Coffeeneuring is a conceptual amalgam of coffee + randonneuring. I believe I first became aware of coffeeneuring about a year ago through a NY Times article (which I can no longer find), and since then coffeeneuring has begun to appear more frequently on my radar. Randonneurs seem to have as much an attraction to rules and process as to pedaling their bikes, and their coffeeneuring events are no exception. Like this “2nd Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge” in WA DC, which has 16 rules.
16 Rules? Meh. Let’s just go for a ride and drink coffee somewhere. (Although I do wonder whether a ride truly qualifies as coffeeneuring unless there are rules.) Last Saturday was a perfect Autumn weather window for a coffeeneuring expedition. My coffeeneuring partners are a close-knit bunch who do a once or twice-weekly group ride on routes that emphasize urban Seattle and demonstrate pride in being Seattle cyclists. I call their weekly rides “gangsta” rides because of the urban focus. Left to my own devices I tend to head for the suburbs to the north and east, and I’m always astonished by the fun and challenging urban routes these guys put together. Cycling to SeaTac and White Center simply never occurs to me; my cycling brain tends to be pointed in the direction of Snohomish and Issaquah.
Saturday’s route was a short but frisky ~40+ mi/2,605′ dash, starting at Weekend Café in the Central District, with a mid-ride coffee break at Dubsea Coffee in White Center. The cycling highlight for most of us was in Normandy Park, with a graceful echelon-formation descent down Sylvester Rd. SW, followed by a wicked, lung-tearing climb up Maplewild Ave. SW and SW 170th St. Not to mention two pedestrian overpass crossings along the way.
