We will have our annual meeting on Saturday, January 20th at the Glen Echo Town Hall ( 6106 Harvard Ave, Glen Echo, MD 20812). Doors open at 2:30 PM and the meeting starts at 3:30 PM. Do not park at the town hall, but instead at the big parking lot at the Clara Barton House (5998-5900 Oxford Rd, Glen Echo, MD 20812) which is a short walk. There we be no official ride before the meeting, but there are a couple 100k routes that could be used if riders want to get in some kilometers.
Thanks to Andrea who has yet again secured the use of the town hall!
We'll recognize the many achievements by club riders this year and honor our organizers and volunteers. We'll also open voting on our proposed annual budget and three board member elections. Your membership must be active to vote.
Two current board members — Secretary Mike Binnix and Treasurer Jack Nicholson — plan to stand for a two-year term. We have one vacancy, as Chris Readinger has reached his six-year term limit.
If you would like to contribute to the club by joining the board, please reach out to Ed Felker or any board member. The time commitment is very reasonable and you'll play a valuable role in making sure we continue to offer great rides.
DC Randonneurs sponsors long-distance cycling events in the Mid-Atlantic region ranging from 100 kilometers to 1,200 kilometers (60 - 750 miles) in length. Rides start from the Baltimore-Washington region but travel as far afield as State College PA, Buchanan VA, and Warm Springs WV.
The terrain we ride ranges from the flatlands of the Eastern Shore to the rolling hills and valleys of the Piedmont and the sometimes steep flanks of the Appalachian mountain ridges to our west. Our routes, many of which we've ridden for years, take quiet back roads through gorgeous and varied scenery, with regular stops for supplies and rest.
Our rides are unsupported. There is no sag wagon, and help of any sort can be miles away on some of the more remote stretches of road we ride. But we 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 intermediate control points, as well as the finish, within a set window of time. But our results are listed alphabetically. Our style of riding is know as allure libre, meaning riders ride at their own pace within the limits set by control opening and closing times rather than riding as a group at a steady pace set by its leaders, which is the audax style of randonneuring.
Randonneuring is non-competitive, but we challenge ourselves and each other -- to ride farther, to ride faster, to ride longer than we might have though 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.
DC Randonneurs is affiliated with Randonneurs USA and operates according to the rules promulgated by that organization by adoption from the Audax Club Parisien.