Re: [CR]mini brevets?

(Example: Humor)

Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 05:47:00 -0700
Subject: Re: [CR]mini brevets?
From: "Bill Bryant" <bill_bryant@prodigy.net>
To: ADP <aphillips9@mindspring.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.2.20030426194138.02dd7ee8@pop3.norton.antivirus>


Might appear to be similar at first, but not really. Gran Fondos appeal most to racer wannabees, while the vast majority randonneurs tend to compete against themselves not others. Many of the Gran Fondos I've read about use famous mountain passes which often see epic battles in the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, which furthers the racing connection. Not many European brevets, if any, do that sort of thing.

Unlike the Gran Fondos, brevets are designed to be non-competitive events; the results are listed alphabetically, not by arrival time. Being *on* the finishing list is everything, not how high up on the list one could be for bragging rights. There are no awards for placing, ability classes, gender or age groups, etc. Brevets also stress self-sufficiency, so no support cars with spare wheels, etc.

Randonneuring brevets are run with a maximum and minimum speed and is described best as fast touring with time limits. Beating the minimum pace gets a lot of attention from most randonneurs, which I think is a different mind-set from trying to reach the finish line as quickly as possible. Randonneurs have been known to stop and eat at a restaurant or take photos as they admire the scenery. I believe the Gran Fondos are much more race-like and stress going as fast as one can in order to beat other entrants to the finish line. During a brevet riders must check into a control point to get their card signed, while on a Gran Fondo, stopping is avoided as much as possible.

The one exception to the above is the Paris-Brest-Paris randonnee run every four years. A small segment of its 3500 entrants does treat it more like a race, but they are in the *very* small minority. FWIW, the results of this event are published by arrival time (unlike other brevets). But given it being a pro race 1891-1951, this variation is understandable.

For a fuller description, poke around the website of the Randonneurs USA at: http://www.rusa.org

Apples and oranges, IMHO.

Bill Bryant Vice-President, Randonneurs USA Santa Cruz, CA

on 4/26/03 4:50 PM, ADP at aphillips9@mindspring.com wrote:
> Angel M Garcia <wa2vuy@mindspring.com> said:
>
>> In Italy there is a new form of cycling that has taken off like a rocket,
>> the "Gran Fondo". These are century( +) rides, with shorter distance options
>> available, that are very competitive. Every finisher's time is recorded.
>> Some are very large in terms of participants (thousands).
>
>
> This sounds like fun, but suspiciously like a brevet!
>
> Whats the difference between this and a shorter, 200k brevet?

>

> Ann