Several years ago, Crista Borras initiated the fine tradition of recognizing a new category of rider, the Rookie. As far as DC Randonneurs is concerned a rookie is that bold - and slightly reckless - rider with no previous brevet experience who launches his or her randonneuring career by attempting (and completing!) a full brevet series. In addition to participation in DC Randonneurs events, the winner is selected based on volunteering at DC Randonneurs and other RUSA events, as well as demonstrating the randonneuring spirit. This year we had five candidates who are shown below

Jan Bull

Lane Giardina

George Moore

Patrick O'Donnell

Ray Suziedelis

All were excellent candidates and completed many more events than the basic Super Randonneur series. Two of them got most of the way toward the RUSA R-12 award in their first year by riding at least one 200K brevet or permanent in consecutive months.

But in the end, the board selected Lane Giardina to be the DCR 2009 Rookie of the Year. Lane rode his full SR series with DC Randonneurs. He rode 8 brevets last year, including a fleche, for a total of more than 2500km. But Lane also distinguished himself by volunteering to help at DCR and other events. For example, he co-organized a 300K brevet, rode over 500 miles checking out the route for the Endless Mountains 1240K, and then spent multiple days volunteering during the EM1240K event itself. And he is always ready to help other riders. His cooperative and generous attitude exemplifies the spirit of randonneuring, and we are proud to have him as our Rookie of the Year.

(If you were a rookie in 2009 who completed a full qualifying series, and we somehow overlooked you, please let us know.)