Road Cycling - Randonneuring, brevets, fleches, etc.

I'm just curious how many Randonneurs we have over here. If you're one, have you started your brevet season yet? How far along are you? Will you be doing a fleche this year too? How about a 1000K or 1200K event?

If you're a Randonneur, you'll know what I'm talking about, but if not here's a bit of info:

Randonneur: A cyclist who is trying to complete sanctioned long-distance bicycle events inside a certain time allotment.

Official rides or "Brevets" are over preset routes and distances, and must be completed within a set time limit with check-ins at control points. Riders are expected to be self-sufficient on all rides regardless of the distance or weather (rain or shine, day or night). Randonneuring is more like rallying than racing. All riders successfully completing the course within the allocated time are eligible for awards rather than just the front-runners. Riders are encouraged to work together — they compete against themselves and the route rather than fellow riders. The theme of randonneuring is to promote individual health, goal setting, and achievement — all within a non-competitive athletic environment.

The standard Brevet series consisting of rides with distances of 200, 300, 400, 600 and 1000 kms. The Brevets are conducted under the rules of the world governing body — (Brevets Randonneurs Mondiaux). Each ride in the standard series serves as a qualifier for the next longer distance. The Super Randonneur is an honor for randonneurs having done a full Brevet series of 200, 300, 400 and 600 kms in the same year.

The "Super Randonneur" is also required to qualify for the longer distance events such as the Rocky Mountain 1200 — a 1200K ride held every other year in British Columbia, or the Paris-Brest-Paris, and others.

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 biggest event in the world of Randonneurs is the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 which is held every 4 years. It attracts over 4000 riders! The longest event (I believe) in the world of Randonneurs is the RAAM (Race Across America). The Rocky Mountain 1200 I was on was a qualifier for the RAAM (although I didn't ride to qualify!)


You can see my site for more info and links to other Randonneuring sites: http://www.machka.net/

Or check these sites:
Randonneur USA: http://www.rusa.org/
Audax UK: http://www.audax.uk.net/index2.htm
Audax Australia: http://www.audax.org.au/index.asp
BC Randonneurs: http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/
Other Randonneuring pages: http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/links/links.html
Ultra Marathon Cycling: http://www.ultracycling.com/

I am not yet a randonneur (more of a--serious--cyclotourist), but thanks to your excellent outline, Machka, I now at least know what to expect. :eek:

Well, I guess I qualify, having completed the Wonders of Glorious Mee twice. It's actually 215km, but still only counts as a 200km, meaning one has to find time for the extra 15km within the same time limit. There is also an estimated 4,000 metres of climbing to contend with (although now that I have my own altimeter, I can confirm or deny that this year).

There are two other things one has to contend with on this ride. Firstly, it's in the middle of the magpie season (I had my right ear cut open 150km into in the 2002 edition). Then there's also the heat. Both times I've done it, the 6am start has seen temperatures already exceeding 30 C. I think last year it got up to 39 C, there were riders getting cramps everywhere. Luckily I managed to avoid it by drinking about 10 litres of water a day for the entire week leading up to the ride.

Well, I guess I qualify, having completed the Wonders of Glorious Mee twice. It's actually 215km, but still only counts as a 200km, meaning one has to find time for the extra 15km within the same time limit.

Yes, most of the rides here go a little long too. The 200K is really 210, the 300K is 318, and the 600K last year was 630. I believe it is a requirement in the rules to have at least one of the rides a little longer like that because the Paris-Brest-Paris isn't 1200 kms it's 1225 kms.


My first 600K was hot like that!!

I am a member of RUSA but have yet to complete a brevet as there are none offered in Arizona. I am thinking of getting a 300k permanent going though since you can organize those yourself and then ride them. My distance is limited though as all the longer Brevets go over Sunday and I don't ride on Sundays. Anyone know of a 300 k or longer brevet that uses Saturday and weekdays as opposed to Sunday?

I am a member of RUSA but have yet to complete a brevet as there are none offered in Arizona. I am thinking of getting a 300k permanent going though since you can organize those yourself and then ride them. My distance is limited though as all the longer Brevets go over Sunday and I don't ride on Sundays. Anyone know of a 300 k or longer brevet that uses Saturday and weekdays as opposed to Sunday?

Well, you've got the Desert Camp in April:
http://www.rusa.org/cgi-bin/eventsearch_PF.pl

And there's a bunch of Californian ones:
http://davisbikeclub.org/
http://www.sfrandonneurs.org/
http://www.slobc.org/brevet/Brevet.html

And Colorado:
http://www.rmccrides.com/

Davis (link above) is the biggest Randonneuring club in the US. If you want to check for rides that might go on weekdays, contact them. If any club is likely to have a variety of times and dates, that would be the one.

I know of another Randonneur from Arizona who will be coming up to British Columbia to ride a Fleche so there are at least a couple of you there. Maybe you could organize a club. :) If you decide to do a permanent, I'd definitely suggest advertizing it!!

BTW - the 300K shouldn't take you more than about 18 hours, so you can fit that one completely into a Saturday - we start riding ours at 5 am and wrap it up around 10 or 11 pm. The 400K shouldn't be more than 24 hours so that one too, should fit into a Saturday - we start ours at 4 am and finish about midnight.


Why not ride on Sundays?

I have been a RUSA member for two years but there are no rides where I live. The closest chapters are in St. Louis and Kansas City. I may start a Randonneuring club in Branson so I can organize brevets.

BTW- this thread really should be in the Touring folder since randonneuring is considered a form of touring.

BTW- this thread really should be in the Touring folder since randonneuring is considered a form of touring.

