Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Can-Am Challenge - Something for You?

The Can-Am Challenge is an award earned by finishing a Canadian and a US 1200km-or-longer Randonneurs Mondiaux sanctioned Grand Randonnée in a single calendar year.

History - The award started as a cooperative initiative between Réal Préfontaine (vice president of Randonneurs Mondiaux at the time) and Jennifer Wise, RM president and Boston-Montréal-Boston event director, as a way to promote 1200k’s in North America, build a sense of community, and give an added challenge to “overachieving” randonneurs. 

The original Can-Am commemorative pin:
The inspiration for the award came in 1997, when Dr. Préfontaine had succeeded in his self-imposed challenge of finishing both the Rocky Mountain 1200 and BMB, as he described in a 2006 article in American Randonneur. 
At that time, there were only two 1200k’s in North America: BMB, begun in 1988, and the RM1200, begun in 1996.  And riding more than one 1200k in a year - much less a month apart - seemed exceptional to say the least. 

Now, of course, there are multiple Canadian and US 1200k’s, and multiple riders who succeed at two or more 1200k’s in a single year.  So the Can-Am Challenge can be seen as a harbinger of increased aspirations both on the part of event organizers and riders in the ensuing years.
The new 2012 medal design:

This year in Canada, the BC Randonneurs is organizing the Rocky Mountain 1200, while the US offers the Shenandoah, Cascade, Colorado High Country, Taste of Carolina, and Colorado Last Chance.

-jle

You can see further details on the BC Randonneurs website, and soon on the RUSA site.  Thanks, by the way, to RM1200 co-director Ali Holt, who designed the new medal.  Ali was also the graphic artist for our High Country 1200 jersey and medal.

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