New England Randonneurs

This December a major change has taken place as Bruce Ingle, NER’s and BBS’s long time RBA, President, and Route designer needed to step down to devote time to his job that pays the bills. Bruce has been involved with the Boston Brevet Series since 1995 — four years before RUSA was even founded. He was the region’s fourth RBA with his former wife Tracey being the third. Together they single handily ran all the events of the Boston Brevet Series for much of the 2000s. Later they created the New England Randonneurs organization.

Bruce his been instrumental to designing many of the routes. In 2007 the Boston Brevet Series lost the use of Bullard Farm (New Salem, MA) as a control location. As most BBS events past though this location at the time, Bruce had to quickly design and run the Boston 400k and 600k so that riders would still qualify for PBP. That Boston 400k route is still used today, largely unchanged and the 600k follows much of the same route. Bruce had also designed the 350k to Westfield and made various tweaks to the remaining rides.

Not many cyclists understand how difficult it can be to design a RUSA approved route, let alone the time and effort it takes to organize the support needed to pull one off. To this day NER’s routes provide a much higher level of support then most other Brevets nationally and riders who appreciate this have Bruce to thank.

Speaking for myself and Emily O’Brien (Volunteer Coordinator), we both became interested in Randonneuring when attending a mid-winter CRW ride and house party hosted by Bruce in 2006. Hearing his tales and him speak of casually riding 100+ miles both made us interested in endurance cycling. We rode our first 200k that spring and Bruce provided us with lots of guidance and as we (well, me) struggled though our first SR series.

From the founding of RUSA (it’s charter based roughly on CRW’s) to the US’s first 1200k (Boston-Montreal-Boston), Boston has been a cornerstone of Randonneuring in the United States. We thank Bruce for his efforts over the years and hope he can now just relax and enjoy participating as a rider instead of as a tireless volunteer. If you see him on the road (and you will) make sure to thank him for all he’s done.

Starting in January of 2014 myself (Jake Kassen) will be taking over as RBA and Dan Greene as NER’s President. We have a big shoes (cleats?) to fill. We hope to make some changes in the future to expand NER’s offerings, an example of which is the recently announced “short” 200k option for longer events. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them our way!

Happy New Year everyone. Get some sleep and rest as you’ll need it in a few months. The 2014 Boston calendar will be posted soon. We have a whole bunch of changes for this upcoming year, the most exciting of which is new the addition of a 200k option to each of the events of a longer distance. Our goal is to facilitate riders who may not feel ready (or have the time) for a 300, 400, or 600k but would still like to partake in the event and ride a shorter 200k option.

One sad change is the loss of Mike Beganyi as the Vermont Ride Leader. Mike has been a tremendous asset to NER and riders up north — with the help of some dedicated volunteers he has organized all the Vermont events since NER’s founding. The Vermont rides always got great reviews and introduced a good number of people to long distance cycling. It would not be a stretch to call them some of the nicest Brevet routes in the country. Mike now needs to devote his time to other volunteer endevers so he’s unable to continue running the Vermont events as he has in the past. He will be greatly missed! If you happen to see Mike on the road, tell him thanks for all he’s done.

As of right now (December 2013) we don’t have any Vermont rides on the calendar but we are hoping to add some as the warmer months approached. Check back here and subscribe to the group if you’d like to be kept informed. But more importantly, if you’ve enjoyed riding one of the Vermont events in the past consider taking it on as a ride leader this year. We can help you organize the event. Contact the RBA for more information.

Other big news is a change in Registration policies. Starting in 2014 we are discontinuing the paper/PDF registration option. The only way to register for an event is online or by paying in cash at the ride start. Only a small percentage of participants registered via post yet it takes considerable effort to process these registrations. If you are unable to register online contact the RBA or NER President. Links to the online registation will appear in March.

The cue sheet and GPS links for the 2013 running (riding?) of the MA 600k have been posted on the event page. Ride safe and try to stay cool out there!

If you can’t make the MA 600k this weekend, be sure to check out the VT 600k in a few weeks. The hard working volunteers in Vermont have made the route even more scenic and enjoyable so some sections will be new this year. More info on the VT 600k event page.