Initially, I thought that the longest I've ridden to the start of a randonnee was about 12 km to the start of the 600K in Manitoba.

But then I remembered that I rode 50 km to the start of the annual century ... the Muddy Waters ... in August in Manitoba at least one year if not two. And of course 50 km back home again after. I also rode that distance to join up with the local cycletouring club on a 75 km group ride . I wanted to do a long ride that weekend and joining a group for the middle 75 of a 175 km ride made for some variety. And I rode that distance for a Time Trial as well ... 50 km to the Time Trial ... 22 km Time Trial ... and 50 km back home. I saw a brown bear on the way home!! As it happened the large park where everyone seemed to meet for these rides was about 50 km away, so riding to and from events that started there was fairly common for me.

And then I got thinking about some of my longer rides. On the way to the PBP in 2003, I rode from Chatham to some little town where I ended catching a train to Dover. I think I covered about 30 km. Two days after the PBP I rode about 10 km to catch the ferry across to Portsmouth and when I dismbarked, my cycling partner and I rode 135 km to the Midlands of England.

And the Great Southern Randonnee took place right in the middle of a 3-month tour of Australia. I rode about 1000 km from Sydney to Melbourne in order to start that ride.

Rowan and I did a fair amount of riding on our way down to the 2007 PBP as well.