Cycling ‘round the World
by Jeff Kagan
Patrick Chin-Hong acquired a bicycle about four years ago. He
wasn’t at all interested in cycling, but someone offered him a great deal on the
bike and he just couldn’t pass it up.
His initial plan was to sell the bike, instead of having it claim
valuable real estate in his apartment, but he never got around to it, and so it
sat there for almost a year before he decided to take it out one sunny day for
a ride. Surprisingly, he liked
it. And day by day, he’d go out riding
more and more.
One afternoon, after a local bike club ride, a fellow cyclist suggested
he try something called randonneuring, which is the sport of
self-supported, long-distance endurance cycling. It has a fairly specific (and small) niche in the overall
world of cycling. Randonneuring focuses less on the competitive aspect of racing,
and more on the camaraderie of a club ride. Patrick went home and Googled “randonneuring”
and saw that most rides are usually 200km.” “Hmmm.”, he thought. “What?
Are these people crazy??” He
enjoyed the short trips he’d taken through the park, or up and down the city
blocks, but 124 miles? He read the description: friendly camaraderie, not competition, is the hallmark of
randonneuring. Patrick was hooked.
In his first year of randonneuring, Patrick had gone on to do
two full series of rides (or “brevet” as they are called) -- each series
comprising a 200km, a 300km, a 400km and a 600km brevet, and each with its own fixed
time limit. That’s 3000km, or 1865 miles!
The high-point of his blossoming randonneuring career, though, was his
qualification for, and participation in, the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP)
event last August. Held once every four years, the PBP is the most prestigious
event on the global randonneuring calendar, and is the oldest bicycling event
still run on a regular basis on the open road.
Randonneuring isn’t all cycling and scenery. It is a grueling
test of human endurance which has a dangerous aspect. As the distances are
quite long, many riders try to push themselves to the limit, often nearing
exhaustion. Many deprive themselves of sleep and continue riding into the
night. At the end of some events, Patrick recalls a few riders coming in all
bloodied up after having fallen asleep at the wheel, so to speak. “Yes, I've
micro-napped while on my bike too. It's funny to hear about sometimes.” However, there can also be deadly
consequences as last year an American rider died when he fell asleep and
drifted into the next lane into an oncoming truck.
In France, while the PBP is running, the local townspeople are
very supportive and they line up along the entire route giving away free food, water,
and an occasional cup of beer or wine to the 5,000 happy cyclists from around
the world. Patrick recalls one night, around 4am, when he was struggling up a
very dark hill. Suddenly, he heard someone yell to him, “Bon courage!” followed by excessive clapping and cheering. He says,
“I jumped out of my skin and nearly fell off my bike!” The surprise woke him up
and he pressed on. The enthusiasm of the fans fuels the riders almost as much
as Gatorade and Powerbars.
Patrick is still finalizing his randonneuring goals for
2012. His focus this year includes
an ISR (International Super Randonneur) designation, which is a full series of
brevets, each in a different country. Towards that goal, he’s traveled through
India and Greece, and he’s planning to hit Canada and the United States later
this year. Patrick says, “The best
part about randonneuring is meeting incredible people from all over, each with
different cycling abilities, but each with the same wonderful spirit of
camaraderie and excitement for a long day -– or two – or four – on the open
road.”
