Check-In and Inspection

Check-In and Inspection will be 4pm-6pm on Tuesday 9 September at the Comfort Inn in Louisville. If this time will not work for you, please let me know in advance. You will need to show your:

• lighting system mounted on bike, and backup lighting system
• reflective gear for your bike and yourself (legbands and reflective vest or equivalent)

I will hand out rider packets including brevet card, Kensington postcard, printouts of map and cue sheet, plus dropbag tags for Atwood and Byers.

After inspection, you may wish to join other riders for dinner at a neighboring restaurant - there are several within walking distance. We recommend Carrabbas one block north.

See you there!

-jle

2008 Route Posted

The 2008 route map and cue sheet are now posted. As predicted, the route and checkpoints are unchanged from 2006 (except we're now using a sideroad near mile 730):

• Cue Sheet
• Map
• Map Detail (Start/Finish to/from Byers)

Any questions, let me know.

-jle

Personal Support

For riders having personal support (6 out of the 39 riders as of this post), a few reminders:

• Personal Support may only meet their riders at official checkpoints, except as noted below.
• Support may travel the event route, but may not leapfrog their riders (waiting at points along the route for their rider to pass them). Support should not be a salient presence on the course.
• Support may render emergency assistance (i.e., where there is a genuine safety concern) to their rider, and is of course expected to do so for other riders on the course, as any passer-by would.
• For lodging purposes, because of the sparse nature of the course, Phillipsburg KS will be treated as being within the supportable proximity of Kensington. (That is, support may meet their riders there for lodging.)

We know that you will be concerned about your rider, full of enthusiasm, and quite possibly bored in those quiet intervening hours, but please practice restraint and stay within the rules – otherwise your rider could be penalized.

Thanks,
-jle

Services from Cope to Byers

A word about the return stretch from Cope to Byers: the only service on this 75-mile stretch is the store in Anton (a control). From Anton it is 50 miles to Byers, including open, strongly rolling terrain trending uphill. So consider topping off your supplies in Anton.

Note, though, that the Anton store closes at 5pm. So if you arrive after that, you'll have 75 miles without intermediate services (unless you have personal support). We will try to provide some support between Anton and Byers during some hours, most likely Friday afternoon and evening, but riders should take this gap into account when budgeting their time throughout the day.

-jle

Services from Byers to Finish

Here's a rundown for the 103 miles from Byers to the finish:

• Prospect Valley (33 miles from Byers) - No establishments open overnight. Sodbuster Cafe keeps daytime/eve. hours.
• Keenesburg (40 miles from Byers) - Market St. Mart store open 5am-10pm.
• Platteville (66 miles from Byers) - Store open 4:30am-12:40am. *
• Dacono 25-52 Truck Stop, I-25 and Hwy. 52 (83 miles from Byers) - opens 5am (closed overnight) - similarly for the MacDonalds across the street - this is one mile off route, east of Hwy. 52 junction with Rd. 7.
• Lafayette 7-Eleven (only 6 miles from the finish) is open 24 hours.

So riders leaving Byers in the evening should prepare accordingly, perhaps restocking in Keenesburg if they'll be passing through before that store closes.

-jle

* Local rider and bon vivant Tim Feldman recently checked out the opening hours of the Platteville store (penultimate checkpoint), for riders who may be finishing at night.

Volunteers Offering Rider Help

Some of our local volunteers are stepping forward to offer help to Last Chance riders:

• Brent and Beth Myers have accomodations for one or two riders. Contact them here.
• Mark Jilka is offering to help riders with local transport before/after the event. Contact Mark at cyclistspaz "at" yahoo.com.

-john

Rider Info Updated for 2008

I have updated the Rider Info and posted it at: www.rmccrides.com/lastchance2008info.htm

Please have a look and respond to this post or e-mail me directly with any questions or suggestions.

Motel Accomodations: The info page contains details about accomodations at the start/finish and en route. In brief:

• The Comfort Inn in Louisville is again our host motel and is again offering a great discount rate (mention the RMCC when booking). If you stay there, you may also store your luggage and bike container with them while you're riding. Please let me know if the room block is filled up, and we'll try to get more. There are also several other motels in the immediate area (listed on info page).
• The It'll Do Motel in Atwood is our bagdrop/control motel there. We have reserved all of the rooms. If you plan to sleep in Atwood going or returning, you do not need to make reservations. We have space for you (and food). AMENITIES: The individual rooms have microwave, refrigerator, free wi-fi, and cable tv, for those sleepless after 400km.
• The Longhorn Motel in Byers is our bagdrop/control there. If you plan to sleep there, you need to reserve a room yourself. They have a discount for our event (mention RMCC), but their normal rates are already pretty economical, so the discount is modest, too.
• If you are thinking of motels at other towns along the route, the info page lists these. In most places, you do not need advanced planning to get a room (as long as it's not in the early hours of the morning) - that was my experience in Oberlin KS in 2006, at least. But this is no guarantee - for example, Idalia and Keenesburg have very small capacity.

In the meantime, happy training!

-jle