Hope to New Hope 200K Ride Report

A cold and windy day. But not that cold. It was almost above freezing  at times.  The sun almost came out. And there was no snow. Well, not much snow. So, basically, a nice day by Hope 2 New Hope standards. 

The brevet starts just before dawn. Brrrrr!

Seven out of seven riders, including one prerider, all made it back to the warmth of Frank's Trattoria having bested the gods of winter, for a 100% finish rate.  Congratulations and well done to all. Preliminary results have been posted on the website.  Please review the results and let us know if something is not quite right.  The results will be submitted to RUSA after review and will become official once certified. 

Start volunteer and prerider Bob Dye made sure everyone knew what to expect.  Finish volunteer Nigel Greene welcomed the finishers with warm pizza. 

 

RBA Emeritus Tom Rosenbauer writes...

I was pleased to see that everyone made it to the finish in good time -- chapeau to the audacious randonneurs that persisted in such frigid riding conditions.  And even more impressively, all managed to resist the siren call of stopping as they passed their cars at the halfway point.

 

First finisher (by like 3 hours!) Chris Maglieri had enough extra time to snap some photos. 

 

Hope to New Hope 200K Pre Ride Notes

The course was pre-ridden by Bob Dye on 1 January.  The latest cue sheet is VERSION 1, and the RWGPS file was last modified on 2024-12-31 13:59:20 EST. RWGPS file and cue sheets can be found here. 

Prerider Bob Dye writes...

New Year's Day was a good day for the Hope to New Hope 200k pre-ride. The roads are mostly in great shape with many wide and smooth shoulders.   This is a good route for a winter-time ride although there was no ice or  snow seen anywhere. There was a cause for concern just after mile 84 with two sinkholes in the shoulder. These look like bottomless potholes and  there was no warning near them. Also, high winds had left some debris on the road which hopefully will be gone by Saturday. The restrooms at Bulls Island (miles 79 and 94) were open and heated.

The route passes through the flashing-light intersection of Greenwich St and Main St  twice - first at mile 2.3 and then at 48.5. It's a left turn (north) the first time at the flashing light and a right turn (south) later. This may confuse your GPS. Mine was totally flummoxed and directed me the wrong way (which I ignored) and  then insisted on a U-turn for the next 5-10 miles. Be ready to disobey! 

Start time Saturday is 6AM Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing you then.