Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Fleche 2009

Who's riding?

We've just sent in our application and route for the NE 2009 Fleche. We're planning to ride from Burlington, VT to Westfield, MA - 225(ish) miles on a diagonal crossing of VT, then into MA along the CT river.

We are still working on it. Our team leader could not ride this year and nobody else wants to take the responsibility. :(

I'm in. We've put together a team of fleche rookies, myself included, to try it this year. We'll be riding from the east coast of Florida, starting in Jacksonville, down the center of the state to Floral City. This just sounds like too much fun to pass up. Most of us have been riding together for quite some time so we know what to expect of each other.

Who's riding?

We've just sent in our application and route for the NE 2009 Fleche. We're planning to ride from Burlington, VT to Westfield, MA - 225(ish) miles on a diagonal crossing of VT, then into MA along the CT river.

not I, unfortunately. Have a trip up to Montreal for a festival on the same weekend as the NE 2009 Fleche. :\

not I, unfortunately. Have a trip up to Montreal for a festival on the same weekend as the NE 2009 Fleche. :\

we'll be crossing paths then... have fun - we get to montreal twice a year (even though it is only 1.5 hours away).

This year we'll be traveling from Ann Arbor, MI to the finish in Grove City, OH (about 10 miles south of Columbus). The route jogs west a bit to avoid Toledo and then makes a bee-line for the finish. It's dead flat and only 370K long. I'll hopefully ride it on the fixie. The ride starts at the University of Michigan campus and passes through Ohio State's campus on the way to the finish. (Thought that would be kind of a cute route to plan.) Other teams are starting in central Kentucky, nearly 500 miles from where our ride starts -- should have a real variety of stories to tell at the brunch afterward!

It's dead flat and only 370K long. I'll hopefully ride it on the fixie.

jealous... :thumb:

Me! me! me!
Riding the fleche from Macon to Le Pontet where the "official" meeting of every fleche team riding in France will take place. Our itinerary is 365 km and shouldn't be too hilly (at least it's what the organizer said)

count me in too - this will be my first one. luckily our captain has done a few already, and should be able to guide us through the maze of rules that are the fleche.

we're going roughly from bremerton (near seattle) to near the coast, and ending in olympia, wa. total will be ~365km, which seems like a relatively short distance for 24 hours... gonna be interesting. at least we'll have the hills and mechanicals to pace us i guess. (not like i can do that in 12 or anything, but having the set overall time will be weird).

can anyone comment on the differences between a free-pace brevet and riding a fleche?

i hope it goes well, as then i'll be one step closer to the r-5000 award!

we're going roughly from bremerton (near seattle) to near the coast, and ending in olympia, wa. total will be ~365km, which seems like a relatively short distance for 24 hours... gonna be interesting. at least we'll have the hills and mechanicals to pace us i guess.


be careful! a local team joked last year that they'd stop in to watch a movie for one of their long rest stops... turns out they had to work hard all night to ride it in - and they didn't catch that movie either.

can anyone comment on the differences between a free-pace brevet and riding a fleche! A 400k brevet is a 250 mile bike ride that you must finish within 27 hours. A fleche is a 24 hour bike ride that must encompass a minimum of 360 km.

Note the variance in phrasing. The emphasis on a fleche is to be riding for 24 hours with only a few short breaks in between. For faster riders, this does tend to make it a little more difficult than a 400k, since one has to be out on the road longer, but for average folks, the difference is relatively elementary.

Aside from that, it's generally encouraged for a team to fail or succeed together, and it's recommended that you stay together for the entire ride; just to help watch out for each other and keep each other's morale up. Staying together also simplifies paperwork for factors like the 22-hour control. This does require some coordination of say, bathroom breaks, stoppages for clothing changes, etc. but on the flip side, it is nice riding an event as a team as opposed to a loosely flowing group of individuals.

bmike -- when were you planning your start? The girl and I will be departing from downtown Boston around 5pm on Friday night and will probably be in Vermont by 8 (assuming rush hour is as hellacious as it normally is on a Friday night). If we see a quartet of cyclists with ungodly bright lights, we'll be sure to wave

... though given that we'll be on I-89 and I-93 most of the time, the waves will likely be to tell you that you're off-course and you need to get off the interstate ;)

bmike -- when were you planning your start? The girl and I will be departing from downtown Boston around 5pm on Friday night and will probably be in Vermont by 8 (assuming rush hour is as hellacious as it normally is on a Friday night). If we see a quartet of cyclists with ungodly bright lights, we'll be sure to wave

... though given that we'll be on I-89 and I-93 most of the time, the waves will likely be to tell you that you're off-course and you need to get off the interstate ;)

saturday, 8 am. we don't want to ride the prettiest part of the route in the dark.
have fun in montreal. so much to do. so much to eat... (which sort of begs the question why BMB never really makes it to the M)

which sort of begs the question why BMB never really makes it to the M)
considering the strong relationship between cycling and bagels and the fact that Montreal is home to two of the finest bagel bakeries in the world, this always struck me as a grave sort of oversight.

