Haku

I read over the RUSA web site and the handbook. The awarding of the Super Randonneuring award / medal. Is this done thru ACP brevets? or can you do any RUSA brevet in a year? or is it a calendar year? I guess I just need some plain talk on this award, Thanks.

Marcello

To qualify for the SR, you have to complete the four ACP brevets (200k, 300k, 400k, 600k) in the same calendar year. RUSA brevet don't count for the SR, but they count for other RUSA awards. At the end of the randonneuring season (in October, if I remember correctly), you request the medal through RUSA. The only exception is for those riders who go to PBP, who should get their SR medal with the PBP registration (assuming that they qualified for the award, which is usually the case, unless they had to substitute a longer ride for one of the other brevets in the SR sequence).

Machka 

A randonneuring year starts November 1 and goes to October 31.

You have to ride a 200K, 300K, 400K, and 600K randonnee in one randonneuring year in order to qualify for the Super Randonneur award.

The randonnees have to be sanctioned by the ACP.

You can ride randonnees in any country where there are sanctioned randonnees. (For example, you could ride a 200K in Canada with the Ontario Randonneurs, a 300K in Australia with an Audax Australia club, a 400K in the UK with an Audax UK club, and a 600K in the US with a RUSA club. If you did that, you would not only get a Super Randonneur award, you would get the International Super Randonneur award)

RUSA is just an organising body for randonneuring like Audax Australia, Audax UK, BC Randonneurs, Alberta Randonneurs, Prairie Randonneurs, Ontario Randonneurs, and many, many others.

bobbycorno

"International Super Randonneur"? Never heard of that one. Is that an ACP/RM award?

SP
Bend, OR

LWaB

https://www.aukweb.net/isr/index.htm

Machka 

And if you scroll down the list of recipients to #51, you'll see me. I got my 3 Continent 1200K International Super Randonneur award by riding the RM1200 in Canada, the Last Chance in the US, PBP in France, and Great Southern in Australia.

Steamer

If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? Yes, of course it does, silly.

skiffrun

Although that is what the RUSA website indicates under the "International Awards" section on the "Awards" page ( https://www.rusa.org/awards.html), that is not the entire story.

If you go to the "Results" page, and enter someone's name or number and click "Search", the following text appears at the bottom of the individual's results:

"ACP SR indicates that the rider completed a Super Randonneur Series according to the ACP rules (ACP brevets of 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km where longer events cannot be substituted for shorter ones).

RUSA SR indicates that the rider did not complete an ACP SR but did complete a Super Randonneur Series according to the broader RUSA rules (ACP or RUSA brevets of 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km, where longer events, including RM randonnées, can be substituted for shorter ones missing from the series)."


The "International Super Randonneur" is also explained on the RUSA website, the "Awards" page, the "International Awards" section.


Stalking the SR in the U.S., whether ACP or RUSA, is essentially a calendar year award. I understand that there are no ACP brevets offered in the USA after (approx.) October 15th of each year. 2 1/2 months later, there are quite a few ACP brevets offered on Jan-01 in the warmer areas.

StephenH

I was looking for that RUSA SR statement, and couldn't find where it was.

I'm not sure why the statement is in there. As far as I can tell, there isn't any kind of recognition or award for doing an SR series under the RUSA rules that doesn't meet the ACP rules. Unless, maybe, it's used as qualifying for something else.

Marcello

RUSA has an award (Ultra Randonneur) for members who complete 10 SR series, and that includes ACP SR series (of which I have 4) or RUSA SR series (of which I have 2, for years where I did not complete a 400 or a 600 but did a 1000 or a 1200). So I still have 4 series (either ACP or RUSA) to make that award.

Haku

So many rules it is worse than the military...

Marcello

Without all the rules and the paperwork it would not be randonneuring. It would be just cycling.

drmweaver2

Awards & medals routinely involve rules, paperwork and, usually, ego.
Randonneuring involves a a cyclist, a human-powered vehicle (usually a bicyle), and a formal, timed route (whtether on road, trail, both or other).
Cycling involves only time, place, vehicle and person.

