Introducing: THE BREVET POPULAIRE!
01/04/2022 | Carmela Pearson
The Brevet Populaire or the "Populaire" is a shorter "randonneuring" event usually run under the same rules and pace as the standard brevet. Distance can range between 100km-160km but still with the whole audax experience of going through checkpoints and finishing within the official elapsed time. Populaires are frequently used by experienced randonneurs for training and/or socializing, as well as introducing randonneuring/Audax riding to newbie cyclists or aspiring long-distance cyclists.
Populaire Medals for 2022
For the past few years in the Philippines, there has been a clamor for the "audax experience" but a lot of newbie cyclists find the distances offered by Audax Randonneurs Philippines quite intimidating. We were supposed to launch this in 2020 but Covid happened. For 2022, we are offering the Populaire on every Audax weekend as part of our advocacy to spread the word about the fascinating world of randonneuring. We will have 3 categories (separated by colors Turquoise, Blue and Red) for the Populaire depending on distance and difficulty. You can collect as many of these medals as you want and our good friends from Off-Kilter designed it in such a way that you can piece them together. 1 medal looks great as it is. But seeing them together like this adds more to the feeling of accomplishment. Widest side of the medal is 2.5 inches while the shorter side is 2.165 inches. Unlike the Audax rides where the medals are purchased separately, the medal costs are already incorporated in the registration fee.
The Populaire serves another purpose in terms of training for those who are looking to finish their first 1200km ride, like the Paris Brest Paris. We want to set you up for success so for those aspiring to finish these distances in the future, a good back-to-back rides on the weekend is highly recommended. For example, doing the 300km Audax on the Saturday and doing the Populaire on the day after. This will be a good training plan to get yourself acquainted with how your body will react when the body undergoes such stressful conditions. :)
