Rowan

There are lots of threads here about riding and events from the riders' points of view... but how posters many here have organised a long-distance event, and particularly randonnees?

I think it would be good to give some perspective as to what happens behind the scenes.

Chris Pringle

I organize the entire Super Randonneur series of brevets in Mazatlán, México. We are the only club in the country. Organizing brevets is not hard, but it can be time consuming. I did it all by myself the first year (last season), but given the enthusiasm we have now formed a committee of five people to delegate/share certain tasks. I took a small delegation of six people (myself included) to 2015 Paris-Brest-Paris -- the first official delegation in history from Mexico to the PBP.

For the new season which will start this Saturday, we have created a software app to automate our registration, confirmation of registration and the printing of carnets (brevet cards). This was all done by hand the first year (last year) which would take me hours. We mostly rely on convenience stores and small shops (in rural villages) for the control of the brevet. Everyone stops to buy food, water and beverages so they appreciate the business.

This is our website.

Machka 

From my experience setting up a Super Randonneur series in central Alberta is that one of the thing that happens behind the scenes is a whole lot of driving.

I used Google maps + some pretty decent ordinance maps to lay out a route ... and then I drove it. I took photos of intersections and signs. I stopped in the little towns along the way to check out what they had in the way of supplies, and their hours of operation. I observed road conditions, shoulders, and traffic.

On one significant occasion, I had a route all mapped out. It looked great on paper! Then I drove it, and discovered the second of two highways in Alberta which does not have a shoulder. (Most Alberta highways have shoulders, I now know of 2 that don't). I wouldn't have minded so much except that on a Saturday afternoon, that road was busy! Full of gravel trucks and other vehicles flying by in both directions. And the edge of the road, where cyclists would be, was quite damaged. I just couldn't put cyclists onto that road.

So, back to the drawing board. And then back out to drive the route again. A couple more times until I was happy with it.

zonatandem

30 years ago helped organize, set up and ride the Grand Canyon to Mexico bike tour event.
A 6-days' ride covering 500 miles and 20,000+ feet of elevation gain.
That's before cell phones and googlemaps.
Biggest thing was setting up nightly camping sites and motels plus nightly dinners by local organizations.
Ran a stake truck for carrying overnight gear and as sag wagon.
Started off the first year with 20-some riders and grew up to several hundred 20 years later.
Eventually the bike club decided it was too much work for too little $$.

skiffrun

There are at least two, maybe at least three, current RUSA RBA's that are BikeForum members. However, each has cut back on their posting since assuming RBA duties.

One is from a largish club on the central Atlantic coast. That club appears to have a ride organizer that does much/most of the work for their respective rides.

Another is from a peninsular state. I have no idea how he / his club operates.

unterhausen

I have designed routes up to 400k in length, so I could run a full SR series by combining the 400k with a 200k. For now I'm just administering permanents, so people come to me when they want to ride one of my routes. I try to make sure they are something I would be happy having people ride.

bmike

I ran the VT events for the New England Randonneurs for several years...
Some times I had volunteers, often I ran the events (and rode some of them at the same time) by myself.
Its alot of work... if you want to put on a good show.

Most of the VT events were on the minimal side of services provided - usually food at the finish, all controls at convenience stores, etc.
Lots of driving. Lots of course checking. Cut into my riding and family time. I got a bit burned out on it, to be honest.

Some good folks have taken over. Thankfully keeping the VT events alive and adding 600k and 1000k options.
The NERds and the VT NERds are good peeps, and I'm glad the basic foundation I setup has been able to keep things going.



Best and Worst event was a 400k I ran myself. I set everyone off, drove the course leap frogging folks to get to the 200k mid point control and taking photos. Had a really strong rider fall apart on the long stretch home, so I managed to get him and his bike in my rental car with all the other crap I was carrying around. I got him back to the start. Waited for all the other riders to get in. One rider dropped out 80 miles from the finish, checked into the hotel, called me to let me know he was stopping. I requested that he let me know his plan for getting back to the start, and that I couldn't be of assistance as I was awaiting riders to finish. He was from a big city, asked about buses and taxis, etc. I suggested he sleep on it and ride it in the next morning after a good breakfast. He never called back in the morning. My calls to him went unanswered. I assumed he figured it out. I drove an hour home. Just laid down on the couch (its now like 9am or something) when my phone rings... missing rider, he didn't feel like riding. Said he had to drive all the way back to the big city, and teach the next day. I called a few cabs. No one wanted to drive 2.5 hours each way to get him.

Being not an a-hole I drove down, picked him up, and drove him back to the start. He gave me some $$ for gas... and that was about it. Never heard a word from him again.
Needless to say, it was a long long long couple of days.

StephenH

Here in the local club, several of us host the different brevets. The routes are all unsupported, so there's not an issue of having to run around the course and tend to people. If a route hasn't been ridden in a while, it may be prudent to go pre-drive it.
We've got the Texas Rando Stampede coming up next spring. One project I've got underway is a perm incorporating Day 4 of that route so we can pre-ride over the Christmas break.

skiffrun

Historically, we have had 2 regions in North Carolina. (One of those regions, Raleigh, is one of the oldest two or three regions / continuous series in the US. Those oblique historical references in the RUSA Handbook to "North Carolina" are actually referring to the Raleigh region. BTW, if you want to hear some interesting, possibly "wild west" rando stories, find and ride with someone that's been doing rando since the 1980's -- that's all I'm sayin'.) We now have a third region in Asheville.

