2011 ACP Frederick 300 km

On May 7  2011 was my first 300 km ride in USA. It was the ACP Frederick 300 km.

We started from  Fort Detrick Hampton Inn at 5 am sharp. I checked in at 4:45am.

Credit for the pictures to William Smith and William Beck

It was still dark out there for the first 2 hours. You can see plenty of bike lights , vests an so on…  41 riders were ready to start. That is a pretty good number for a 300 km brevet .

The ride heads north to South Mountain all the way to Thurmont . We climbed up the bridge on MD77 –  Catoctin Mountain State Park( Such a hill I thought !!! ) After the peak , we were heading towards  Adams County. Same beatiful county that was part of one of the 200km  I did this year. Followed by the real climb to the summit of Big Flat (altitude 2040 feet).

After 9  miles of descending we were at the next  control in Shippensburg. On the picture we can see Chris Mento taking a photo. He was such a good riding partner and a story-teller. Just what you need for a brevet. I remember my knees giving me  hell the last 50 miles or so and with Chris things just went smoothly

At around mile 130 we were at the next control – Rocco`s Pizza. Just 55 miles to go. It was well deserved rest. I remember a rider there, that sustained injuries during a crash not long before the control.  I believe he was not allowed to continue.

My goal was to finish before dark , just like any 200km and 300km. I ended riding it for 15h 35m , finishing at 8:35 pm .

Unfortunately the knee issues I had during this ride and the earlier 200km that year prevented me from continuing cycling . I was so sad since it was Paris-Brest-Paris year and I dreamed about it. But you know what – I knew I had to listed to my body. I decided to play it safe and go to the doctor. My MRI was clean , so was the X-Ray. The best option was physical therapy at John Hopkins. I was still in pain, but  took my time off to sell the old bike and build me a rando specific one. After dealing with knee issues , I did second set of therapy following a minor car crash that re-aggravated that left knee. It wasn’t until the  summer of 2013,  when I started actual training.