A Brief History of Randonneur Cycling in BC John Hathaway participated in the 1976 audax version Paris Brest Paris, and this was the spark that lead to the introduction of randonneur cycling in British Columbia and in Canada. Four Vancouver area riders (John Hathaway, Dan McGuire, Gerry Pareja and Wayne Phillips) aimed to return to France in 1979 to ride the randonneur version of Paris Brest Paris. The qualifying series was run under the auspices of Vancouver Bicycle Club. In 1981 Gerry Pareja became the president of the Bicycle Association of British Columbia (now called Cycling BC) and the operations of randonneuring in BC moved to the BCCA in 1982. In 1993 the randonneurs became their own sector within the BABC, and remain so today. In 1996 under Bill Kitchen's presidency the randonneurs applied to become a "society" subject to the Societies Act of British Columbia. It was at this time that the group adopted the name "British Columbia Randonneurs Cycling Club." Tim Pollock was instrumental in drafting the club's constitution. There are four administrative regions within BC Randonneurs. In the early days Gerry Pareja oversaw brevets in Greater Vancouver. The Interior brevets ran out of Kamloops (coordinated by Bob Boonstra) and the Vancouver Island brevets (coordinated by Stephen Hinde) were both introduced to 1988. Wim Kok added the Peace Region brevets in 2000. More historical information can be found on the club history hub page HERE. Assembled by Eric Fergusson |