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I make the RWGPS maps for Raleigh Region RBA Alan. That's a pretty easy thing since Alan only does a traditional series, one ride on each date, plus a "RUSA birthday celebration" 200 brevet and a brevet pop in August (in PBP years, the birthday celebration rides and picnic are pushed back into September, maybe October). It's also pretty easy because Alan has been using essentially the same 200, 300, 400 route(s) since 1998, several months before RUSA was created. Alan once told me that the routes are actually older than that because they used to do the current routes from a start location that is some 15-miles from the current location. The 600 route might not be quite that old -- I'm not sure.

I type that Alan has used the same route(s) since 1998, but recently, there has been at least one bridge undergoing re-destruction each year. Usually, Alan knows about the re-destruction(s) because of accessing the NCDOT online database of road/bridge construction. However, sometimes he learns of bridge-out situations during truck scouting of the 200/300/400 route. I can attest to that previous sentence because I rode with Alan for the 2014 & 2015 truck scouting trips for the 200/300/400 route(s). Also, because Alan had family issues in the lead-up to the 600 (which goes in a completely different direction than the shorter routes), in 2015, I truck-scouted the 600 solo -- luckily there were no surprises.

Also, because of conversations during truck scouting trips, I know that portions of the 300 and 400 used to use slightly different routings. One change on the the 300 was to start using Erect Rd -- why that change, you ask? -- simply because of the name. One change to the 400 routing was to use Flint Hill Rd -- why that change, you ask? -- According to Alan, when he found that road, back in pre-GPS days, his truck barely made it up the steepest climb & he immediately knew "this would be a good road for randonneuring."

In case you're curious -- locals almost never bother to look at the cue sheet for the 200/300/400 -- well, certainly not for the 200. Except that, as noted above, recently, there have been one or more detours almost every year.

There are always at least a couple pre-riders that volunteer on the day of the rides. The 200/300/400 don't really need volunteers en route, but we've had a couple on each route in recent years -- maybe not on the 200. Volunteers usually have some foodstuffs and fluids, financed out of registration fees. On rare occasion, a volunteer will end up sagging in a rider. [Full disclosure, I was sagged in from the half-way point of the 600 in June-2015 -- the result of an incident with a very acute angle meeting with some very wet RR tracks -- tracks that I had successfully negotiated (4 x 2) eight times previously.]

I won't mention control card, waiver and cue sheet prep.

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Okay, I don't have time right now to write about my experiences hosting rides for the Highpoint Region in 2015 (and also volunteering for a couple of the Taste of Carolina 1200's). I'll try to come back in another couple days and describe some of that.

Oh, I will write that I've already been reviewing RWGPS maps for the Highpoint Region 2016 Carolina Spring 1200. Making comments/suggestions where I know the roads better than Tony. My friend and oft rando ride partner Bob has been doing the same. I expect a long scouting drive in January -- similar to one thing I did in 2013 for that year's Taste of Carolina.

rodar y rodar

Since Chris Pringle obviously isn`t very good at boasting, I want to point out that the SR series he set up was in a country that previously had no ACP affiliations, had never had a single official brevet, where there are both real security concerns for being alone at night in the middle of nowhere and exaggerated imaginary fears on top of a culture that looks at cycling more as "poor folk transportation" than as a sport. The first year resulted in a handful or riders (five?) going to PBP. Man, that`s wild!

And kudos to all the rest of you who also run or organize events. I can imagine it`s an enormous time/energy investment and very few people would be willing to do it. Admittedly, there`s no way in hell I`d even consider doing that. You all rock!

StephenH

So you've got a 100 mile stretch basically in a straight line where it doesn't need any controls to fix the route in place, with a few stores scattered along the way. So how many intermediate controls do you put in there? None? One? Two? Three? If somebody is riding with a support crew, more controls gives them more places to connect. For other riders, it's just that much extra bother. So how many do you throw in there?


Assuming your overall route is already over the minimum required distance. You have a typical convenience store right on the route, or a nicer eating establishment that will add 1.5 miles to the route. Which do you use for a control?


Or, you've got a small convenience store with single restroom right on route, or a larger nicer convenience store with Subway and multiple restroom facilities available that adds 1.5 miles to the route. You expect maybe 20 riders to get there at the same time. Which do you use as a control?


You've got the route of least distance, which zigzags through a small town with a half-dozen extra turns, one or two of which will be easy to miss. Or you can route around the whole place if you make it 0.2 miles longer. Do you go for shortest or simplest?

Those are the questions of the day...

unterhausen

I prefer no controls to controls, particularly if there are obvious places to stop if I want. In general, I prefer a well-equipped convenience store to a restaurant. 1.5 miles is nothing. Skip the town.

bmike

I think I had an 80+ mile stretch on the VT 400k.

It cuts both ways. I liked being able to just stop where I wanted. And so did a few others. But about the same amount of folks wanted an intermediate control. Psychological way of breaking up that distance was their answer.

unterhausen

On Endless Mountains, I think a lot of the controls were 60 miles apart. I like that distance. Who wants to stop more often than that on a 1200k? Seems like the year I did Taste of Carolina, there were a lot of 50+ mile stretches between controls. Plenty of places to stop. I can see not wanting to fall too far behind, but I've found that if you're riding with someone, they will usually want to stop with you.