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Randonneuring is non-competitive, self-sufficient long-distance, endurance cycling under specified time limits. Our ride group conditions for and participates in populaires, randonnées or brevets and permanents of varying distances from 62 miles (100Km) to 746 miles (1200Km) and is intended for cyclists interested in friendly camaraderie style long-distance cycling in Florida and surrounding areas.
Many of our participants are members of Randonneurs USA(RUSA) however; it is not a requirement of our ride group. RUSA coordinates brevets of the Regional Brevet Admins(RBAs)and clubs who organize rides such as GCC’s Gainesville Brevet Series. We encourage you to join RUSA(rusa.org) to help us build a future for randonneuring in the US.
More specific definitions are available on rusa.org however; here are some simplified definitions to help you understand more about the types of riding our group does.
Randonneuring loosely means to go on a long trip, tour, outing, or ramble, in our case on a bicycle, along a defined route one does to test oneself against the clock, the weather and a challenging route. A randonnée is not a race, being first merely earns bragging rights. Often last finisher gets as much applause as the first, friendship and self-sufficiency is stressed.
A Brevet is typically a challenging 200-, 300-, 400-, 600-, 1000- or 1200- Km ride, each with a specific time limit. The randonneur carries a brevet card, which is signed and stamped at each checkpoint along the way to prove they have covered the distance successfully.
A Populaire is a shorter "randonneuring" event but less than 200 Km in length, generally 100 and 150 Km in length. We frequently use this ride or distance for training and/or socializing, as well as introducing new riders to the ways of "randonneuring".
A Permanent “perm” is like a brevet but can be arrange to ride it any time. It can start and finish in the same location or run point-to-point, and can be any distance of 200km+ (100-199km for a Permanent Populaire). You must be a RUSA member to ride a Permanent. Often we ride these routes when there is not a brevet scheduled in our area in effort to achieve personal awards offered by RUSA.
Allure libre; each rider is free to go as fast or as slow as they see fit, so long as they stay within the time limits of the brevet. The ride might resemble road racing by the front-riders striving for a “personal best” but behind them it may look more like bicycle touring. With uncommon determination, finishing the ride is everything in this style of cycling; tenacity is more celebrated than speed.
This group does not currently have any rides on the schedule.
When you join the group (in the Members Area) you will be able to elect to receive instant email notifications of group ride postings.
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For more information, see http://rusa.org/
Group membership is open to all Gainesville Cycling Club members. To join, sign in to the Members Area, go to the Ride page, and click on "Join A Group" just under the "Group Membership" heading.
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