Welcome to Detroit Randonneurs


Welcome to Detroit Randonneurs! We are thrilled to bring randonneuring events to the greater Detroit area.

Our club sponsors long-distance cycling events in Metro Detroit and other Michigan locations ranging from 100 kilometers to 600 kilometers (60 - 375 miles) in length. Plans are underway for even longer rides of 1,000 kilometers to 1,2000 kilometers in 2025 and beyond.

A few things to know:

  • Our rides are unsupported. That means each rider is solely responsible for the operation and maintenance of their own bicycle.  There is no sag wagon, and on some rides, help can be miles away on some of the more remote stretches of road we ride. But we typically ride together, creating bonds of friendship and camaraderie along the way. Our ride organizers and volunteers work hard to make sure that every rider is accounted for, from start to finish.
     
  • Our rides are timed, with riders required to reach a series of carefully spaced intermediate control points, as well as the finish, within a set window of time. For most of our rides, the  style of riding is known as “allure libre,” meaning may riders ride at their own pace within the limits set by control opening and closing times.  A few of our rides employ the “audax” style of riding, as a group at a steady pace set by its leaders.
     
  • The terrain we ride ranges from lakeshore flatlands to rollers to the occasional steep climbs, with overall climbs under 1,000 feet on shorter rides to challenges exceeding 10,000 feet on a few rides “Up North.”  Some routes touch on the urban areas of Metro Detroit, but most take quiet back roads through gorgeous and varied scenery, with regular stops for supplies and rest. Many of our routes have been in use for years and are updated annually to reflect changes in road conditions.

Most importantly, when participating in randonneuring events, riders are part of a long tradition that goes back to the beginning of the sport of cycling in France and Italy. Randonneuring is non-competitive, but we challenge ourselves and each other -- to ride farther, faster, and longer than we ever thought possible. We aspire to relentless forward progress but take time to help each other when in need, whether that need is for emotional support, an energy bar to cure a bonk, or a cleverly improvised fix to broken equipment.

Detroit Randonneurs is affiliated with Randonneurs USA (www.RUSA.org) and operates according to the rules promulgated by that organization by adoption from the Audax Club Parisien (www.audax-club-parisien.com).  You must be a member of Randonneurs USA (RUSA) to participate in our rides (join here). You must also update your Detroit Randonneurs membership for 2024 before you register for any events. Go to the "Club" tab under logo > Update/Renew Membership and follow the instructions

Please explore our rides: we have many scheduled "brevet" rides as well as fixed-course "permanents" that can be ridden on your own schedule.

Join us for the adventure of a lifetime!

Dragi Gasevski, RBA
(Regional Brevet Administrator)


A Few Notes on the Website: 

This website is a work in progress, and you will notice updates as you return over the next few weeks. 

    2024 Ride Schedule  
  Date Distance Start-End Ride/Link Certification
1 4/13/2024 118k Detroit North East Populaire RUSA
2 4/20/2024 152K Northville Northville - Lake Erie RUSA
3 5/11/2024 142K West Bloomfield Happy Trails 145 RUSA
4 5/11/2024 200k West Bloomfield Happy Trails 200 ACP
5 5/18/2024 162k Okemos Huron River Cruise 162 RUSA
6 5/18/2024 203k Okemos Huron River Cruise 200 ACP
7 5/18/2024 309k Okemos Huron River Cruise 300 ACP
8 5/25/2024 200k Canton 200k West of Nortnville ACP
9 5/25/2024 400k Canton Go to Hell Backwards 400k ACP
10 6/1/2024 107k Huntington Woods Huntington Woods/Northville Audax UAF
11 6/15/2024 400k Port Huron Thumbs Up 400 ACP
12 6/15/2024 614k Port Huron Thumbs Up 600 ACP
13 6/16/2024 214 Port Huron Thumbs Up 200 CC ACP
14 6/16/2024 301k Port Huron Port to Port  ACP
15 6/29/2024 120k End in Northville 8hr Dart Populaire RUSA
16 7/6/2024 200k West Bloomfield Lake Erie Run (Audax) UAF
17 7/13/2024 301k Commerce Twp Tour of Detroit ACP
18 7/27/2024 105k Island Lake Park Picnic Populaire  RUSA
19 8/10/2024 400k Grand Rapid Sandy Beaches 400k ACP
20 8/10/2024 600k Grand Rapid Sandy Beaches 600k ACP
21 8/11/2024 200k Grand Rapid Sandy Beaches 200k ACP
22 8/31/2024 201k Rochester Trail Mix ACP
23 9/14/2024 106k Canton Canton - Lake Erie Run 105K RUSA
24 9/28/2024 201k Adrian AAA  Brevet 200k ACP

