Sunday was the culmination of Bellingham’s Brian Ecker’s 2013 cycling project, which was to climb 1,000,000′ on the bike. Brian was joined by eleven friends to celebrate the event with a ~25 mile spin from downtown Bellingham around Lake Samish.
Brian accomplished his 2013 goal by breaking the 1M mega objective into smaller chunks. One of the more remarkable mini (?) adventures Brian did this year was the 575-mile Washington Backcountry Discovery Route (WABDR), which starts in Stevenson, WA, and finishes at the Nighthawk border crossing (the least used border crossing in WA.) This route is primarily done on motorcycle or 4×4 in 5 to 6 days, but Brian knocked it out in 3 days on a cyclocross bike.
Although it looks like Brian was probably this year’s top climber in the PNW, quite a number of riders are finishing up 2013 with some amazing distances. Here are a few:
Paul Krebsbach (planning to finish with 18,000 mi)
Distance 17,590.9 mi
Elev Gain 786,250 ft
Brian Ecker
Distance 10,918.5 mi
Elev Gain 1,000,784 ft
Mick Walsh (with a broken hip that took him out for most of the summer)
Distance 10,781.6 mi
Elev Gain 479,537
Ten Seattle Randonneurs have achieved “K-Hound” status. The K-Hound award is given to members of Randonneurs USA who cycle 10,000 official Randonneuring kilometers during a calendar year:
Hugh Kimball 23,042 km (14,318 mi)
Vincent Muoneke 21,459 km (13,334 mi)
Mark Thomas 15,448 km (9,599 mi)
Rick Blacker 11,675 km (7,255 mi)
Andy Spier 10,889 km (6,766 mi)
Geoff Swarts 10,731 km (6,668 mi)
John Pearch 10,453 km (6,495 mi)
Jan Acuff 10,236 km (6,360 mi)
Steve Davis 10,117 km (6,286 mi)
Audunn Ludviksson 10,009 km (6,219 mi)
Among this group, Vincent Muoneke rode nine 1200 km Randonneuring events this year, which according to Mark Thomas, bests the prior record of six. Mark also bested the previous record with seven, and Rick Blacker tallied six of these crazy long rides. This trio cycled international Randonneuring events together in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia.
If you are looking for some inspiration for your 2014 season, I am hosting a 3-part presentation series to help get you psyched. In the first presentation Brian will recap his 1,000,000′ climbing project and highlight a few of the smaller rides that comprised the bigger objective. While climbing 1 million feet in a year might not be on your cycling wish list, one of Brian’s “mini” adventures could very well end up being your “big” objective for 2014:
Small Adventures, Big Goals
When: Sat. Jan 11, 2014 4:00pm
Where: Cycle University West Seattle
3418 Harbor Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98126
