DC Randonneurs

Hi All,

The PBP excitement has started with a great turn out for the annual meeting. Followed by 31 randonneurs showing up in subfreezing temps at the beginning of Feb. for a non-qualifying RUSA brevet. Of course everyone out there was really doing it for the fun of it and the R-12 challenge. Bill Beck became our fifth member to achieve R-12 when he arrived back at the “Center of the Universe” with the lead group. Congratulations Bill.

RAMM on Feb. 24 will be the last of the non-qualifying RUSA brevets until after the ACP qualifying series is complete. Liz will be preparing her great taco soup and we plan on having a bonfire if weather permits.

The entry form for the ACP qualifying series is complete. See Attachment. We have scheduled many brevets to try and accommodate the many different interests and goals of the individual randonneur. There are many options and opportunities to ride and/or volunteer at many events. Volunteers are needed to help at registration, check-in, intermediate controls,ect. Volunteering can be very rewarding and is another good way to meet your fellow randonneur.

I will be out of town on vacation for the next 2 weeks. I may be a little slow in responding to requests. If it can wait until I get home that would be great. If not remember I’m on vacation and be patient.

Hope to see you on the road soon.

Matt Settle
RBA, DC Randonneurs

Happy New Year to all. It’s a new year, it’s a PBP year. Our focus will be on PBP and getting as many DC Randonneurs to the finish line in Paris as possible. We have an extensive qualifying series with many options and different challenges to choose from. To carry out our plans we will be depending on the help of the membership to volunteer.

Jeff Magnuson, Lynn Kristianson, and Bill Beck organizing the Nov, Dec, and Jan Brevet of the Month were invaluable in the success of having a different Brevet for each month of the year. We will need many volunteers to carry out the brevets we have planned for the qualifying series. Please consider helping out at check-in or one of the controls.

Jeff Magnuson, Dave Berry, and Bill Beck all did Permanent Brevets in Dec. Nick Bull, Rudy Hewitt, and I all achieved R-12 status by completing at least a 200K Brevet for 12 months with finishing the Woodbine 200K on Jan 6, which had spring like weather and a great turnout of 37 riders.

The annual meeting is this Saturday at Glen Echo Town Hall beginning at 6 pm. The doors will open at 2:00 for socializing and pot luck. The theme of PBP year. Teamwork and trying to help everyone to the finish line. We are one of the larger parts of the American Team with a wealth of experience to draw from. Anciens are encouraged to bring their insights and memorabilia to better initiate the newer members to what PBP is. It will be a great time to form a Fleche team or maybe join an existing one.

We will outline the brevet schedule with specific information on each route. The Brevet Entry form will be available for early entries.

Hope to see you Saturday,

Matt Settle
RBA, DC Randonneurs

Finally the long awaited DCR newsletter with the summer recap.

The centerpiece of my agenda to attract new members and retain all randonneurs is the Brevet of the Month. By trying to supply new and different challenges each month to the riders we hope to maintain and build on the enthusiasm and camaraderie that is evident each spring. Participation in the initial brevets this summer was very encouraging and exceeded my expectations. Lost River 200K, Gappitty Gap 200K, and Lebanon Church 200K all had 20 or so entries and many riders rode in all three.

Lost River was designed to showcase the pluses of the out and back route. I received many positive comments about the prospect of seeing many other riders coming and going. Others commented that it didn’t seem like an out and back because the scenery didn’t seem the same in the other direction.

Gappitty Gap was designed to be hard and to bring more extended climbing into the challenge that we have not been doing on recent brevets. But are very common in other regions. Gappitty Gap lived up to the hype as the typical time of the riders was about 2 hours longer than what they posted for either Lost River or Lebanon Church. Many would be riders who missed this ride and many who did ride requested that it be repeated in the future. It may very well become an annual event.

Lebanon Church was designed to give the randonneurs that hadn’t had the chance to experience some of the route from the Lost River 300K and also included some of the climbing from Gappitty Gap and the out and back features that had riders seeing each other coming and going from the Lost River. The start location from the Community Center with the advantages that it offers also played a roll in making this ride distinctive and different from others.

Another key component to the plan for growing and expanding randonneurung is the permanents program. It will help riders with schedules that prevent them from riding on event dates to achieve the R-12 and others that just want to rack up RUSA points.

In November Tom Reeder became the first member to achieve the R-12 when he completed a brevet in Houston. I don’t think anyone will join Tom in the R-12 club this year. A few of us should achieve this in January with more expected thru the spring and beyond. To this end Mark Vinette became the first member to complete a permanent by riding Lost River 200K on Nov. 30.

Older newsletters were published and archived here. Eventually, I plan to have these imported into the the blog for search capabilities.

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