[Leica] IMG: my 300 km bicycle ride yesterday

[Nathan Wajsman]

I have this years dipped my toes in a flavour of cycling called randonneering, from the French “randonnée”. It is a form of long distance cycling, with events of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, 600 km, and, once every 4 years, the crown jewel of the sport, Paris-Brest-Paris at 1200 km. The sport originated in France, and all rules are set by Audax Club Parisien, for all such events worldwide. The events are called “brevet”.

A brevet is not a race in the sense that you try to come first. What you have to do is to show up at the controls along the route within the specified time windows and to complete the course within the maximum time allocated. Yesterday, I participated in my second such event, a 300 km brevet in Northern Jutland, with my friend Lars. It was cold, rainy and windy most of the time. The time limit for a 300 km brevet is 20 hours. We completed it in about 15 hours—good thing too, since I had not taken sufficiently warm clothing (living in Spain, keeping warm during rides is usually not a big issue) and the temperature dropped down to 2C/36F after sunset. 

Here is a brief record of the event, composed of my pictures, taken before the event and during rest (or pee) stops, and a few from Lars in which I appear, taken while we were cycling—he is a more skillful and braver cyclist than I and so is able to take picture iwhile in motion:

http://www.greatpix.eu/ARD-Brevet-Nordjylland-30/

All images with the Ricoh GR, both Lars and I use those as our cycling cameras.

I can now call myself a randonneur. To become one, you have to complete the 200/300/400/600 series in one season. I did 200 km in Mallorca in February and have now done the 300 km. I am looking at a 400 km in northern Spain in June. We’ll see. RIght now I have sore legs and have enjoyed a relaxed Sunday with Lars before I leave for Brussels tomorrow.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
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PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
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YNWA