Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.
nancy sv
12-25-08, 08:40 PM
I know there's got to be a list somewhere, but I don't even know what to search for...
I keep hearing people refer to brevets and other terms that I have no idea what they're saying. Is there somewhere I can go to find out what all this gobbledy-gook means??
They are randonneuring terms ... long distance cycling, ultra-distance cycling.
Have a look at my website ... it's all explained there: www.machka.net ... specifically here:
http://www.machka.net/rand.htm
A brevet is a ride sanctioned by the ACP (Audax Club Parisien: http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/ ) and is a distance of 200 kms, 300 kms, 400 kms, 600 kms, or 1000 kms. Brevet is a French word that actually means "certificate" or "licence" or something like that and refers to the card we have signed at the controls. A randonnee usually refers to the 1200 km ride. A randonneur is the person riding all these events. In French randonneur refers to a long distance traveller, but the cycling world has adopted it as its own. And a populaire is usually a shorter ride - 50 kms, 100 kms, or 150 kms, but not all clubs run populaires. Audax is another term you might run across and means essentially the same thing as randonnee, but traditional audax-style events are run in a slightly different way than the randonnees are ... more as a group event.
The time limits for the distances are as follows:
200K - 13.5 hours
300K - 20 hours
400K - 27 hours
600K - 40 hours
1000K - 75 hours
1200K - 84 or 90 hours (depending on various qualifications)
The clock starts ticking when the rider rolls off the start line and stops when the rider rolls across the finish line. All breaks (sleep, food, etc.) are included in that time. Randonneuring is really a test of endurance.
The page I link to above ( http://www.machka.net/rand.htm ) provides links to different events and clubs, as does my Links page here: http://www.machka.net/links.htm
Included on that page are links to ...
The BC Randonneurs Links page: http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/links/links.html
Audax Australia: http://www.audax.org.au/public/
Audax UK: http://www.audax.uk.net/index2.htm
Randonneur USA: http://www.rusa.org/
Each of these pages can explain further, if you're interested.
And I'll throw the UltraMarathon Cycling Association website in here for reference as well: http://www.ultracycling.com/ ... it talks about randonneuring events, as well as lots of other long distance cycling events.