The first has "pressure" if it's a goal. Otoh, the award/medal is only rarely the goal for me - it's what it represents, not the paper or medal.
If/when the first is the goal, I'll play by those rules and formalities; occasionally, I play by those relatng to the second.
I prefer the last - eliminating ego, pressure and formalities.

Homeyba

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...

Marcello

Randonneuring awards can help get people motivated to be out and ride long distance. Many RUSA riders do long rides in the winter, and probably would not do them if there wasn't that small token of recognition that is the R-12 award. I am motivated to do multiple SR series this year, to get closer to that Ultra Rando award. Other people chase that unofficial title of K-Hound and ride 10,000 km in a year, probably lots more than they normally would.

Whatever it is that keeps people riding long distance rides, it's a good thing.

Homeyba

I suppose if people need a medal to motivate themselves that’s fine but I wish the masses would leave their rules police at home.

skiffrun

As I wrote ... go to the results page, enter the name of a valid RUSA member (or their RUSA number) and click "search". When the results pop up, scroll to the bottom of the results and read.

skiffrun

RUSA SR jersey, e.g..

skiffrun

It is a French sport ... and since 1792, the French have been in love with "scientific" and have always been enamored of rules.

Once you are on the bike, the rules don't seem so ... annoying.

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Sorry for the troll-like three consecutive repsonses, but I have never figured out how to correctly do a "multi-quote".

skiffrun

+1

skiffrun

Gee, I don't see where the medals are causing "rules police."

I think it is the cheaters that cause "rules police".

Either that, or people that let a little bit of "authority" go to their head.
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okay, sorry for making 5 trollish posts.

Homeyba

The medals don't have anything to do with the rules. Medals are just "things" that people get attached to. That wasn't really my point. It's the same problem with everything. Something gets too popular and "people" ruin it. What happens when someone "cheats" on a brevet? What does that get them? A $2 medal that they pay for? Cheating happens, it's going to happen whether there are rules or not. I've seen more than one RBA falsify their own results so they could enter either PBP or another 1200k. What did that get them? They got a DNF at a 1200k and the scorn of everyone. Everyone knew and none of them are in the sport anymore. What more do you need?
What happens when you get too many people involved is that now, instead of hopping on my bike with some friends and doing a ride in some part of the country or world I've never ridden before we now have the "rules police" who try and dictate what we ride, what we wear and what equipment we have to have etc.. I’m not arguing that we don’t need rules. That would be anarchy. What I’m arguing is that the sport is slowly becoming a police state…

StephenH

Skiffrun, after you posted that, I was able to find it, I had just looked for it under the "Awards" section and it wasn't there.

Marcello, your point about the Ultra award make sense, I hadn't realized it could qualify with the RUSA rides (I'm still working on my first SR, so I haven't started worrying about the other 9!)

When I first started in randonneuring, I wondered about the rules myself. Specifically, if you're going to ride X miles, does a requirement that you finish in Y hours somehow add to the experience? And I think that ultimately, having a specific goal, and specific rules to follow to achieve that goal do add to the experience. I know for sure that I would never have ridden as far as I have on some of my rides were it not for a certain number of kilometers that I was trying to cover, so that aspect has certainly motivated me to ride more.

All in all, there's not that many rules, it's not like football or anything.

downtube42

That's was I was concerned about (rules police) when I rode my first brevet last year, but I found the randonneuring crowd to be pretty much the complete opposite. Laid back, friendly, all about the ride and the challenge. I found randonneuring after decades of "just riding", and I'm enjoying the challenge and the comeraderie.

lonesomesteve

^ +1

That's been my experience too. Some are concerned about rules but only as they apply to themselves. I've never, ever seen one randonneur telling another, "hey, you cheated!" The people I've ridden with seem to pretty clearly understand that you can only cheat yourself.

Now, on the other hand when I used to golf...