Current Announcements
2023 Annual Meeting Wrap-up
The annual meeting of DC Randonneurs took place on Saturday, January 21 at the Glen Echo Town Hall. 17 members attended in person, and 6 more attended via Zoom. Members were also able to vote online in advance. The club budget for 2023 was approved, and the following club officers were elected:
- Ed Felker, President
- Emily Ranson, Club Brevet Administrator
- Bob Counts, Secretary
- Mimo DeMarco, At-Large
They join returning board members:
- Jack Nicholson, Treasurer
- Chris Readinger, At-Large
- John Mazur, At-Large
The meeting also recognized club members who achieved significant international or nation awards and thanked members who helped organize events in 2022.
Draft meeting minutes have been posted to the RideStats site (dcrand.org), and recognitions have been posted to the dcrandonneurs.org site. Please inform the webmaster if you notice any errors or omissions.
Who We Are
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.