The 100/200 of the 1980s grew out of a meeting of bicycle shop employees in the Burlington, Vermont area. These meetings, held approximately monthly, were dubbed the "Every-Other-Fortnightly Bicycle Mechanics' Conclaves" and were an effort designed to counter the natural sense of competition often experienced by people working for different stores in the same market. It had occured to some of us that we had a lot more in common than differences and that more was to be gained through camaraderie than badmouthing each other to customers. These conclaves, held in local taverns and greased by the brews of the day, gave rise to a number of events, including the 100/200; its antithesis, the Decadent Decade (10 miles on 3-speeds); the infamous Huffy Throw; and the Bolt-On Mountain Bike Race, Vermont's first NORBA-sanctioned off-road race.

It was at one of the Conclaves in the winter of 1983-84 where the 100/200 was envisioned as a one-day, 200+ mile ride from the Canadian border to the Massachusetts state line, primarily on VT-100. Jeanne Barner organized support vehicles and supplies and I did the promotion, organized planning meetings and actually rode the ride. Jeanne drove the sag vehicls and held everything together, a role for which all of us were grateful. Five or six riders rode the first year, and the field eventually grew over the years to as many as 60 riders. We purposely never kept close track of finish times, as just completing the ride was always our primary goal.

An article from Bicycling Magazine from early 1990 lists the 100/200 as one of "The 10 Toughest One-Day Rides in North America." At the time the ride was initiated we thought that it was an original idea, but the story about the US Nordic Team doing the ride in the '70s was a topic of discussion on the second or third ride and has since been confirmed by skiers from that era, though their route may have been down the western side of the state.

We did the ride annually for six years, consistently advertising it as an "opportunity for a bunch of over-the-hill cyclists to prove just how out of shape they are"--and that was over 30 years ago! Where does that leave us today? The ride series ended in 1990, when the nasty weather (windy with heavy rains) caused us to cancel the ride, though some intrepid souls rode at least part of it, in spite of the bad weather. We realized that it was really tough to pull out of an organized event at the last minute, even though we always said that we would cancel if the weather was bad. This is the biggest reason why we vow that we're going to at least start the ride this year, no matter what the weather may be.

By 2020 it had become obvious that most people knew the ride under the name "200-on-100," which is less mathematically challenged and more self-descriptive, so we officially changed its name to that.

Certainly, many others have done their own versions of the 200-on-100, as it's such a natural idea for an epic ride. We even have a pair of bikes and some photos from a couple who rode it in the early 1940s, when the roads were still dirt (though they didn't try to do it in a day). In later versions of our event, we sometimes changed the route to add some variety. We know that a group of Vermont Bicycle Touring tour leaders borrowed the VBT van and rode it a few times in the 1990s. However, we've heard of no other organized versions of the ride that were open to more than small circles of friends, so we'll continue to lay claim to this classic bicycle ride.

If a fully-supported, multi-day version of the ride is more your cup of tea, POMG Bicycle Tours sometimes hosts weekend, 2-day versions of the ride.

• Bill Howell's video on the 2016 event
• David Raymond's video of the 2014 event
• Brian Buettner's video on the 2012 event
• 2010 Video

The 1985 100/200 team, before helmets really caught on!

Following the Mad River up Route 100B

The Mad River at Moretown

South of Granville in 2009