Challenge Lepertel

A 1,200 km event in each of four consecutive calendar years, not all four in the same country. Les Randonneurs Mondiaux (LRM) gives it in memory of Robert Lepertel, the Audax Club Parisien president who revived Paris-Brest-Paris and helped found LRM.

Rides

Paris-Brest-Paris, and any event sanctioned by LRM

Distance

1,200 km or more, four different events

Where

Not all four starting in the same country

When

One in each of four consecutive calendar years, the first 2019 or later

From

Les Randonneurs Mondiaux

Claim

LRM’s online form; the tracker lists your rides for it. The medal is optional, bought from LRM once you have applied.

How it works

Ride one qualifying event in each of four calendar years in a row: miss a year and the run starts again. The years are calendar years, 1 January to 31 December, not Audax seasons. The first event can be from 2019 on, so the earliest Challenge Lepertel was earned in 2022.

For a 2019 to 2022 claim only, LRM allowed the second and third events to fall in any year of the four, because of the rides lost to COVID-19: a 2019 event, two in 2021 and one in 2022 would do. Later claims need one event in each year.

What counts

Paris-Brest-Paris and any event LRM sanctions, which means the 1,200 km and longer brevets on LRM’s calendar: London-Edinburgh-London, the Mille Miglia, the Cascade 1200 and the rest. A 1,000 km BRM doesn’t count, nor does a permanent, however long. Four different events are needed; PBP in 2023 and PBP in 2027 are two different events.

Browse the World calendar by distance to find 1,200 km events, and see the PBP 2027 guide for the ride most Irish riders start with.

Countries

Not all four events may start in the same country, so at least one must be abroad. Three in Ireland and PBP in France is fine; so is two and two. As with the ISR, the United Kingdom is one country, so England, Scotland and Wales between them give you one country, not three.

Applying

• The Audax.ie tracker lists your rides, ready to copy in, once you’ve done it: sign in with Strava. The form is linked from LRM’s Challenge Lepertel page, and asks for each event’s name, date, distance, country and homologation number.
• LRM checks the application and adds you to its list of Challenge Lepertel riders. The medal pictured above is optional, bought from LRM once you have applied.
• Checking your results shows where each homologation number comes from.

In the tracker

The LRM tab on your progress page shows the four years of your current run, which event fills each, and whether they span two countries yet. The tracker counts your PBP and RM rides of 1,200 km or more, so make sure each has its country set. When the four are done, Claims records your claim, reserves the rides and gives you a list of them to copy into LRM’s form; the claiming awards help has the steps.