Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Do you need a car to be a rando?

excellent photos... thanks for sharing.
awaiting a blog post!

This is exactly what I'm talking about Matt, get a hold of lonesomesteve and hitch a ride. Buy him a six pack if it makes you feel better.

A 400k after 240k to get there doesn't sound like a good idea. Of course you probably left already.

You're right - car pooling really is the solution. And this has normally been my solution in the past, including riding to the start of rides. It would have been less wasteful to carpool on the way back, but we wanted to make it a day trip on the way back more or less. We drove the alternate route (parallel to the interstate) that I took to get out there, and took a bunch of pictures.

Anyway I think car pooling could be a solution not just for people without cars, but for people that have them too. If gas becomes super expensive or harder to get, I'd imagine we'd see more of this. It's less convenient but certainly more efficient.

As for doing 240k then 400k, it wasn't all that much different from doing a 600k - just ~40k extra and more time to sleep. I figure when I do the SIR 600k in a few weeks I'll be able to hit the ground running. =]


Exactly, I'd say this is the case for a lot (majority?) of randonneurs out there.

Matt, when you say that it appears you have to have more than a bicycle to participate to official brevets, I really feel like you are stating the obvious. (and sorry if my comment sounded a little harsh earlier on)

I agree it is somewhat of a rhetorical question. But sometimes we can learn things from others' opinions, feelings, so I just threw it out there.


The way I see it, you are realizing that you have a hobby that is not fully compatible with your lifestyle, and you have to make choices that you don't like.

I would argue that my hobby of bicycle riding is extremely compatible with my lifestyle. I use the bike, the feet, and the bus, for most of my transportation needs. Without a bike, I'd be standing, waiting, at a lot of bus stops. Missing the bus is no fun, especially when they run every half hour, or every hour. (Also I smoke a ton of cigarettes when waiting for the bus, or walking to/from the bus stop - definitely not compatible with my lifestyle!)

But yes my hobby of doing ultras is somewhat incompatible with my lifestyle. Unless I can become some kind of magical riding machine like Ken Bonner... but I don't see that happening. If I'd tried to ride back from this ride, I think it would have taken 16 hours instead of 12. It hurt to walk yesterday, and even riding down to Mc D's down the street was a somewhat painful event.

If I could ride to/from every single ride I'd try, but it takes a lot of time, energy, and patience.


Going on any kind "ride or brevet" is a luxury. Whether or not an RBA sets up a starting location convenient to most of the local population is of little consequence. The facts are: leisure cycling, is a terribly wasteful, pollution causing endeavor. It matters little whether you happen to drive to the start or not.

Yes bicycle riding, and our general sedentary lifestyle, is a luxury. The transition from hunting and gathering to domesticated farming provides us with time to do things that don't involve survival.

But how is "leisure cycling" terribly wasteful? I realize it takes resources to build our bikes and keep them running, but once you're on the road, I don't see the harm being done, besides a few banana peels on the shoulder.

Matt,

The topic has drifted, so I'll go with it. Congrats on an epic weekend of riding! The upcoming 600k should be a cake walk for you in comparison. The 400k by itself was a long tough ride. Doing it after the ride from North Bend is a huge achievement. I thought about you when I was still about 20 miles out from Ephrata, poking along in the dark, hurting everywhere, thinking... "wow, I wonder how Matt's feeling about now."

If you're ever looking for a ride to a brevet, let me know. I live in Ravenna, so it's not far from you. Having a passenger would help me get over my driver's guilt. :)

Thanks, Steve! Thought I saw you somewhere at the beginning in the sea of riders.

Congrats on finishing the ride too - it was a tough 400k no doubt. But damn scenic.

I will definitely take you up on ride-sharing in the future - and while I plan on pedaling to the 600k in a few weeks (it's in Auburn I think), I will certainly not want to ride back from that one.

100 interested people???? All you need are 1 or 2 interested people in order to have a local club. My branch of the Alberta Randonneurs consists of 2 people ... me and my father. Throughout all of Alberta (which has a total population of close to 3.5 million) we might have 25 riders who claim some sort of association with the Alberta Randonneurs ... but of course it would be some sort of miracle to have that many people out to a ride.


I just pulled the "100" out of the air. But doing a membership search on the RUSA site pulls up 76 RUSA members with Lone Star Randonneurs listed as their club affiliation. And I think this excludes people in Houston, etc., that are members of multiple clubs. That includes a few people that are 50 miles or more out of the DFW area. LSR brevets require LSR memberships, and the permanents require RUSA membership, so I doubt there's many LSR members that aren't on that RUSA listing.

I'm not sure what the most people is that they've ever had on a single ride, I assume 1/3 or 1/2 of that or something. I'm pretty sure they don't routinely have 76 people showing up to ride.

Seems like I've read that the Seattle area has a very large randonneuring association as well.

Back on the original post- I don't remember see if this was mentioned- but a number of the local rides here start at a motel, where you could conceivably ride in one day, do the brevet, then ride home the following day.

I just pulled the "100" out of the air. But doing a membership search on the RUSA site pulls up 76 RUSA members with Lone Star Randonneurs listed as their club affiliation. And I think this excludes people in Houston, etc., that are members of multiple clubs. That includes a few people that are 50 miles or more out of the DFW area. LSR brevets require LSR memberships, and the permanents require RUSA membership, so I doubt there's many LSR members that aren't on that RUSA listing.

I'm not sure what the most people is that they've ever had on a single ride, I assume 1/3 or 1/2 of that or something. I'm pretty sure they don't routinely have 76 people showing up to ride.

Seems like I've read that the Seattle area has a very large randonneuring association as well.

Back on the original post- I don't remember see if this was mentioned- but a number of the local rides here start at a motel, where you could conceivably ride in one day, do the brevet, then ride home the following day.

in boston there are typically 100 or more riders on the 200k. that drops to less than 100 for the 300k... and on down from there. the shorter events typically pull in folks from other clubs that aren't up for the long stuff - but still want to do nice, 'organized' rides.

I have not taken a car to a brevet. The irony of taking my bike for a ride in a car is too much for my bike to handle. Now that brevets are starting further and further from the center of the city I live in (due to an explosion in the car population in the city) I am missing a lot of brevets.

If I can get off work I'll ride to a faraway brevet the previous day and stay in a hotel or I'll take my camping gear in a trailer.

My biggest cycling to brevet kilometers to actual brevet kilometer ratio lately was riding 800 km to attend a 300 km brevet.

Cycling to brevets is good exercise and there is no irony involved.

interesting question. Many years ago I was really into club riding. But I must confess I couldn't fathom the whole drive to the bike ride thing. I pretty much always rode to the start of the rides- but they weren't brevets- but sometimes centuries. Often I had ridden the route the day before because I had designed the ride and had to paint arrows so I was putting on a lot of miles for each club ride.

For things like TOSRV or GEAR I would car pool with friends and be generous with cash for gas and other expenses the driver might incur. But really there's always been something troubling to me about taking a car in order to do a bike ride.

I'm glad I'm not the only who struggles with it. I don't do many organized rides these days but I'm in the area spokenword posted about- the ride to Hanscom from Newton is a perfect warm-up cool down- it could make for a very slow ride home after a 300k + but it's doable. And I have no excuse because I have a home in Western, MA and Westfield is a down hill run from my home- which would mean a brutal uphill ride home, though. But I'm so satisfied with my 200k solo rides back and forth to the Berkshires all through the summer that I'm not always looking for the group experience. But I do admit the car ride thing is a turn off for me as well.