The RUSA Permanent Program was completely revised in 2020. Much of this page is outdated and is being kept up only as a historical reference.
Permanents in New England
This information was originally compiled by Chuck Howes and has since been updated by Dave Zion.
About
Locating a Permanent
Riding a Permanent
Organizing a Permanent
Contacts
Permanents are brevet-distance and 1200k randonnee-distance (or longer!) rides that have been organized by individuals and approved by Randonneurs USA. They follow the same rules as organized Brevets and require riders to have a control card signed at predetermined locations while abiding by established time limits. They differ from traditional Brevets in that riders select the start date and time and coordinate directly with the Permanent owner or organizer.
Depending on the distance, they can count toward RUSA awards such as R-12 or the P-12 and the distance awards. Because Permanents are not ACP events, they do not count towards ACP’s Super-Randonneur classification and thus can’t be used to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris and several other Grand Randonnees. That said, most domestic 1200k+ events will accept Permanents as qualifiers but check with the ride organizer first just to be sure.
The primary relationship in organizing and scheduling Permanents is between the individual Organizer/Owner and RUSA. New England Randonneurs is pleased to support the creation and managing of Permanents by individuals, and the riding of Permanents by RUSA members.
Note that Permanents are only open to current RUSA members.
RUSA maintains a handy search tool to locate Permanents. This is a great resource for locating Permanents throughout the US. A fun thing to do when you are on a vacation or business trip is to extend your stay to do one of these rides to get the local “randonneur flavor”.
Of course, we have a great selection of Permanents right here in our NER region. Some of these are no-fee while others have a very nominal entry fee. In all cases, one must be a current RUSA member and sign a waiver to ride.
The local Permanents in New England are a great way to keep riding in the off-season while staying close to home.
There are currently eight 100-199k loop or out-and-back rides in Massachusetts and Vermont: Haystack RSC, South Harvard RSC, Blue Moon RSC, Paradise Lost Lake RSC, New Hampshire Touches Maine, Boston-Barre-Boston, Brattleboro-Ludlow-Brattleboro, and Why Roxbury Gap.
There are nine 200-220k loop or out-and-back Permanents in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire: Redemption Rock, Woodstock 200k, Purgatory to Paradise, Rockport n Roll, Woods Hole Wanderer, Ticket to Rye, Notch Nirvana, Harbors and Hills and Live and Let Ride.
There is one 300K Permanent in Maine: Mountain Valley.
There are also two 200-220k one-way Permanents: Cape Cod Capriccio, and Harvard Yale.
Finally, there are a number of portions of the BMB route as well as the full BMB route itself which have been made into Permanents (check these out on the Permanents Search page).
And the list of permanents keeps growing….so check that search page to get the latest updates.
Resources for Permanent Riders
Make sure to get in touch with the Organizer at least one week before the date you’d like to ride (the earlier the better – the Organizer has work to do on your behalf).
If you’ve written a Permanent report or have pictures to share, please contact the NER webmaster so we can post the text or a link on this site.
Creating Permanent Routes
First, check out RUSA’s Permanents web page. Pay special attention to the Rules for Permanent Route Owners and the links listed under the heading “Permanents Organizers Resources” at the bottom of the Permanents page.
The NER RBA, Jake Kassen, is available to help you with any Permanent questions, including helping with a layout, verifying routes prior to submission, as well as general encouragement to become a Permanent owner! You can contact the RBA from NER’s Contact page.