UAE Randonneurs

Ultra Endurance Rides in UAE attempt routes of 200 km or more
https://www.strava.com/clubs/UAERandonneurs
https://www.hopasports.com/en/uae-randonneurs

2020

In the late nineteenth century Italy, day-long "challenge" sports became popular. Participants aimed to cover as much distance as possible and prove themselves audax ("audacious"). The first recorded audax cycling event took place on June 12, 1897, when twelve Italian cyclists attempted the challenge of cycling from Rome to Naples, a distance of 230 kilometres (140 mi), during daylight hours. Similar events became popular elsewhere, and in 1904 French journalist Henri Desgrange produced Audax regulations, which belonged to his Auto newspaper. Under the Audax regulations, riders rode as a group. Successful riders were awarded a certificate called a Brevet d'Audax. A group of successful audax cyclists formed the Audax Club Parisien (ACP), which took over the organisation of Audax events on Desgrange's behalf. In 1920, there was a disagreement between Desgrange and the ACP. Desgrange withdrew ACP's permission to organise events under his Audax regulations, and ACP created its own allure libre (free-paced) version of the sport, where successful riders were awarded certificates called Brevets des Randonneurs. This style is now popularly known as "randonneuring".

Desgrange continued to promote the original Audax rules, and on July 14, 1921 the Union of Parisian Audax Cyclistes (UACP) was formed, which became the Union of French Audax in January 1956, and later simply Union des Audax. The original style is still popular in France and neighbouring countries. In Great Britain, where the original audax style does not exist, and in Brazil, where it is not common, the term audax is used interchangeably with randonneuring, reflecting the sport's origins with Audax Club Parisien. Medal issued by Audax on 100 years of BRM 200 (1921-2021) Randonneuring has much in common with cyclotouring, the founding-father of which is often said to be the journalist Velocio (Paul de Vivie), also credited with making derailleur gears popular.