Ride Reports

For those who recognize my name, you may know my twin brother, Luke Heller, and it's without a doubt, (cough, cough, Mom and Dad), his fault that I am entangled in this whole randonneuring world.  He lives in the mountains of Western Carolina and got me to join him and our buddy Ian Hands for my first 1000k to Crater Lake two summers ago in 2018.  These boys are climbers.  I am not; I'm a recovering triathlete!  Not to be too self-deprecating, just stating this as a matter of fact: whenever I ride with AIR (Ashevil

September 5-7, 2020

The web page for this route for this ride indicated a distance of 375 miles and 33,000 feet of climbing. Some of you may be asking yourself, why on earth would someone want to do a ride with this much climbing?

The main answer has to do with the sport of Randonneuring and completing an approved ride with at least 600K distance (375 miles) and 10,000 meters (32,808 ft) of elevation gain. Doing this is one of the many requirements for an award called the ACP Randonneur 10000.

Tom Droege – RUSA #7794

Start time: Saturday June 14, 2014 – 4:00 am

Finish time: Monday June 16, 2014 – 1:52 am

Ride report for the Southern Appalachian SR600 – a Super Randonnée 600km permanent.

Earlier this year, I think it was April, Terry Payne asked me if I wanted to do a Super 600 down in the Blue Ridge Mountains with him in September.  Recklessly I replied “WooHoo, let’s do it!”  A Super 600 is a 600 km brevet with a minimum of 10,000 meters of climbing and you are allowed 50 hours instead of the usual 40 hours to complete it.  Kathy Brouse and Arthur Reinstein did a Super 600 in Oregon earlier this summer.  Kathy told me about her experience.  She said it was the hardest thing she had ever done and that it made the Van Isle 1200 she had just completed a few weeks earlier, se