, resulting in two PBPs- the
randonneur "allure libre" ride that gets most of the publicity and the
Audax ride which gets less publicity. The Audax version is ridden at a
standard pace with ride captains setting the pace. Riders can go slower
if they must, but cannot ride faster.

It's a magnificent event that may be killed by its own success. In
1976, there were 666 starters which was, I believe, the largest field
that had been seen up until then. In 2003 there were almost 4100
starters! It was a magnificent thing to be part of, but I wonder if
that number of riders can be accommodated indefinitely on French back
roads and in villages with fewer people than the riders. All the French
were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic, maybe the fact that it only
happens every 4 years is a saving grace.
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  #14  
Old June 27th 06, 04:23 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Great Trial of Strength


David Dermott wrote:
On 26 Jun 2006 wrote:

In Norwegian, rides like the Swedish Vätternrundan, and the
Styrkeprøven, and numerous other rides are called "Turritt" which
means "tour ride" and they are more or less the same as any organized
timed "Century" type ride in the US. Usually the start is done in waves
of 100 riders or so every 5-10 minutes. Often there are prestigious
club team competitions for the best cumulative time for a 10 man team
(or the best 10 out of how ever many you have). These events draw all
sorts people from all age levels and fitness groups. For example the
"winners" this year did the 540km in 14:02, my 19:02 was good enough
for 587th place, and there were about 1800 finishers in all, with times
up to 40 hours or so.


Congratulations Joseph on your Styrkeprøven finish! I considered
entering (for about 10 minutes, entered Swedish VR instead) on my
first trip to Norway (1994). My estimated time would have been
just under the 40 hour limit.


Thanks! Here's a pic of me when I was still happy at about kilometer
210:

http://tinyurl.com/lyxsv

The main start is on Saturday morning, but there is an option of
starting either at 9pm or midnight on Friday for those planning to take
a longer time. With these start times there is also an option of
sleeping at km 200 I believe. It's not a particularly scenic or
pleasant route, so the only real reason to do it is "because it's
there". So unless you are interested in doing it fast (as a personal
thing of course, speed is relative) I wouldn't bother traveling a great
distance to participate. There are other more fun/scenic rides to
choose from.

The organization of the Swedish VR seemed similar to the club
"century" rides I've done in Canada (on a much larger scale!).
But it seems that there is no official time ranking of finishers,
results are listed alphabetically.


I have never done it, but as I understand it the VR is more of a ride.
The Styrkeprøven is certainly a race. Albeit similar to a race like
the NYC Marathon where only a select few are racing to win, but a race
none the less.

Styrkeprøven's official site is:
http://www.styrkeproven.no/styrk2003/index.shtml (Norsk, English,
Deutsch)
I also noticed that there
is a new book about Styrkeprøven:
http://www.cappelen.no/main/katalog....id=3988&f=1340


The book is an amusing easy read. The author is a "real" author who
just happens to be a cyclist. He took contact with Steffan Kjæregård
(previously of US Postal) and asked him to be his "domestique" for the
ride. He documents the experience in an amusing way.


PS There are full Wikipedia articles on Styrkeprøven in both Norwegian and
German, but none in English. I put in a "stub" article. Are there
any volunteers (preferably with personal experience) to fill it
out? :-)

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrkepr%C3%B8ven
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrkepr%C3%B8ven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrkepr%C3%B8ven


I could give a shot at translating the Norwegian entry. It's pretty
staight forward.

Joseph

  #15  
Old June 28th 06, 03:25 AM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Great Trial of Strength


"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...

It's a magnificent event that may be killed by its own success. In
1976, there were 666 starters which was, I believe, the largest field
that had been seen up until then. In 2003 there were almost 4100
starters! It was a magnificent thing to be part of, but I wonder if
that number of riders can be accommodated indefinitely on French back
roads and in villages with fewer people than the riders. All the French
were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic, maybe the fact that it only
happens every 4 years is a saving grace.


The same inbalance between riders and small town populations occurs on
RAGBRAI, the annual bike ride across Iowa, where 10,000 bicyclists and
assorted groupies descend on towns that may have 6,000 or so inhabitants.
That's a different situation, though. Since the riders spend the night and
are on vacation, there's a decent amount of money to be made off the
cyclists. It's a different situation with a timed control ride like PBP, I
would think.


  #16  
Old June 28th 06, 12:14 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Great Trial of Strength

On 27 Jun 2006 wrote:

I don't have a profile for the course, but I do know that while it is not
a mountainous course, it is certainly not flat.


In case anyone is interested, there is a profile of
Den Store Styrkeprøven (The Great Trial of Strength) at:
http://www.styrkeproven.no/styrk2003...rofil_en.shtml
(over 4000 m of climbing in 540 km)

Also Jørn has good descriptions of the course he
http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/dahls/Cy...gtos_info.html

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages:
http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

  #17  
Old June 28th 06, 01:09 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Great Trial of Strength


David Dermott wrote:
On 27 Jun 2006 wrote:

I don't have a profile for the course, but I do know that while it is not
a mountainous course, it is certainly not flat.


In case anyone is interested, there is a profile of
Den Store Styrkeprøven (The Great Trial of Strength) at:
http://www.styrkeproven.no/styrk2003...rofil_en.shtml
(over 4000 m of climbing in 540 km)


When I said I did not have a profile, I was referring to the Mjøsa
Rundt ride:
http://www.feiringil.no/gruppene/syk...ndt%202006.htm
Portions of Mjøsa Rundt are on the same course as DSS, but in general
Mjøsa Rundt has a tougher course. It is often used as a "dress
rehearsal" for DSS teams.

The profile for DSS (local shorthand for the Trondheim-Oslo ride) is
somewhat misleading. It is essentially flat with a few long-ish steady
climbs. Toward the end it gets a bit rolling with some steeper shorter
hills. Since it is on the main road (what passes for a highway in
Norway) between Trondheim and Oslo, it is a well graded road with no
sections steeper than say 4% for any length of time. I am not a good
climber and even for me and my 225lbs I only needed my 39x25 a handful
of times, mostly at the end when I was fried. I think I used my 53 the
whole first 300km or so. If you look at the split times on the results
page you'll see the average speeds are pretty constant. Here's a guy I
ride with (he's 45):

http://results.ultimate.dk/live/fron...&l=no&Pid=1201

And here's one of the guys in the lead group:

http://results.ultimate.dk/live/fron...w&l=no&Pid=310

If you check the speeds while looking at the course profile, you'll see
the speeds aren't too affected by the ascent. Wind is a much bigger
factor.

Also Jørn has good descriptions of the course he
http://www.dahl-stamnes.net/dahls/Cy...gtos_info.html


Those reports are fun to read. Here's my report from my first time in
'96:

http://tinyurl.com/kendb

A lot less suffering this time!

Joseph

 




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