DC Randonneurs

Annual Meeting:

The DC Randonneurs annual meeting will take place at the Glen Echo Town Hall on Saturday, January 23rd at 3:30 pm.  As was the case last year, please park at Glen Echo Park parking lot.  Directions and more details on the meeting will be sent/posted a few days before it takes place.

As usual, the meeting will review last year’s financial results.  We’ll discuss next year’s brevet schedule and volunteer needs.  We need to adopt a budget for next year.  We’ll discuss club administrative issues, such as further work to improve the website.  We’ll recognize volunteer and club member achievements.  Finally, three Board members complete their term of office at this meeting–me, George Winkert, and Chris Mento–though none of them are term limited off the Board.  The Board has yet to discuss the nomination procedure; this will be announced later.

If there is an agenda item that you would like to be considered for the meeting, please email me &/or the Board.

Populaire:

The Annual Meeting 106Km Populaire will be held (not surprisingly) on January 23rd, starting at 8 a.m. from the Glen Echo Park parking lot.  More details will be sent/posted, closer to the ride date.  A populaire follows essentially the same rules as a brevet, but is shorter.  Plus, you can get a populaire pin.  So to all of you with incomplete medal collections, this is your chance to complete it with a populaire pin!

The route is broadly similar to last year’s annual meeting ride.  Starting from Glen Echo, it follows parallel to the Potomac until Seneca Creek State Park, where it turns north toward Hyattstown.  Returning on different roads, it controls in Poolesville, before rejoining the original route at Seneca Creek and following back down the Potomac to Glen Echo.  Probably about 5000 feet of climbing, using last year’s ride as a guide.

Nick Bull
President, DC Randonneurs

The Tappahannock 200K is a mellow ride to balance the challenging Paul’s Paradise ride that was held in December. Starting from the historic town of Ashland, VA, (The Center of the Universe) the ride heads east toward river country. Leaving Ashland, the first few miles pass through signs of modern times: gas stations, truck stops and fast food joints. When the route turns at the antique store Two Frogs on a Bike the surroundings seem to go back to the time of quiet roads and rural atmosphere. The rolling terrain levels out as the route approaches the Rappahannock River and the town of Tappahannock. After the control and lunch at Java Jack, the route leaves Tappahannock and the rolling hills continue with an occasional short, steep climb. Ten miles before the final control there is a five mile stretch of easily traveled, unpaved road that meanders around the congestion of modern Ashland to the finish.

The cue sheet for the Paul’s Paradise 200K RUSA brevet, starting at the McDonalds in Poolesville, MD at 7:00AM on December 12, 2009 is now posted at Cue Sheet - 20091212 Pauls Paradise 200K Brevet.

Registration opens in the McDonalds at 6:00am. Park in the nearby shopping center as far from the stores as possible as shown on the map. The ride will end at Cugini’s Pizza in the shopping center.

The link to the GPS files is posted below. But please read this information before downloading them. Always get a copy of the final cue sheet. That final cue sheet contains the official route, so in case there is a conflict with the GPS file, you should resolve the conflict in favor of the cue sheet. Use the GPS as a handy-dandy adjunct. Keep your wits about you, as the GPS cannot notify you of road hazards — it is up to you to ride safely.

A map for the route is posted at Map - 20091212 Pauls Paradise 200K Brevet. We will no longer be handing out printed maps at the ride start, so please print this one if you would like to have a map. It works best printed as a single 11×17″ page, or as two 8 1/2 x 11″ pages.

We strongly recommend that you set your GPS to the settings below. We cannot guarantee that these will keep you on the official route, but if you have your GPS set some other way, it is entirely possible that it will take you off route, possibly onto unsafe roads. Go to the Setup->Routing page and set as follows:

Guidance Method: Follow Road
Follow Road Method: Shortest Distance
Next Turn Pop-Up: On
Follow Road Options:
  Off Route Recalculation: Prompted
  Calculation Method: Best Route
  Calculate Routes for: Car/Motorcycle
  Avoid: (set to none – the route itself should control this)

By the way … make sure that your GPS either has maps already downloaded, or select the relevant maps around the routes. The GPS files are posted at GPS Files - 20091212 Pauls Paradise 200K Brevet.