Prospective 2026 calendar

[RBA Pittsburgh]

Hey, all.

Here's my current thought regarding the schedule for 2026; please take a look and let me know what you think. I'll also be sharing this with the RBAs for neighboring regions, to ensure we don't collide with any particularly interesting rides. I want to submit this fairly soon, so the volunteers at RUSA have a little less end-of-September burden.

In short: generally one populaire and one brevet per month, with the formal series offered starting in June and culminating with the 600K in September.

New for 2026 is the intention to offer some 166K-ish populaires, in order to have that nice middle ground, and a general development progression through the spring into summer. So, if anyone has any century rides they particularly enjoy, please share suggestions.

Also, If anyone has any specific events to request or knows of any non-randonneuring rides of note, please let me know.

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Dan Blumenfeld

RBA, Pittsburgh Randonneurs

(412) 915-6206

https://pittsburghrandonneurs.com/

[James Logan]

Short version: Looks great.  

Note that if you think you need a local ACP qualifying 200 km in the spring, speak up now.  The schedule shows the April and May 200 km's are RUSA, not ACP.  It is unlikely this matters to anyone, unless you have a unique plan that requires an ACP brevet.  

 

AI summary:  Pittsburgh is offering a full series of qualifying randonnées (200 km, 300 km, 400 km, 600 km), spread across the pleasant riding months of the year.   Dan points out the Pittsburgh series is well timed to prepare for fall grand randonnées in Western NY and Northern VA, which sounds great.  There are monthly 100 kms or centuries, which are appropriate especially for ancient anciens (like me, thanks Dan!).

If people are preparing for summer grand randonnées they need to qualify for they should consider travelling to spring qualifying brevets at our neighboring regions (Northern VA, Washington DC, Eastern PA).  That also gives people an opportunity to meet others likely preparing for (and have ridden) grand randonnées beyond our Pittsburgh crew.

Ancien advice:  2027 is a Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) year.  For anyone thinking of going overseas for their first grand randonnée for PBP in 2027, while there is great romance making PBP your first grand randonnée, you may be better served in riding a grand randonnée close to home in 2026 (like the several well-timed regional ones Dan references).  Then you will enjoy your international grand randonnée more.   Having said that, if you are new to randonneuring, riding the full series in Pittsburgh in 2026 is the next best appropriately painful way to get ready.  Riding difficult rides in our mountains will give you a leg up.   Suffer here first, not overseas.

Separately, riding your first qualifying series and going to PBP in your first year of randonneuring is kind of dumb (but I did it).  You get a lot of pain and not a lot of on-bike pleasant experiences.

Jim Logan

RUSA #3730

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From: pittsbur...@googlegroups.com <pittsbur...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of RBA Pittsburgh <rba...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2025 2:13 PM
To: pittsbur...@googlegroups.com <pittsbur...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Pgh-Randos] Prospective 2026 calendar

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