I woke up this morning to find a record number of page views of this blog on Wednesday. This surprised me, because I didn’t think the post — about two randonneuring-oriented websites — was one of my better ones. Apparently, a lot of Bike Noob readers are poking around, trying to find out more about randonneuring, or maybe just bike rides of longer distances.

Actually, information about randonneuring — in which cyclists must ride a prescribed distance within a certain time frame — is very easy to find online. Start with Randonneuring USA, the governing body of randonneuring in this country. Its website has links to randonneuring (or “rando”) clubs all over the country, so you can see if there are any groups of like-minded folks in your neck of the woods.
It’s interesting to note that randonneuring is gaining in popuarity but that increased interest is not spread equally throughout the country. There seem to be pockets where interest runs high, and a potential rider can find lots of choices for brevets, permanents, or populaires. For my money, the most informative rando website is the BC Randonneurs in British Columbia. It’s got scads of info about their upcoming rides, results and ride reports from completed brevets, an extensive results page for permanents, often with reports and photos. Close by on this side of the border, the Seattle International Randonneurs are a very active group as well, and their website is almost as informative as their BC cousins.
Randonneurs seem to be avid chroniclers of their rides, judging by the number of rando blogs that are easily found. Try checking out some from the plethora of blogs linked here.
I enjoy reading rando blogs — I’m a “lurker,” because I haven’t actually ridden any brevets yet — and I have found several that I won’t miss. They’re either very well written, or very informative, or both. My favorite is “Chasing Mailboxes” by a member of the DC Randonneurs in our nation’s capital. It just so happens that she wrote an excellent guide to randonneuring just a couple of days ago. Take a look and see what the sport is all about.
I’m still not convinced that randonneuring is in my future, although I will be making an effort to do more longer rides, starting this weekend. Since Sunday is my birthday, I figure I have to ride my age, so I’m looking at something in the neighborhood of four hours (I’ll withhold the actual distance until Sunday evening’s post). Wish me luck.