 

Permanents Program:

Route # Start Location Km Climb (ft.) Name
4773 MI: Canton 105 830 Canton - Lake Erie Run
3813 MI: Canton 200 3454 West Suburbs
4575 MI: Detroit 117 925 Northeast Populaire
3164 MI: Frankfort 102 2148 Frankfort - Sleeping Bear - Glen Arbor
4157 MI: Grand Rapids 101 2178 Grand Rapids/Smyrna Loop
4581 MI: Harrison Township 103 436 JJI Eastside Shoreline Cruise
4816 MI: Mackinaw City 701 11539 North Shore - South Shore 700K
4797 MI: Northville 151 1281 Northville - Lake Erie
4794 MI: Okemos 162 2369 Huron River 162k
5021 MI: West Bloomfield 105 1570

Crosswind - Zukey Lake 105k

 

 

 

When registering for the first time please register as a guest you will then be assigned a club membership number, and all of your registration information will be stored for future use. This site takes a bit of learning to use at first but it offers many advantages to the club members and the Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA).

 

When finished with your ride please report your start and finish times as well as a link to your ride on Strava, Ride with GPS, or whatever you use. You will receive an email with a link to report your times to our site. If you are unable to use electronic reporting please use the brevet card, cue sheet, or anything else to record your times, then send a photo with an email to dragi.rando@gmail.com.

Please review the Rules for Riders and Article 10 and the RUSA Reflectivity Guide 

 

THE LONGEST RIDES:

Thumbs UP weekend is on 06/15 - 06/16

Sandy Beaches weekend is on 08/10 - 08/11

Dart Populaire
The Dart Populaire 06/01/24 is an event whereby teams of cyclists all ride to a common destination from various starting points. Dart Populaires are team events of 8 hours duration and 120km minimum distance. info at: https://rusa.org/pages/dartpopulairerules  If you need a team you can probably find some folks in our group, meet riders at our rides, or make a post in our Facebook group. RUSA membership is required for participation. The destination for the Dart Populaire is Los Tres Amigos, in Northville.

Team Randonnées

There are three team events in American Randonneuring: the Flèches-USA, the Arrow, and the Dart. All events are for teams of 3 to 5 machines (bicycles) and each team designs their own route that heads to a common destination set by the event organizer. Teams must ride the specified minimum distance in the appropriate time period and finish together to get ride credit. There are also some differences to be aware of too. Below is a brief description of each event. If you click on the name it will show you the regulations for that specific event.

Flèches-USA--A 24-hour event held on or around Easter weekend. This is an ACP-sanctioned event and counts toward the R-5000 medal. No rest stop may be longer than 2 hours. Allowable start times are from noon Thursday through 10 AM on Saturday. A minimum of 360 km must be covered during the event.

Traces-USA --The Trace is the “younger sister” of the Flèche. The Trace is run parallel to the Flèche, on a shorter distance (200 km minimum distance), and with a possible overnight stop. The purpose of the Trace is to choose a tourist route and to ride it in daytime hours. Teams can start and finish on the same day, or they can start on the day before the common meeting with Flèche riders, make an overnight stop, and arrive the next day. Although it is shorter than the Flèche, and does not impose night riding, the Trace remains challenging, especially at Easter, when weather conditions are often rough, and we still lack training. Upon arrival, the participants in both Flèche and Trace meet and celebrate together. Organizing a Trace at the same time as the Flèche brings more riders together, and makes the party even greater.  The Trace currently does not give distance credit or credit towards RUSA awards.

