Organizer Don Jagel will be having breakfast at the Blairstown Diner -- you can meet him there to sign-in and collect your brevet card if you arrive early. After 7AM, you can meet him in the parking lot.
Current forecast is calling for some clipper-type snow showers to arrive on Saturday, but no significant accumulations are anticipated until later in the evening.
*** Update 1 (1/28) ***
The Beyond Hope to New Hope 200k is scheduled for Saturday, February 2. The course routing mainly uses primary roads, since these have the best chance of being cleared and treated for winter conditions. Hopefully, the warm-up and rain in the forecast will wash away the snow and ice and the roads will dry up before the temperatures drop below freezing again. If the current forecast holds, it looks like it will be a good test of your cold weather gear. While the conditions look promising for next weekend, weather and road conditions this time of year may cause last minute postponements, so be sure to check back on the website and message board for any last minute updates.
You can walk across the foot bridge at "Foot Bridge Park" (where you'll be parking your car) and have breakfast at the Blairstown diner. The finish controle at the Blairstown Inn is just a couple of stores away from the diner. Organizer, Don Jagel, will meet you at the start and get you on your way and fellow organizer Bill Olsen will be meeting you at the finish. Reminder: With the limited daylight, lights and reflective gear will be checked at the start.
The cuesheet is the same as last year's: draft 7, dated 1/28/12. Remember to print one out for yourself.
A volunteer pre-ride was completed this past Sunday by Don Jagel and he send me the following report:
"....it was a cold start. My thermometer said 5 degrees at the start, and it did not get any higher until over one hour into the ride. There were frost needles on the zipper of my jacket, my tights, and even on my chain. There was also a strong frost on the tree branches that sparkled as the sun finally broke over the hills to the east. When I got to Milford the temperature had gotten to a balmy 21 degrees, and continued to rise slowly until mid-afternoon. It was a pleasant January day for a ride once the early morning cold wore off.
The parking lot at the start was covered with snow and ice, but that should be gone by next weekend. Depending on the frost and ice conditions, it might be wise to avoid the footbridge at the start.
Overall road conditions are good throughout the course. There was a fair amount of gravel/salt on the roads, particularly north of Stewartsville. The road shoulder still had a dusting of snow in some of the shaded areas at the northern end of the course, but that should also be gone by next weekend. A lot of ice has accumulated on the cliffs just north of Milford. Folks should be aware that in winter ice and rocks commonly fall onto the roadway, particularly in the afternoon after some melting has occurred. Over the years I have gotten pelted by falling pebbles and had a couple of close calls from larger rocks and ice chunks. Yesterday, one large piece of ice hit the road about 20 feet in front of me, so just pay attention to your surroundings. Hopefully, with the warm weather this week, most of the ice will disappear.
Route 29 between Frenchtown and Stockton continues to deteriorate in some areas, particularly on the northbound shoulder and lane. Some potholes have developed, and ice completely cover the shoulder in at least two locations, and was creeping into the driving lane. Some icy patches were present along the edge of the roadway south of the bridge in Stockton (Rt. 32). This portion of roadway is pretty well shaded, so may still have some ice next weekend.
All of the controls are good to go. The cue sheet also appears to be dead on,..."
***Rider Roster (as of 1/31) ***
1 Chip Adams
2 Clair Beiler
3 Gavin Biebuyck
4 Jeffery S Butt
5 Jonathan Clamp
6 Tim Conway
7 Robert Dye
8 Matthew Farrell
9 William Fischer
10 Donald Jagel
11 Eric Keller
12 Robin C Landis
13 Chris Nadovich
14 William Olsen
15 Amit V Shah
16 Paul G Shapiro
17 Norman Smeal
18 Leonard Zawodniak
If you're planning to ride, send me an e-mail to join the roster -- please let me know by the Thursday before the event.
-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA