2020: Ten years of ultracycling
The newest history of the Hungarian (ultra)cycling began in 2011. Since then, the evolution is continuous, albeit not without recession. Of course, it is measurable not only in terms of kilometer covered. Namely the ultracycling is primarily a philosophy, an attitude, rather than a physical work. So we have to search for changes primarily in minds.
In the first year (2011), we organized a series of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km and 600 km long tours. The total number of completed kilometres was relatively small, numerically, 11,800 km.
In 2012, our longest tour was already 1000 km long, which became the „forefather” of our 1000+ km tours. Since this year, with one exception, we have organized every year a 1000 km or longer bike tour.
In 2013, the world opened up to us because there were riders from 9 countries on our 1200 km long tour called Tour de Transdanubie.
One of the finisher photos of the Tour de Transdanubie: Italian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Israeli bikers in Veszprém
In 2014, we organized for the first time the Kiskunság Maraton, which is our most successful event. Since then, we have already got over the 6th organization. The distance of our longest tour exceeded the 1400 kilometres this year and we organized the Cup of Bakony at a distance of 3*200 km.
One novelty in 2015 was the Bakony Extreme tour, which was a real challenge for all cyclists with 406 km of distance and 5538 m elevation gain. This year we organized for the first time the Cup of Randonneurs Hongrie. For obtaining this cup you had to complete successfully at least 3 from the tours of the Randonneurs Hongrie.
2016 was the last year when we organized our tours under the supervision of the Audax Club Parisien. Since then, we are organizing the cycling events independently.
The checkpoint in Fertőd with the castle in the background
In 2017, our longest tour – the Hungary XXL – was already longer than 1800 km. This year we initiated also the grandtour series consisting of 300 to 700 km long individual tours. Because the French „guardianship” ceased, so from this year we are organizing shorter tours as well.
In 2019, our longest (and hardest) tour became even longer and exceeded the 2000 km of distance.
Edina Nagy and Balázs Bács in the finish of the 2025 km long Hungary XXL
In 2020, two new cycling events will be organized and at the same time the route of the Tour Bakonyer Wald changes as well. One of the new events is the Bakony Night Ride, which is a relatively short night tour on the roads of the South Bakony Mountains. And the other one is a foreign event called Grandtour of Persia. This latter one is recommended only for experienced cyclists.
Checking the route of the Grandtour of Persia in 2019
In the light of the above, we can say that nothing is constant in the life of the Randonneurs Hongrie, the change is continuous, every year is different. This continuous change creates "historic atmosphere" for some of our tours, which became the great predecessor of later ones. Our basic philosophy is that Randonneurs Hongrie doesn't go others' own way. We create new worth.
Since 2011 hundreds of bikers from 17 countries finished successfully at least one of our tours. The total number of the finishers is nearly 2,000. So we have enriched the Hungarian cycling for already 9 years. Although searching for extreme performances was also part of cycling earlier but we hundreds of bikers take "socially accepted" the ultracycling and the extravagance of night riding. We can really hope that the cycling in Hungary will never be like before the establishment of Randonneurs Hongrie. We are the premier!
"We are the premier!"
Jó túrázást, bon courage!*
*Greeting of the Randonneurs Hongrie from 2013