Recent Announcements

Mondial, Galaxy, and American Explorer Awards Now "Repeatable"

The Mondial, Galaxy, and American Explorer awards have been enhanced such that members can earn multiple successive awards. That means earning a Mondial award with each successive 40,000 km completed in RUSA rides (e.g., 40,000 km, 80,000 km, etc.). For the Galaxy award, it means each successive 100,000 km completed (e.g., 100,000 km, 200,000 km, etc.).

For the American Explorer award, members can complete successive "series." A series consists of completing rides in all 50 U.S. states. (Territories and Washington, DC are extra credit.) Once you've completed rides in all 50 states, you can start over, revisiting states, and earning credit toward the next series.

The Mondial awardee page and Galaxy awardee page indicate successive awards with a number in brackets, as our other awards.  Currently, the American Explorer awardee page only displays the first series of states, territories, etc., earned. But those who've completed an entire series of 50 states are listed here.

You can purchase physical awards for your successive Mondial and Galaxy awards if you desire. We've not yet set up a policy about purchasing a second American Explorer highway-sign plaque and states.

We hope that these enhancements will allow members to extend their goals and keep pursuing them. Thanks to Dan Driscoll for the idea, and to Charlie Martin and others on the Web Team for making it happen.

2020 RUSA Board of Directors and RBA Representative Elections

Election of Board of Directors and RBA Liaison take place from October 15th to November 30th. Please visit this year's Election Page to learn about the candidates and vote if you are an active member. Members may vote for Board of Directors candidates and RBAs may vote for their RBA Representative. RUSA sincerely thanks all of those who have stepped up to stand for election this year.

American Randonneur Award - Nominations due 12/15

Once a year, the RUSA Board of Directors and the RUSA Awards Committee present the American Randonneur Award to a member of the organization who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to randonneuring in the United States. Award details and previous recipients are on the award details page.

You may nominate a member by email by sending your name and your RUSA membership number with your nominee’s name and RUSA membership number to Johnny Bertrand at amrandaward@rusa.org. Alternatively you may fill out this printable candidate submission form

All nominations must be received by December 15. 

Membership Dues as of 11/1/2019

Effective November 1, 2019, our membership dues will be as follows (a $5 increase for the annual individual membership):

Individual USA - $30
Household USA - $50
Individual Foreign - $40
Household Foreign - $60
Extra Household Member (over 2) - $20

We do not increase fees lightly, but feel this is the fiscally responsible thing to do for RUSA, given increased expenses, and that RUSA membership continues to be good value for money.

Challenge Lepertel - a New RM Award!

Les Randonneurs Mondiaux announced a new award - the Challenge Lepertel - at their quadrennial meeting in August.

This award commemorates former ACP President Robert Lepertel, who reinvigorated Paris-Brest-Paris and was instrumental in the founding and early development of Les Randonneurs Mondiaux.

Riders achieve the award by completing four different events as follows:

a)  A 1200 km or longer event in each of 4 consecutive calendar years.

b)  Eligible events are Paris-Brest-Paris, or any event sanctioned by Les Randonneurs Mondiaux.

c)  At least one event must start in a different country from the others. 

d)  The first event can be in calendar year 2019 or later.

American Randonneur Fall '19 issue available online

You can now download and view the Fall issue of American Randonneur magazine by clicking the link on the home page. We are providing this issue online rather than mailing you a physical copy because of budgetary constraints which we hope will be transitory. We know the print edition is valued, but hope you will enjoy the online one, which includes links for contacts including advertisers.

RUSA Adds Instagram Account

RUSA is excited to announce the launch of an Instagram account. Please follow @randonneurs.us to stay updated on all the happenings at PBP. Tag @randonneurs.us in your posts and don’t forget to hashtag your inspiring PBP grams #rusapbp2019

Incident Reporting for RBAs and Permanent Owners

Anything that's reported to the RBA/Permanent Owner should, in general, be reported as an incident to the RUSA Safety Officer who will in turn send to the RUSA Board and Insurance Committee and Carrier. Please fill out the form and attach it to your email to safety@rusa.org. You may refer to the Sports Underwriter's Guidelines if you wish.

Examples of situations requiring an incident report:

  1. Police involved
  2. Transport to a hospital or health care facility for assessment / treatment
  3. Concussion potential, eg.  Banged head / damaged helmet
  4. Significant  cuts and/or road rash that might need medical treatment
  5. Anything involving more than one rider, a vehicle or an animal
  6. Course issues causing the incident – road work, bad railroad tracks, gravel on the course, anything that might have been forewarned had it been  known.

This list is not meant to be exhaustive. 

The information will be kept confidential by the RUSA Board and our Insurance Committee and will also be reported to our insurance carrier, as required.

K-Hound Jersey Now Available in Yellow

For those looking for brighter colors, or for those who like yellow, the K-Hound jersey is now available yellow as well as blue.

K-Hound jersey in yellow
K-Hound Jersey in Yellow

 

New Ride Search Tool!

We've added a link to the Search for Rides page to search for brevets and other events, and perms within a radius:

Search for brevets on a map (created and supported by Jake Kassen)   

This tool has a lot of features. It displays nearby brevets (using some heuristics, including the route assigned to it or the locus of the region), and permanents, plus when routes were last used. You give it a location and radius to search - e.g., "rides within 80 miles of Frisco, CO."

The existing ways to look up rides or regions are still there:

  • one or more regions' events
  • one or more states through which brevets with assigned routes pass
  • Map of regions - a quick way to see where regions are based

Thanks to Jake for developing this useful tool!