International Women's Day
107K Populaire
Saturday 8 March 2025
08:00 EST Start Time
08:00 EST Start Time
Statue of Joan of Arc near the Philadephia Museum of Art.
If you want to park near the start, there is unlikely to be parking at the statue itself, but back up Kelly Drive at the beginning of boathouse row parking is available free if you turn right up Sedgley Dr and into Lemon Hill. Read parking regulation signs carefully to avoid a ticket. Lock your car and gather for the start on the open space near the statue. There are restrooms and other amenities available in Lloyd Hall at the base of Sedgely.
If you'd rather park near the finish, there are many parking options—both garages and lots—conveniently located within blocks of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. You can use this parking map for some suggestions.
To get back to the start (if you parked there) from the finish at the Convention Center: ride north on the 13th Street bike lane, then turn left onto the Spring Garden Street bike lane. Last, make a slight right onto the Pennsylvania Ave bike lane. The Joan of Arc statue is about a block away on the left side of Penn Ave.
Suggested parking locations for the start/finish are public places, with theft and vandalism a real possibility, especially in cities. Park during the event at your own risk. Please do not leave valuables in your car during the ride.
There are numerous lodging options in the city of Philadelpia, please book your arrangements with a hotel directly.
The official finish is at the Philadelphia Bike Expo at the PA Convention Center. See the cue sheet/brevet card for the exact location of the finish control so you can get your card stamped.
Bathrooms and water will be available for riders in the first floor of the convention center without having to enter the actual Expo. For riders who do want to enter the Expo there is always a bike valet provided on the first floor. RUSA will have a booth at the Expo this year, so if you do go in, make sure to say HI.
Join Pennsylvania Randonneurs as we celebrate International Women's Day with a 107K populaire. International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It began in 1911 with the goal to campaign for women’s equality. This event belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. It is not country, group or organization specific. Come and celebrate women’s achievement with a metric century+ bike ride on this important day as we strive to promote gender balance in the world.
Each rider who registers for the event will automatically receive a ticket to a special sweepstakes. Thanks to the generosity of several donors, we have a fantastic selection of prizes, including products and services from:
Annette Monnier
Befitting Bicycles
Biccycle Paintings
Dead King Bread
Firth & Wilson Transport Cycles
Hare
Keystone Bicycle Co
Lauren West
Laura Hricko
Mt. Airy Coffee Co
Summit Acupuncture
Ulrike Barankay Design
100% of the entry fees for this event will go towards fundraising for Little Bellas, a mentorship program that gets girls on bikes. The Philadelphia chapter of Little Bellas is focused on mountain biking and takes place in Belmont. For more info on this wonderful organization, visit their website.
The sweepstakes drawing will take place at 3:45 PM in the convention center lobby, following the ride cutoff time. Rders who can't attend will be notified if they win. Non-participants are also welcome to enter the sweepstakes.
The populaire starts at the Joan of Arc statue near the Art Museum and finishes at the Philadelphia Convention Center at Broad and Cherry Streets, where the Philadelphia Bike Expo will be taking place. For more info about the Expo, please visit the PBE website. Note that the start location is about one mile from where the finish located (see "Start Location" section for more details).
The route is a tour of Fairmount Park landmarks, with a loop out to the suburbs, including rural Evansburg State Park and the interesting town of Ambler. Riders will travel northwest from the start to exit the city, passing two women's history landmarks on their way out of the city. The first one, on Wissahickon Ave at the top of Rittenhouse Town Lane, commemorates Dr. Mary Davis Ridgeway, a homeopathic physician, surgeon, and women's rights activist who was president and chief surgeon at a hospital for impoverished women in Germantown. The hospital operated in the Abraham Rittenhouse Home from 1914 to 1917--this is the last house that you pass on the left as you are going up the hill through Rittenhouse Town.
The second historical marker that you will pass as you ride through the northwest neighborhoods commemorates the site of Sadie T.M. Alexander's home on Westview Ave near the intersection of Sherman St. Alexander was the second Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in the United States and the first to receive a Ph.D. in economics. She was also the first Black woman to practice law in the state of PA, after being the first Black woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She was active in civil rights, both locally and nationally, and is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, which is featured towards the end of the ride.
Riders will pass the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial along Kelly Drive on their way to the finish. This sculpture garden was created with the money that Samuel left to the Fairmount Park Art Association (now Association for Public Art) in her will after her death in 1913.
The ride ends at the convention center. Bathrooms and water will be available for riders in the first floor of the convention center without having to enter the actual Expo. For riders who do want to enter the Expo there is always a bike valet provided on the first floor. RUSA will have a booth at the Expo this year, so if you do go in, make sure to say hi.
This populaire is open to all RUSA members. For insurance reasons, you must be a member of RUSA to ride this event. If you are not a RUSA member, you must join RUSA before you can register for the event.
| Date | Finishers |
|---|---|
| 2020-03-08 | 37 |
| 2020-10-17 | 13 |
| 2025-03-08 | 62 |
This ride is a randonneur style bicycle event under the sanction of Randonneurs USA. Completing this event can help you train for Paris-Brest-Paris and earn RUSA awards. You need a current RUSA membership to ride this event. You can sign up for RUSA here.
First time riding with PA Randonneurs? Read an overview of what to expect on your first PA brevet. All participants are obliged to follow the rules for riders as well as local vehicle laws (PA, NJ, NY). Safety is a primary concern. All riders must sign a waiver. Please read these Safety Instructions.
To receive credit for finishing a randonneuring event you must complete a brevet card as required by the rules. PA Randonneurs accepts traditional brevet cards filled out with stamps/signatures and backed up with merchant receipts. PA Randonneurs encourages use of the eBrevet cell phone app. (Version 1.3 minimum required) as an electronic brevet card assistant. Nevertheless, you must check into all controls on the app -- or provide traditional proof for each control. Your finish time and finish code from the app must be written on the paper card, along with your signature, or you may be disqualified.
These events are not for beginners. The courses are hilly. You may face extremes of weather: heat, cold, wind, rain. The roads are unmarked and open to automobile traffic. There will be night riding in the longer events. Complete several ordinary century cycling events before starting a 200K brevet; complete several 200Ks before starting a longer brevet.
The online URL for this event info page is
https://parando.org/info/event/2025-03-08/107
For all other information about Pennsylvania Randonneurs, visit our web site https://parando.org/