A less than perfect weather forecast seemed to scare away a few riders and we had several last minute cancellations.  The real randonneurs who showed up however enjoyed pretty favorable conditions during the day. It goes to show yet again that you just can’t trust a weatherman.  You know you are going to have some kind of weather on any ride, whether it is good or bad you won’t know for sure until the end! You might as well just show up and see what happens!

Highlights of the ride included: Hurricane Hill, the polygamist community of Colorado City, cruising the Arizona Strip, Pipe Springs National Monument, the western movie town of Kanab, climbing the Grand Staircase, following the Virgin River to its headwaters, crossing into the Great Basin, descending alongside the Sevier River, Panguitch, Bear Valley Junction, Paragoonah, Parowan, Cedar City, Kanarraville, descending the Black Ridge, nasty road construction, Leeds, Quail Lake and back  home.

Overall the ride was pretty uneventful and there was little drama, at least as reported to the RBA by the riders.  Some new late night road construction caused some anxiety for the RBA but the riders handled it well.  We did have one rider who was stopped by the Utah Highway Patrol in the wee hours of the morning.  I guess you could call it a welfare check on the rider, but the officer could not comprehend just what was going on. I didn’t get the full story, maybe our intrepid randonneur can fill us in.

Full rider results are here.

One further note about this event, the Hurricane 400 will be on hiatus for 2011.  If you didn’t ride it this year you may get a chance sometime in the future, just not in 2011.  It is a great route and you should have ridden it this year when you had your chance!