Here's Keith White's personal views on the Costamoricaine Randonnée:

The weekend of the 3rd May in Erquy was a great success - 10 riders including Brittany based CCC rider Mike Stevenson added to those from Jersey in attempting and all completing the very pleasant but very hilly Brittany countryside south of the Cap Frehel and in and around the back of Lamballe.

Very windy at times and hard into it for the last sector of both the 100km and 142km rides, all found the course challenging. However, all completed it safely and you can't ask for more. John Derrien had a very good sub 4:30 ride for the 142km with a good group.

Looking at the terrain and the conditions on the day, this was an excellent completion by John. The hotel at Sable d'Or Les Pins was quite nice and around 5 miles from the start. The area itself was very pleasant indeed and I think most who went would ride there again. It proved a valuable warm up to the start in hindsight and we were accommodated by breakfast in Sable d'Or Les Pins by a cafe who opened up early for us (very nice indeed and well appreciated).

The 142km course had over 4000ft of climbing but it was mainly just a very up and down course consisting of roads at 10-12% max with a 5-7% average climb or descent with very little actual flat. Just a bit like Jubilee or Mont Pinel in grade but generally much longer and at 19mph for me (Keith White) and what must have been close to 21mph for John Derrien (lightweight, but not on the beer (I didn't count em though Bob) the ride wasn't easy by any stretch. But roll on next year I say.

100km riders John Gage, Mike Gardener and Rab York all had good rides. I think the course was a little more confusing for the 100km riders with the feed station and split direction causing many 100km riders to do well over the subscribed distance before rejoining the course proper. This of course added to the distance Mike Gardener had already done as the lone star in riding both there and back to and from the boat. I believe Mike Stevenson, Malcolm and Sue Armes did rides of the lesser length but this musn't detract from the fact they too had good and enjoyable rides.