With back-to-back rides, 120 Korea
Randonneurs opened the 2012 Brevet season on the weekend of March 10. While on Saturday 55 riders faced perfect
conditions with sunny skies and a moderate breeze blowing from the west, on
Sunday 65 riders experienced hostile conditions. With sub zero temperatures and wind blowing
at 40km/h from the west, 15 riders had to abandon. For most riders this was their first Brevet
and they did fabulous with a total of 103 finishing within the cutoff of 13.5
hours (RESULTS). Jan Boonstra and
Allison Rhee had picked the Cheonan-Asan KTX station for the check-in and this
was the perfect choice (thanks to Mr. Park for making this possible). The majority of riders arrived by train from
Seoul and other destinations throughout the Korean peninsula and check-in was
right in the train station. After
check-in with Allison, Jan and our Arbeit student Ariuka, the first riders
departed Cheonan at 06:00 at the crack of dawn and headed west to the
picturesque harbor of Mongsanpo. On the
way they traveled through vast stretches of farmland and rural communities
facing constantly nagging headwinds. Lim
Seonghun, our IT director, staffed the outbound control in Unsan and the
Hongseong inbound control to greet riders and help new riders. In Mongsanpo Harbor many riders settled in
for a delicious seafood lunch. Some
enjoyed the sunshine and reset so much that Lothar had to “encourage” them to
head back in order to stay on time. On
the return route to Cheonan the strong tail wind, especially on the seawalls,
propelled riders to Yesan. From there a
few more hills had to be tackled before riders received their well-deserved
Certificate of Accomplishment.
Congratulations to all finishers!
And for those who did not finish this 200K, there will be many more to come.
Allison's Pictures -- Pre ride -- March 10 -- March 11
-- tracks (Fay) -- video (Kim Sung Woo KoRa #146)
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