Pacific Northwest - SIR Spring Populaire

I see that the SIR's populaire is coming up this weekend. Do I need to be a RUSA member to participate? I know for their regular brevets you need to be a RUSA member and an SIR member, but I wasn't sure about this ride since this was an intro to SIR sort of thing.

I'm planning on joining RUSA anyways since I'd like to try out some 200k brevets this year, but the registration certainly wouldn't go through in time for a ride on sunday.

I'm pretty sure you can just show up and ride (since it's free) - but it would be a good idea to pre-register online to avoid lines/etc on the day of.

Also you might be able to get your RUSA # from the rusa.org website now (if you want the pop. to count towards your yearly RUSA stats); they might have your RUSA # in there but not mailed you back your stuff yet, if you've already mailed it in.

Sounds like a fun/hilly/tough route! They're a great group to ride with, and always pick great routes... though at somewhere around the 400k mark on a 600k last year I inevitably cursed the organizer, e.g. "who would create such a stupid route??!" - but it was usually just a sign it was time to eat again.

Btw lots of posts of my rando adventures from the last two years here on my blog (http://cyclinginseattle.blogspot.com/search/label/brevet). I'll probably show up for a few brevets this year too.

Thanks for the info. I've actually got your blog bookmarked already. It was the first one I found when I started looking for Seattle bike blogs when I moved here last summer.

I've got some SiR route and ride reviews on Permanent Clydesdale (http://cliftongk1.livejournal.com), too.

For the Populaire, you don't have to be an SiR or RUSA member. It's a freebie introduction; but as Matt said, if you want it to be part of your yearly totals you should have your RUSA number at the ready. It seems like we'll have better weather than last year for the spring populaire. Last year for the Big Time Urban Pop. it was snowing at the start, and there was about 1/2" of slush on the ground trying to make our way up and down the hills of Wallingford and the Magnolia bluffs. I finished with only 1 minute to spare!


a great group to ride with, and always pick great routes... though at somewhere around the 400k mark on a 600k last year I inevitably cursed the organizer, e.g. "who would create such a stupid route??!" - but it was usually just a sign it was time to eat again.
...or a sign that your riding one of Jan's courses! :lol:

I was looking forward to this ride all winter but am a little bummed they planned it the same day as the Chilly Hilly.

Even though the Chilly Hilly is a complete zoo (and a little dangerous with all the newbies stopping without warning on the hills), I think it's a fun way to begin the "official" start of organized riding season, and I love being on the ferry with billions of other bikes. So I think I'm going to ride to the ferry, do the CH, and ride home -- close to 60 miles in all for me.

The SIR ride is a calmer, more experienced (and much smaller) group, but the route is on roads I ride all the time; I only get over to Bainbridge 2 or 3 times a year.

Have fun!

It was kind of by that same logic that I chose to do the populaire instead of chilly hilly. I've done the chilly hilly route a few times by myself (or with a few others) and I'd never ridden down in the renton/issaquah area before. It was a fantastic ride. I met some cool people, worked my ass off climbing some of those hills, soaked up the rays and the views. All in all a great day. I think I might give the 200k a go in a few weeks if it fits my schedule.

It was kind of by that same logic that I chose to do the populaire instead of chilly hilly. I've done the chilly hilly route a few times by myself (or with a few others) and I'd never ridden down in the renton/issaquah area before. It was a fantastic ride. I met some cool people, worked my ass off climbing some of those hills, soaked up the rays and the views. All in all a great day. I think I might give the 200k a go in a few weeks if it fits my schedule.

Were you wearing a red jersey on the ride yesterday? I was talking was a guy for a while (from Factoria up past the airport perimeter road) who mentioned a Centurion single speed. Seeing your screen name, I thought it might have been you.
I was wearing a Randonneurs USA red/wht/blue jersey.

Hey yeah, that was me. I was just looking through some of the blogs on the RUSA blog roll (http://rusablogs.blogspot.com/) and saw the self portrait you took at the Dog and Pony. Nice meeting with you and chatting for a while. I fell off that group you were in when I pulled over to pee behind some bushes at the top of that first long climb (not even sure what road that was, I followed the cues fine, but since they were all pretty much new roads to me, I lost my sense of location pretty soon after heading east away from the lake).

I'll second BengeBoy. It would have been nice to put these two rides on back to back weekends. I really don't see what SIR would have lost trying to accomodate those interested in both rides.

Whatever, it was a great day to be out on the bike yesterday.