December 2010
Congratulations on all those hard-earned brevets -- collectively, we officially tallied 104,510 Km in completed brevets. For the second year in a row, those results pushed the Eastern PA region to over 1000 points in the RUSA standings, one of only a handful of regions to do so. Thank you for clipping in and being a part of that success. But of course, none of those brevets would've been possible, if not for all the volunteers who stepped up and helped out:
- Ron Anderson (PA1000 overnight controle)
- Dan Barbasch (PA1000 overnight controle)
- Rick Carpenter (Advisor, R-12 organizer, PA Fleche, PA600 preride & overnight controle, PA150/200 BBQ)
- Carrie Clamp (PA200k BBQ, PA400)
- Jud Hand (PA150/200 BBQ)
- Guy Harris (PA1000 course sweep & overnight controles)
- Bill Fischer (Scouting)
- Don Jagel (R-12)
- Jim Logan (PA1000 overnight controles)
- Andrew Mead (Advisor, R-12 organizer)
- George Metzler (R-12 controle)
- Maile Neel (R-12)
- Bill Olsen (Advisor, R-12 organizer)
- Curtis Palmer (R-12)
- Bill Slabonik (PA 200/300)
- Gilbert Torres (PA1000 finish)
- Christine Torres (PA1000 finish)
- Len Zawodniak (R-12, PA600 overnight controle)
The Eastern PA volunteers can attest to the fact that rider safety is the primary concern for each event. But despite all the safety precautions, this year there was a sobering reminder of the risks inherent in our sport: George Swain was severely injured by a distracted driver who hit him from behind. Thankfully, George is now back on his feet and is hopeful of a complete recovery. You can follow along on George's road to recovery and deliver your get well-wishes at his blog:
As George writes in his inspirational blog, randonneuring is one outlet to explore "…what is humanly possible." This year, a number of riders completed many notable accomplishments -- too many to list completely -- but some selected ones I'd like to share with you include:
- Ixsa Gollihur officially completing her first brevet, despite coming up a bit short on three previous occasions (including her very first brevet, which was the infamous January R-12 event with 40+ MPH winds and temperatures in the teens).
- Daniel Aaron, Cecilie Adams, Dan Barbasch, Jonathan Clamp, Ed Dodd, Patrick Gaffney, Judson Hand, Don Jagel, Eric Keller, and Bill Olsen are all Eastern PA Super Randonneurs -- Well Done!
- Several riders completed their R-12 series. Of note, Mark Kaufman book-ended his R-12 with a pair of Eastern PA events: his very first brevet ever was the snowy R-12 December event in 2009, which until the following January, had set the mark for epic winter conditions. He joins Eric Keller as one of the few riders to earn an R-12 starting with their very first brevet ever. And yours truly, completed a hard-earned Eastern PA R-12 series that included January's tough winter conditions -- thanks to fellow riders Andrew Mead and Len Zawodniak for helping me finish that one!
- Don Jagel tallied the highest number of Eastern PA kilometers with 4500, just nipping Bill Olsen by a mere 240k … probably because Bill opted to ride a 1200k somewhere instead of a PA event! Don participated in all but 2 events on the Eastern PA 2010 schedule: January's R-12 and the Fleche.
- Jud Hand, Guy Harris, and Bill Olsen have the distinction of completing a PA-5000, which consists of the following Eastern PA events: PA SR series, Endless Mountains
For 2011, it will be a very busy year with PBP and several domestic 1200k's to choose from. The Eastern PA region will be offering many brevets for qualification and preparation including two complete SR series. In addition to a regularly scheduled SR series, a second one is being offered in a compressed “brevet week” format. But we need some new volunteers to step up and take their turn at the front (and perhaps allow some of the regular volunteers to sit-in for a while).
-Tom Rosenbauer
1058 RUSA points for the year was enough to pass LA for 7th place nationwide. Excellent result!
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