87.80 & randonneurs

It’s Monday morning, pouring rain, and I’m feeling good because I opted to ride yesterday instead of waiting until today.  I track my miles from Monday through Sunday, and ended my week yesterday with 87.80, the best I’ve had since 89.71 the second week of January.  With the change in time, getting in miles after I’m finished with school in the afternoon will be easier.

Went to the Seattle Bike Expo on Saturday (via bicycle) with Maxine and came home with loads of brochures, flyers and a few bargain cycling jerseys. There was lots to see, but it got so crowded that we left early and cruised down to Myrtle Edwards Park, where we took the bike trail out to Magnolia.  To my surprise, I discovered when I arrived back home that I’d logged about 20 miles.  They do add up.

One of the things I picked up at the show was a publication called Bicycle Paper which lists the area rides for the 2008 season, and when I sat down to look over the calendar Saturday night, I discovered a group called the Seattle International Randonneurs.   There were various French words in the descriptions of the rides (fleche, populaire), and I was instantly fascinated (my France cycling dreams continue…) – a few clicks later, I was at the group’s website. 

Apparently randonneur is French for ”to walk, ride, amble” etc., and the term, as applied to cycling, dates back to a Frenchman named Paul Vivie (affectionately known as “Velocio”), who pioneered the sport by setting out to ride across France in 1900.  To this day, he is known as the patron saint of cyclotouring and randonneuring, and devotees visit his memorial each year to celebrate the sport by doing a timed hillclimb. 

But the holy grail of randonneuring is a 1200k ride (750 miles) from Paris to Brest (on the coast) and back to Paris (PBP) which got started in 1891, when the intrepid editor of Le Petit Journal decided it would be an entertaining test of endurance – and over 200 cyclists showed up to give it a try.  Editor Giffard wanted the ride to be a test “not primarily of speed, but of brains, skill and endurance.”  And so it is that the spirit of PBP seems to remain at the heart of randonneuring to this day – and of course, uber-randonneurs return to Paris for this ride every year.   (See more about PBP here.)

These days, randonneuring groups can be found all over the world.  They are dedicated to unsupported (self-contained) long-distance rides that challenge not only a rider’s endurance, but creativity, individuality and spirit.  The Seattle group began the season with a 62-mile (100k) ride in Port Townsend the first weekend of March.  (Darn!)

This group has captured my imagination.  Unlike a general-purpose, garden-variety biking group like Cascade Bicycle Club, randonneurs seem to have the kind of eccentric passion and commaraderie that appeals to me.  I don’t know if I could ever do their mileage (100k, 200k, up to 1200k), but I’m curious to find out more.   My next goal is to find a 100k ride, and I guess I’ll go from there…

fyi… A populaire ride is between 100k – 150k (62 – 93 miles); a fleche is 360k (223 miles).