Quakertown Finish

All riders are in safely, well within the time limit:
- Andrea and Greg: 11:10 PM
- Robin, Bill, and Norman: 1:35 AM
Volunteer Chris Nadovich had a fantastic homemade vegitarian chile and cornbread ready for the hungry finishers -- there weren't any leftovers!

A 100% finish rate -- congratulations, and well done to the riders, for getting around a very challenging course in good time.  No doubt, the high finish rate was in part due to the superb support from the volunteers, listed here:
http://em1240k.blogspot.com/2012/07/2012-volunteers.html
... I must say, this year's crew was truly exceptional...I'm really lucky to have such dedicated volunteers give so much time and effort to make these events possible.   All the volunteers worked tirelessly, to help the riders on their way.  But Laurent Chambard certainly went way beyond the call of duty -- his official duties just included transporting the drop bags to Halstead,  checking-in with the riders a couple of times during the day, and helping at the overnight controle.  As the riders can attest to, Laurent instead worked the entire 3-day event and was at every controle -- having scouted the ride the week before, I can assure you that even just driving the course over 2 days is quite exhausting!

Andrea Matney writes: "...Just a quick note to thank you and the many, many wonderful volunteers for an amazing ride experience!!  I've never been so pampered on a randonnee! You did an excellent job all around.  ..."

Greg Conderacci writes "...Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for another amazing Rosenbauer ride experience. ...Somehow, your rides always combine what it best in Randonneuring: adventure, fellowship, challenge (maybe even a little hardship), scenery, and hospitality.  You even threw in some nice weather for good measure.  I liked this ride a lot when I first did it in 2008 and you've made it even better this year. And, of course, there's nothing like a few days in Pennsylvania sawtooth hills to build character. .... Although we only were a handful of riders, you and your hardy band of volunteers didn't stint on hospitality.  We were treated royally by all.  (Laurent even went ABCD -- above and beyond the call of duty -- to bring the spirit of PBP-variety French kindness and attention to detail.) ..."

Greg has also posted an interesting commentary at his Good Ground blog:
http://blog.goodgroundconsulting.com/2012/08/dealing-with-endless-mountains.html

Click on the "older posts" link below, to see how the event unfolded over the past 3 days.

-Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA