This past Sunday, October 26th, was the SIR Annual Meeting. About 60 SIRs came to the Rogue Meeting Hall in Issaquah, WA for food, beer, socializing without helmets, and Mark Thomas’s presentation recapping a big year of riding for the club. Some of us came early to pick up the newest batch of wool jerseys (thanks Amy Pieper!) and permanent cards (thanks Jeff Loomis!). Jeff arrived lugging one of those 19 gallon blue IKEA shopping bags full of permanent cards. Of course, he’s more organized than I am, so they were boxed in alphabetical order and not just tossed into the bag. Jan Acuff and Hugh Kimball took home, collectively, about half of the perm cards.
Jan Acuff and Hugh Kimball take home some serious stacks of perm cards. Apparently this is how Hugh fuels his winter riding.
Photo by Susan Otcenas
Mark Thomas called for attention while we sat down and filled up on pasta, cold-cuts, garlic bread, and, yes, beer. We voted for club officers: Mark for President/RBA, Eric Vigoren for Treasurer, and Theo Roffe (that’s me!) for Newsletter Editor. All three ran unopposed and won.
One phrase I kept hearing around the room was “best club in the country.” It was easy to see why as Mark presented the club’s accomplishments of the last year (check out his entire slide show at the end of this post).
Let’s start with the riding. Participation in SIR events added up to 474,173KM this year* (brevets, populaires, the flèche, and perms). The 300 SIR members rode 380,000 RUSA KMs . We earned 2,064 ACP Points, putting us ahead of all but one club in the country (for every 100K of ACP brevets completed by one rider, the club gets one point). But we came in first for RUSA Points with 3,188. Our 18 ACP brevets were attended by 622 riders (including our members). Cascade 1200 had 85, Flèche NW 50, and our 3 RUSA populaires had 192.
All that riding earned a lot of awards:
- 5 K-Hounds (with the possibility of several more before the year ends)
- 5 new RUSA Mondial Awards
- 51 ACP Super Randonneurs
- 22 R-12 Awards since 2013 meeting
- 13 P-12 Awards since 2013 meeting
- 3 new Ultra Randonneurs
- 4 new RUSA Cups
But it doesn’t end with the riding. SIR members are a volunteeristic bunch, so you’re sure to see a smiling face at a control, whether if it’s raining in the middle of the night in Olympia or 100F in the exposed hills outside of Bickleton. There’s always someone at the finish to hand you an adult recovery beverage, a slice of pizza, and congratulate you on your effort.
Despite all of those good reasons to stay in Washington, SIR members keep seeking out new roads in places all over the world. Here is a list of Grande Randonnées abroad which were attended by at least one SIR (often several):
- Tour de Tasmanie (Australia)
- Murray 1200 (Australia)
- Giro Delle Repubbliche Marinare (Italy)
- Grande Randonnée (Korea)
- 1000 and One lakes (Russia-Finland)
- Sverigetempot (Sweden)
- Ronde Aliénor d’Aquitaine (France)
- Hokkaido 1200 (Japan)
- VanIsle 1200 (Canada)
- Grosse Bayer Rundfahrt (Germany)
- Merselo Verona 1200 (Holland-Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Italy)
- Perth-Albany-Perth (Australia)
Paris-Brest-Paris is August 16, 2015, so there will be a lot more of us abroad next year. And with a full calendar in 2015, there are plenty of opportunities to qualify.
Just when we were all feeling really good and really proud of ourselves, Mark brought the 2015 ride schedule with several dates in red – we needed volunteers! Several folks stepped up to help, but there is still some need. So get in touch if you’d like to organize any of these riders:
08/01 300k
08/02 200k
09/26 100k
Here’s Mark’s entire presentation. Simply click on it to advance the slides.
*You’ve got to stop counting somewhere, so Mark’s stats stop 10/23/2014.