Randonneurs USA defines randonneuring as: “long-distance unsupported endurance cycling. This style of riding is non-competitive in nature, and self-sufficiency is paramount. When riders participate in randonneuring events, they are part of a long tradition that goes back to the beginning of the sport of cycling in France and Italy. Friendly camaraderie, not competition, is the hallmark of randonneuring.”
Seattle has a very active randonneuring club which sponsors brevets throughout the year. A brevet is a 200k, 300k, or longer cycling event. Saturday morning a 200k event occured in the Olympia area. I have wanted to participate in such an event but my cycling style wears me out too quickly. The event started at 7 AM and the riders were given about 13 hours to finish the course.
Each brevit has a detailed set of route instructions and a control card which has checkpoints that must be visited and checked off on the card by a volunteer at the specific point or location. These locations usually have restrooms and access to food and coffee.
Olympia has a custom builder of bikes for these type of events. His name is Corey Thompson. From what I can observe at his website a fully designed custom built bike runs a bit over $5000. https://thompsoncustombicycles.com/
Steven Lawrence Pictures 
If my knees hold up, my next hobby.
Great images that capture the pre-ride
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I am joining the group and will work with their 100k training maps but I doubt I will go beyond that. If I was 20 years younger I would make an attempt at a 200k brevet.
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There was a guy in Glen Arbor MI, an acquaintance and friend of mine. Just died a couple of years ago, at 106. Was skiing including Nastar races right up to the end, and routinely road a bicycle 25 miles daily, as well as drive a Honda Goldwing on an annual cross-country trip, when it wasn’t skiing weather. You and I are both spring chickens compared to Lou!
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Nice pics! As a “serious cyclist” for about 20 years, randonneuring is something I’ve been “wanting to get into” over the past decade, but never have. While riding a set distance in a specific amount of time is a good challenge, I much rather ride at my own pace. Plus, I found the local group down here (Oregon Randonneurs) not that much fun. I have done a handful of 100K populaires and did one 200k populaire, mostly to say I did it. I have ridden the spring 100k populaire with Seattle Randonneurs, and that was much more fun.
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