The year 2007 promises to be a great one for the American randonneur. In this newsletter you can see the results of the work recently done by your regional brevet administrators and RUSA volunteers to create our schedule of events for 2007. Just looking at our ACP events, we see a great calendar of expanding ride opportunities. I am delighted to report that ACP events will be offered in 46 regions, 7 more than in 2007. Next year there will be 325 ACP brevets and flèches, a 40% increase over the number offered in 2006. (We also have many RUSA events on the calendar with more likely to be added over the course of the year as they were this past year).
Most notably, of course, 2007 brings the 16th edition of Audax Club Parisien’s Paris-Brest-Paris event. As the international community’s premier randonneur event, PBP serves in many ways as our sport’s Olympic games. Randonneurs of the world set their sights on the historic challenge of this event. More than sporting challenge, however, PBP also is a joyful social gathering – old friends meeting again, new friends being made, and in this day and age, riders who know each other because of the Internet meeting in person (and on bike) for the first time.
We expect to bring a great team of US randonneurs to next year’s gathering. All the signs suggest that we will have a bigger PBP contingent than 2003, when we had 400 riders finish the event. With our ACP calendar for 2006 almost complete as of this writing, we have had a more than 20% increase in the number of ACP brevet finishes over the prior pre-PBP year in 2002. (Historical results are viewable online at www.rusa.org/points.html). I also note that the participation in 600km events is up more than 50% over 2002. We should have a strong team in France next year.
See you in Paris.
—Mark Thomas