US Metro brevets

[LittleWheelsandBig]

One of the famous names of French randonneuring is US Metro, short for Union Sportive Metropolitaine des Transports, the Parisian public transport union's sports club. The record distance for the Fleche Velocio (the model for AUK's Easter Arrow) is 778km, ridden by a US Metro squad a couple of decades ago. There were more US Metro squads at the finish of the 2014 Fleche Velocio than any other club.

US Metro homologate a number of permanents, including the Tour de France, which can be ridden at 30 day randonneur or 60 day cyclotouristique pace. It is even possible to break the ride into 3 sections, to avoid having to take an entire month off. About 3 or 4 Brits have completed the US Metro TdF perm to date.

Somewhat shorter are the Rayons de Metro and Boucles Ile de France permanents, which look worthwhile to ride when at a loose end in Paris. Of course, none of these brevets count for ACP awards or AUK points.

http://club.quomodo.com/usmetro-cyclotourisme/accueil.html

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Internet links tend to die but sometimes they get replaced.
http://usmetro.cyclo.free.fr/Randos/randos.html for an interesting selection of perms across and around France.

[LateStarter]

ACP should offer a PBP Perm & a cyclotourist version but they might consider those could tarnish the brand, might be a way of encouraging French  & other participation via pre registration if you have a PBP Perm in the previous 4 years? Got me thinking and there are quite a few 1000/1200 perms locally (Victoria & South Australia mostly), as well as longer “raids”, maybe not the iconic appeal of a TdF perm.

During one of the 2021 COVID lockdowns I did the full 2019 PBP on my smart trainer (over about 4 weeks) and even that was hard work, better to do it really.