It also falls under the category of "road cycling" - it's usually done on the road. :)

I was a member of RUSA last year. I rode a brevet series (in Rochester, MN) and capped off the year with Paris-Brest-Paris. But I'm really a "part-time" randonneur. Most years I'm involved in the sport of triathlon. I'll probably ride PBP again in 2007, though, and I would like to someday ride Boston-Montreal-Boston and the Rocky Mountain 1200.

I'm riding my first brevet series this year. My 600km ride begins tomorrow, and I'm both excited & nervous. In preparing to ride my first double century I had decided that the first 50 miles would be easy, the second 50 would be OK, the third would be a bit of work, and the difficulty would all come down to the last 50 miles. For this 600km I'm trying the same mental game, but it doesn't ring quite so true... "the first 100 miles will be "easy," the second 100 miles will be "some work," the third 100 miles will get "challenging," and then that last 60-80 miles will be the finale... 100s are not so easy to dismiss as 50s...

After the 600k I'm planning to write a summary of my impressions about a brevet series.

I'm riding my first brevet series this year. My 600km ride begins tomorrow, and I'm both excited & nervous. In preparing to ride my first double century I had decided that the first 50 miles would be easy, the second 50 would be OK, the third would be a bit of work, and the difficulty would all come down to the last 50 miles. For this 600km I'm trying the same mental game, but it doesn't ring quite so true... "the first 100 miles will be "easy," the second 100 miles will be "some work," the third 100 miles will get "challenging," and then that last 60-80 miles will be the finale... 100s are not so easy to dismiss as 50s...

After the 600k I'm planning to write a summary of my impressions about a brevet series.

I prefer to break down the kms into . . . to the next control. In other words, on my 600K (I've done 3 of them), the first control is 75 kms down the road. So, I'm only riding 75 kms. Well, I've often ridden 75 kms in training - that's a casual evening ride for me, so no problem. I don't think about the rest of the ride, just that 75 kms. Then when I get to the control, I take care of business and get back on the bicycle for a whole new ride of 75 kms to the next control. It's a brand new ride for me and all I've got to do is ride that 75 kms. . . . and so on until I'm done.

I don't think about how much further I've got to go for the whole ride, or about whether this section is going to be difficult or that section is going to be easier, I just focus on the small segment of the ride I'm currently riding. I made the mistake of looking at the whole ride on the PBP at one point. I was about 300 kms into the ride, just coming into the Fougere control. I had been struggling with the hills and was pretty tired and suddenly I thought, "I've still got over 900 kms to go." I just about quit at Fougere. Fortunately, I did what has been recommended to me and others: Before you quit, eat something, drink something, take a little nap . . . and then decide. When I woke up from my nap, I was ready to keep riding.

I have ups and downs during the ride and can't predict that I'm going to have trouble here or there. My tendancy is to ride a bit slower and struggle a bit first thing in the morning ... and then to gain strength and speed later in the day and on into the night. So if a ride starts at 6 am (like my 600Ks do), I might feel like I'm really fighting for the first 6 hours of the ride, and then all of a sudden, 130 kms into the ride, I'll have a wave of strength and energy come over me and I'll be flying up and down the roads for a while. I just go with it as it comes.

Good luck on your 600K! Are you planning to sleep or ride right through? I've done it both ways.

I'll be interested to read your writeup. I've done writeups of all the brevets I've done.

BTW- this thread really should be in the Touring folder since randonneuring is considered a form of touring.
Well we should move all discussion of the Tour de France to touring too, or change it's name.

Randonneuring is not like touring in any way I look at touring.

It's a goal of mine to some of this. I would definitely like to do a 200km and a 300km. Depending on how those go, I'd consider trying a 400 or a 600. I've only been riding seriously for 2 years. I'd label myself as a cycling enthusist. I have no ambitions to race or anything like that, but I definitely want to test myself with a 200 or 300km ride. Probably my biggest goal is to ride the entire C&O Canal towpath (185miles) in one day. That's an offroad ride, so it's definitely a bit harder than doing a road ride. I still have quite a bit of weight to drop before I seriously think to attempt that. That has been my main goal with cycling... that and to have fun. :)

So far the longest ride I've done is 103 miles onroad, and 105 offroad.

I've done some randon rides and 24 hour rides. Before I had tackled that kind of distance, I had done a bunch of century rides. In century rides, I always felt like I was about to die when I got to 100 miles.

With more experience, I learned that even if I felt like I was going to die at 100 miles, I would soon feel better and be able to keep on going for a long long time. No matter how good shape I've been in, on very long rides I do hit a low at some point, but what I've learned is that I can still feel strong again after that low.

I have been a RUSA member for two years but there are no rides where I live. The closest chapters are in St. Louis and Kansas City. I may start a Randonneuring club in Branson so I can organize brevets.

I don't know how it would be to organize a club through RUSA, but up here, I think it's pretty simple. The organizers planned out the routes a number of years ago so that all stays the same from year to year. Once you've got a good route you can stick with it. We also don't have "manned" controls on our rides. Some clubs have volunteers at all the controls to sign the cards and help the riders. Here we get our cards signed by people in convenience stores and restaurants in towns along the way so we're completely on our own out there. At the end of the season the organizers send in the cards and we get them back with the medals later.

Why not ride on Sundays?


Thanks for the info. I don't ride on Sundays for religious reasons mostly. It generally works out good for me as I always have a rest day (I have a tendency to overtrain so this is good for me). Anyway, it does get a bit inconvenient with these longer Brevets, but I suppose I should just get one of the smaller brevets under my belt before worrying about the longer ones yet! I wonder how hard it would be to get a Brevet series going around here. Their were some informal Brevets in Tucson last year but they didn't do them this year.

Well, I've finished two 200Ks, my 300K, and a 400K fleche.

I've still got my 400K, 600K, 1000K, and 1200K to go.

How about you?