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At the end of the Davis Double Century ride (May 20, 2006) |
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| Tom completed the 1200 Kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur in 2011 |
Our son Tom holds the title of “most serious bicyclist in the family.” Yes, all the Haggertys ride bikes; but, as you will see, Tom has earned his title easily with his many and varied bicycle adventures.
Having grown up in Davis, the Bicycle capital of California, Tom quite naturally started riding as a small child. He rode to school and many other events from first grade through his college graduation at UC Davis. After graduation, Tom worked long hours in two jobs to save enough money to take his future wife, Alayne, on a fourteen-month bike ride across Europe, extending from Portugal to Eastern Turkey and then back to Denmark. They camped out all but three nights of their bicycle tour; they traveled countless miles, riding up and down hills in every conceivable weather condition. It was a fabulous adventure and provided them both with extraordinary physical conditioning and self-sufficiency. Their trip is a story in itself, which I hope they will describe in their own memoirs.
After returning from Europe, they eventually moved to San Francisco. After securing a position at Stanford University, Tom initially went by bus across the city to catch a train to work. But, in short order, he discovered it was more economical and much faster to ride his bicycle to the train station, load it onto the train and, upon arrival in Palo Alto, ride it to campus. For the past ten years, Tom has arisen daily at 5:30 am, mounted his bike by 6:30 am and headed off on his daily biking adventures. And when Tom is training for a long distance ride, he rides his bike all the way to and home from Stanford at least two days a week. Each direction takes approximately two and one-half hours.
With all his riding experience, Tom was naturally drawn to randonneuring, a type of organized long distance bicycle riding. Randonneurs participate in what are called brevets--long-distance recreational timed rides that typically cover between 100 and 1200 kilometers (60-750 miles). Tom is one of about forty dedicated cyclists who belong to the San Francisco Randonneurs.
Brevets are offered in progressively longer distances that, as the organization states, “test your endurance and provide a unique opportunity for self-discovery.” These events are not for beginners. The courses are hilly and can be windy and rainy; there is a lot of nighttime riding in the longer events. The San Francisco group organizes four major rides each year: 200, 300, 400 and 600-kilometer events. These rides all start and end at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge and, depending on the distance, travel northward through Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. The routes vary from flat to very hilly and include segments of gentle rolling hills as well as several steep hill climbs. Tom is often the envy of his fellow riders, having mastered hill climbing in both San Francisco and Europe. The rides often include challenges of very strong head winds (gusts to forty mph), rain, and dense ground fog.
The San Francisco Randonneurs work cooperatively with other groups promoting brevets in the region. These groups offer alternative dates for the four major yearly brevets starting in San Francisco. They have approved the Davis, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Brevet series, as alternates to the four yearly rides starting in San Francisco.
Tom completed all four rides in 2006 and 2007. During the first year, he divided his rides among the San Francisco, Davis, and Santa Rosa Brevet groups. This year he completed all of his rides with his home randonneur group. It was an unusually wet and windy year for the San Francisco brevets.
My next story describes in detail his adventures on his last 600-kilometer ride.
To be continued
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