Arrow-A 24-hour event is very similar to the ACP event, this is a RUSA-sanctioned event. An Arrow can be run any time of year and be organized for any day of the week. There is no limit as to how long a team can rest in one place. It does not count toward any ACP awards, only RUSA ones. A minimum of 360 km must be covered during the event.

Dart- Dart-A 13½ hour team event with a minimum distance of 200km. Unlike the two longer team events, a Dart could, depending on the time of year, start time, and event time period, be run entirely in daylight.

Dart Populaire- An 8-hour team event with a minimum distance of 120km. Unlike the two longer team events, a Dart Populaire could, depending on the time of year, start time, and event time period, be run entirely in daylight.

Below are some suggestions from RUSA to help the Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA) put on a successful team event, and for teams to have a successful ride. (More guidelines about riding a team randonnée are also in the RUSA Handbook.) A team randonnée has some unusual characteristics and regulations compared to regular brevets; every RBA and team captain should review the appropriate rules before beginning this process. Riders and RBAs should feel free to contact RUSA's Team Randonnée Coordinator with any questions they might have about riding one of these types of events.

 

Audax (UAF) Events

The Audax brevet format goes back to the early days of randonneuring. In this format, riders ride together at a fixed pace under the leadership of one or more captains, and stops, both brief stops and sit-down meals, have prescribed venues and a timed schedule. This is in contrast to the allure libre style of randonneuring, where riders ride at their own pace, together or separately, and take breaks as they wish, so long as they pass through intermediate checkpoints as required, and finish within the time event's time limit.

The Audax Club Parisien (ACP) and Les Randonneurs Mondiaux (RM) sanction events in the allure libre style. The Union des Audax Français (UAF) sanctions Audax-style events worldwide (including RUSA's Audax brevets, offered for the first time in 2022), offers finishers' medals for sale, and organizes their Paris-Brest-Paris Audax event. Organizations with "Audax" in their name - such as the Audax Club Parisien, Audax Atlanta, Audax UK, and  Audax Australia - use the term "audax" in the original, more generic meaning of an "audacious challenge."

Awards and Distance Credit - Audax events on the RUSA calendar count towards all applicable RUSA awards as if they were RUSA brevets or populaires. For example, an Audax 100km event would count towards Distance, K-Hound, P-12, and RUSA Cup awards, among others.

Riders on Audax brevets start together, ride together, and finish together. Audax is characterized by a common riding pace of 22.5kph (14mph) on a pre-determined route with stops of a fixed duration. On audax brevets, riders are never alone, the effort is constant, and controls are for rest rather than validating passage along the route. Audax brevets have been homologated since 1904. We offer 3 rides in 100, 200, and 300k in length.

 

AWARDS

RUSA Rouleur Award for those who meet the criteria for this award, as well as all riders who participate in RUSA Populaire rides will receive RUSA Populaire pins, as well as Fleche, Dart, Arrow Lapel Pin riders.


           

RUSA Rouleur recipients must: Complete a 100-124 km brevet populaire, Complete a 125-149 km brevet populaire, Complete a 150-199 km brevet populaire, Complete a 200-220 km brevet, Complete an 8-hour Dart populaire team randonnée of 120 km or longer. There must be at least three team members finishing the ride together for this event to count for the award. Super Rouleur recipients must be current members of Randonneurs USA during the award period. All Super Rouleur counting rides must be Randonneurs USA calendar events. The award can only be earned once per Calendar year per member. Foreign events or permanents cannot be used to earn this award. Longer events cannot be substituted for shorter events (e.g., a 130 km permanent cannot be used for the 100-124 km counting event, or a 13.5-hour Dart team randonnée cannot be used for the 8-hour Dart team populaire.)

 

2024 Club Overview

Participation
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Total Club Distance
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