Continuing the “season opener” theme, last Sunday the Seattle International Randonneurs (SIR) hosted a 100 km Populaire.
Most randonneuring events are only open to members, but this Populaire was open to everyone. Thanks to SIR president Mark Thomas who noticed that I hadn’t noticed their “open to everyone” event on the calendar, I registered as soon as I could. I admire the randos, but I confess I’ve never done one of their official rides. I thought I wanted to be a rando once upon a time, but then I realized how much I love to sleep, and that I generally dislike paperwork and rules. As the SIR web site notes:
“If there were no paperwork, no arcane distinctions, no rules, and no bureaucracy, it would not be randonneuring. It would just be bike riding, and where’s the fun in that? No “credit”?!? No trinkets?!?”
I’m ok with just bike riding.
Randonneuring events follow a prescribed approved route with checkpoints called “controls” along the way. To get credit for the ride and successfully finish the route riders check in at each control within a time limit and get an event card signed by an official who verifies they passed through the checkpoint. Randonneuring events range in distance from 100 km to 1200 km.
Sunday’s route was a clockwise loop that started at Green Lake, headed through Edmonds and Lynnwood then turned east toward Lake Washington, climbed Juanita hill then dropped into Kirkland, and returned to Seattle via Bellevue and I-90. This route was roughly twice the distance and climbing of last week’s Chilly Hilly.
I convinced my wife Paula to join the ride (we’ve been training together for an upcoming cycling trip in China), though she was skeptical: “Those guys are fast. I’ll never be able to keep up with Chris Ragsdale.” Neither can anyone else.
All of the randos we met along the way were welcoming and helpful–they even conjured up fantastic weather. We lost contact with a big group between Seattle and Edmonds, but then rode with a smaller group as the route zigged and zagged northward, and our group-mates were mindful of keeping everyone together through hilly terrain. At control #5 one of the group made sure to alert me to the fact that I needed to answer a question about the control on the ride card to get credit for the control.
Although the randos staffing and riding the event were great, I do have several complaints to register with the randonneuring bureaucracy:
1. There was absolutely no guidance provided about the best locations for a ditch nap (demonstrated in this picture on the SIR web site). I realize that a little ol’ 100 km Populaire might not be worthy of a ditch nap, but neophyte randonneurs welcome baby steps. We might miss some of the subtleties if we jump into the deep end of the swimming pool too soon.
2. Where were the pints of dark beer, cappuccinos, and pastries? Based on Mark Thomas’ frequent Facebook postings I was led to believe that these would be served up at the controls by skilled randonneuring baristas. The conspiracy theorist in me is inclined to think that Mark never actually rides–he just talks about it over beer, coffee and pastries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Facebook picture of him riding when he claimed he was riding.
I would love to be able to say that Paula I officially completed our first rando ride on Sunday, but alas, we didn’t quite get with the program. The route passed near our house, so we rode to the start, then diverted back home about 5 miles from the finish. We did about the same distance, but didn’t check in to the final two controls. Plus it looks like we may have missed a “secret” control somewhere along the way. In the randonneuring world, no control checks means the ride doesn’t count. Oh well, there wasn’t a ditch nap stop anyways.
The randos intend to host more “open to everyone” rides this season, and if the idea of randonneuring appeals to you I’d encourage you to check them out. Let me know if you find the cappuccinos and pastries.
