How to organize a brevet: a guide for randonneur club volunteers

Amanda Jones registers Deirdre Arscott, Nanaimo, Pacific Rim 600, 2009

With the 17th edition of the great 1200-kilometre randonnée Paris-Brest-Paris just months away, hopeful randonneurs are focussing on the all-important qualifying brevets. Indeed, some temperate regions have already launched their series of 200, 300, 400 and 600 kilometre events.

With that in mind, here’s a few thoughts on planning and organizing brevets, from the perspective of retired and active route-coordinators.

In keeping with the meaning of the word, first and foremost a randonnée should be a fun “ramble.”

British Columbia Randonneurs Vancouver Route Coordinator Roger Holt stresses the social side of randonneuring. Staffed controls aren’t just a frill. They become necessary on big rides where crowds might swamp private businesses, like convenience stores. As important, they can offer more than just material support to struggling riders.

He also emphasizes the importance of offering routes of varying difficulty.

“I don’t want to make [all routes] too hard core; a six-hundred [kilometre brevet] is hard core.” A successful route is one where riders come away saying: “I’d like to do that again!”

Preferably, these enthusiasms are exclaimed over a cold beverage, near the finishing control.

Club Secretary Ali Holt concurs. “It’s about balance, not just a pure grind,” she says, concerned that newcomers don’t leave with the impression that the sport is devised only for hard-core endurance athletes.

Seattle International Randonneurs’ Regional Brevet Administrator Mark Thomas also believes variety is the spice of the sport and new route development serves both veterans and rookies.

“We include a mix of new and old events every year. In my opinion, this has been a key to the growth of SIR, by giving riders additional reasons to stay with the club year after year to keep the influx of new riders company. Most of us would find it quite tedious to ride a series over the same routes year after year after year.”

During my stint at the helm of the Vancouver Island Section of BC Randonneurs, I added several new and revised courses to the archive. However, unless a route has been meticulously checked and vetted, I believe that a PBP year is not the ideal time to unveil that brilliant route you’ve been plotting on Bikely. Strictly speaking, it’s against those pesky Audax Club Parisien rules.

SIR will add a couple of new routes in 2011, but Thomas explains, “Veterans, including me as the RBA, help to review the routes for suitability. The routes are also submitted to Randonneurs USA for approval. These two steps help to ensure that the routes are as good as they can be and to ensure that they meet all the technical requirements for route creation.”

Much depends on a club’s resources, whether staffed controls are logistically possible.

“We are fortunate in Seattle,” Thomas explains, “to have a very ready crew of volunteers. This frees up our route organizers to be a little more creative in designing routes, because staffed controls can substitute for the more typical search for appropriate control locations with established services.”

It’s a safe bet that most randonneurs are looking for scenery to go along with their ride, and all randonneur club executives I interviewed for this article mentioned their preference for scenic, rural routes.

Stephen Hinde served as BCR Vancouver Island Route Coordinator for 20-years, creating some of the best routes in British Columbia. He and Thomas agree it’s a good idea in a PBP year to match the kind of terrain riders can expect in France. Hinde notes that Vancouver Island’s terrain–with its steep rollers–is a very close approximation of the kind of challenges awaiting in Brittany.

Technical considerations

Protect Your Papers

With modern mapping technology, based on Google Maps, route planners have lately turned to sites like Bikely and Ride With GPS. These are wonderful tools to play with during the winter. They are not a replacement for local knowledge.

Every new route should be carefully built, perhaps first as a mapping concept, then by riding and/or driving the route several times, collecting information on potential control locations, and business hours if controls are planned at restaurants, gas stations or convenience stores. Contact managers and seek their cooperation.

On longer routes, is there a motel or other appropriately outfitted space available near sleep zones? Are sleep zones placed at reasonable distances?

Every turn should be considered from the point of rider safety.

Stephen Hinde is a thorough logistician. Even his difficult routes can be considered templates for what makes a rider-friendly randonnée.

Rather than trying to summarize our correspondence, I will quote his rando organizers’ tips verbatim:

• A brevet wouldn’t exist without controls. Selection of the route to place controls where support services are available is the critical item to designing a route.  Even manned controls need access to water and toilets.

• It goes without saying that rider safety is important. Yes, we are experienced riders, but as sleep deprivation kicks in, our skills become impaired.  Sixteen hours awake gives equivalent impairment to 0.08 blood alcohol. Of course, given our geography, there often is little choice in routes.

◦ Sleep controls [on long events] should be placed so that riders can arrive within about 20 hours of leaving the start or previous control. For faster riders, it is good to provide options for sleep locations beyond the official control.
◦ Routes through town need to be balanced between access to service, and traffic density.
◦ Narrow busy roads, especially at dusk, are of concern.
◦ Left turns from, or crossings of, major roads should be done at controlled intersections.

• Controls need services for riders

◦ For large groups, manned controls are nearly always needed to minimize interference with other users, and to speed processing at control and services.
◦ Overnight controls–can the control be used multiple times so that riders can drop bags for future use?
◦ Will volunteers be able to look after their own needs? This is especially important in the more distant controls with longer opening times.

• Routes should have interest to the riders:  Scenery, challenge, quiet roads. Up and down busy highways is mind numbing, but can be useful late in the day when riders are tired and struggling to follow the route sheet.

• Route sheets can be formatted in many ways

◦ Instructions must be accurate.
◦ It is useful to put descriptions to identify the intersection in addition to the name and distance. For example: 3 km  turn left on Main (traffic light). The description prompts the rider to check for the right route.
◦ When crossing time zones, list all times in the start time zone. Sleepy riders (and control staff) have trouble adding (or was that subtracting?) an hour.
◦ Organizer emergency contact information.

I would also underscore the importance of route sheet prompts, using permanent landmarks (check them before every event). Standardized direction cues are a good idea too. In canada, as in France and other modern nations, distances should be in kilometres.

Ride day

Control staff must be properly trained to sign riders through. This can’t be emphasized enough. Correct data-entry on control cards is critical, for the benefit of regional data managers and, ultimately, to assure the brevet is homologated by ACP.

Riders

What should riders expect? Well, if the preceding considerations are taken care of, a jolly good bicycle ride. Remember, volunteers have put in countless hours of their time to make the event possible. Give them your respect and thanks. Also be courteous to staff at established services. Buy something and thank them for supporting your event.

You are ultimately responsible for the care and correct validation of your control card (especially at unstaffed controls). Make sure you know how it should be filled out. Sign at completion of event.

I’ll leave the last word to Stephen Hinde: “These rides are not races. It is not the organizer’s job to set up a race course, so expect challenges and delays. Keep your wits about you, and always look 3 instructions ahead.”

Bonne route!

Oh, and one last thought for riders: Have you considered paying it back?

Organizer Resources

BC Randonneurs Organizers Page | “Running a SIR Brevet”

BC Randonneurs has developed excellent route sheet and control cards, which Stephen Hinde rendered in Excel form. The result takes much of the work out of generating brevet documents, including calculation of control opening- and closing- times. Download it here. (I can offer only limited support. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel is required).

More on route sheet wrangling.

Tagged as: ali holt, brevet, british columbia, cyclotourists, mark thomas, paris-brest-paris, randonnée, roger holt, seattle, stephen hinde, vancouver, vancouver island