Excuse me while I get out of my rocking chair...Back when I first started doing brevets there were very few rules, very few awards and very little paperwork when it wasn't getting lost or burned up in a fire at the firehouse(another old-timer might get that one) . Well, maybe there were rules but we didn't have the rule police breathing down our backs. We just rode our bikes. Most of the time we didn't even order medals for the brevets we did, except the 1200ks. Now those are worth collecting. The problem nowadays is that as randonneuring has become more popular people have gotten involved. When people get involved we suddenly have to have a rule for this, a rule for that, a medal for this and a medal for that. Now it seems you can get a medal for wiping your rear. My cane is heavy, I better settle back down in my rocker and take a nap...btw, somewhere I have a box of old brevet medals if anyone is interested...