David Roderick - 2/22/2015
Ok, let’s get this season started. There are several of you who have been riding permanent brevets and populaires available here in Ohio in pursuit of your R12 and P12 awards. Good luck in reaching your goals. For the rest of the Ohio randonneurs, and riders new to randonneuring, go to our Facebook page or Google group for more information about these rides. If you’re out riding, you might as well get credit for it. All the rules and procedures for riding permanents can be found at RUSA.org. We have a list of Ohio permanents and populaires available on our website.
2015 is a Paris-Brest-Paris year. Ohio Randonneurs will offer a complete series of ACP sanctioned brevets in order to qualify riders for this prestigious event. If you check your history, without PBP there would be no Tour de France. TdF was started by a rival newspaper after PBP was created. PBP is not for everybody. It is a hard ride of 1200K. It’s the greatest ride in which I have participated. Without PBP there would be no permanents or populaires. It is an expensive undertaking. RUSA affords us several other long distance opportunities and awards that still garner a great deal of respect.
Since it is a P-B-P year, the brevet series this year will be geared towards helping riders qualify and successfully complete PBP. That means more hills than last year. Next year with Larry Graham’s and hopefully Jim House’s help, we will offer a flatter series that originates in Ohio, but will travel to Michigan and Indiana as part of the requirements to earn special RUSA awards. I think it would also be interesting to set up our fleche next year so that riders from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio could all end at a common point to exchange stories and lies while tipping back a few.
This year’s brevets will all start at Cyclist Connection in Canal Winchester, Ohio. The host hotel for the series will be Best Western Plus Canal Winchester. I have arranged for an Ohio Randonneurs discount with Michele Miller the general manager there, so be sure to ask for it if you plan to stay there. There are other hotels in the area including Holiday Inn Express on Hamilton Rd and several hotels including another Best Western in Pickerington. It will be possible to ride to the start from the Best Western Canal Winchester, you might be best advised to make the short drive to the start from the other area hotels. We will have a room at the Best Western Canal Winchester on the weekends of the brevets. The address for the Best Western Canal Winchester is: 6323 Prentiss School Drive, Canal Winchester, OH 43110, phone: (614) 834-4790.
Like last year, we will publish the official cue for the brevets the Tuesday before the ride to registered riders. Don’t ask for an unofficial cue before then. I have to pre-ride the brevet, and make any final changes to the cue. Last year we allowed volunteers to pre-ride the brevets in exchange for their volunteering to work controls on the day of the actual event. The same goes this season, and if you both pre-ride and volunteer, we will waive your registration fees. There will be no day of ride registrations again this year. Commit by Tuesday before the ride or don’t. We have to buy groceries for the riders and print cue and route cards.
All the rules and regulations pertaining to randonneuring can be found at RUSA.org. If you have any questions, feel free to ask at rba@ohiorandonneurs.org. The details for the individual brevets can be found elsewhere on our webpage. Be safe out on the roads training. We’re looking forward to seeing you this Spring.