We finally got our team set. We have a team with three tandems and two singles - it should be interesting trying to keep everyone together. While we will be starting from the top of a hill and have a good 15 to 20 mile downhill, we still have some climbing to get to the finish. My guess is that the tandems and singles will be playing some leapfrog on the lumpy parts. Most of our ride goes through the Santa Barbara wine country with a shot down the Coast on Pacific Coast Highway. Hopefully dinner at a restaurant in Santa Barbara at the harbor, a little jog through Ventura County (with some late night climbing) and into the City of Ventura for the finish.

I understand that there is another local team that, provided the road is safe, will be starting from Whitney Portal (the closest point by road that you can get to Mt. Whitney) and riding to our finish in Ventura, CA. I just think that is too cool. Snowshoes at the start, surfboards at the finish. While there starting elevation is over 8,000 feet they will drop much of that in the first 20 miles. They will have a good ride from the mountains, through the Mojave Desert to the Pacific Ocean in Ventura. A true Southern California experience.

*Bump*.

Happy Easter, everyone. Make sure to report on your fleche here; would be great to hear stories from all over. Ours is in two weeks, taking advantage of the dispensation for northern climes due to nasty weather..... Can't wait!

claire is out on her fleche now ... I hope all is going well.


I'd like to do another fleche next year in Australia. :)

*Bump*.

Happy Easter, everyone. Make sure to report on your fleche here; would be great to hear stories from all over. Ours is in two weeks, taking advantage of the dispensation for northern climes due to nasty weather..... Can't wait!

ours is in (consulting countdown calendar on my google homepage)

33 days and 9 hours or so.

we get further dispensation here in the northeast.
may 16th we roll south through and over the mountains...

I completed my first Fleche this week end: 370 km of beautiful roads in the south of france... The weather was quite nice. We started at 4 pm in a nice sunshine with a bit of head wind. One of the teammate decided to stop before breakfast because he was already feeling that he couldn't do it. We had dinner in a small village and set off for the nice. It was very mild (15 degrees or so) and the almost full moon was shining on our road. Unfortunately I still have trouble riding and digesting dinner in the same time, so I wasn't able to enjoy this part of the ride fully. I had a really hard time just before dawn, but then everything went back to normal afer breakfast. The end was very pleasant (though very windy at the end), and we reached Le Pontet just in time to get stamped by the ACP people and meet a lot of other teams. Then we cycled another 20 km to stay with friends, had a glorious dinner, a great night and the next day we drove back down to le Pontet to meet with all the other teams who had finished during the night and the morning. (We drove because it was pouring rain...)The longest ride prize went to the ACP team who cycled 630 km. There was something like 55 teams riding this year, and some of them got some really nasty weather. Then in the afternoon we went climbing a nice little pass close by just to make sure we were still in shape.
And now I'm still trying to get back to a regular sleep pattern. Feels like I'm jetlagged... But overall it was a pleasant experience, everything went well, the weather was good, nobody had any incident, it felt a lot like a "normal" ride! And my teammates were great, very friendly, supportive of each other, in a true randonneuring spirit!

I'm still a little tired after this weekends rides but I thought I'd try and get my thoughts down on this weekends north Florida Fleche.
Everyone met at my house at 7am for the 7:30 start. I had coffee and home made mini banana nut bread cakes available that a friend of mine makes. The day started out overcast with the threat of rain but either we outran it or it never materialized. The 1st half of the route to Floral city, which was the end town, is pretty much home turf to most of us riding this weekend. Leaving my house the route follows a route I ride on a regular basis to the local rail trail and then joins a route the North Florida Bike club used to use for one of their club rides. I actually used a couple of club routes and joined them together in places. We also incorporated a new section of rail trail that just opened earlier this year out in Keystone Heights. From the safety of the rail trails we traveled to SR19 which lead us through the Ocala National Forest. This is one of my favorite stretches on the route.54 miles of 2 lane, nice shoulder with not too much traffic but getting there was a problem. From the time we scouted the route to this weekend, the dept of roads and highways decided to resurface a 6 mile section leading to the forest. We had 6 miles of milled road to ride on. Thank goodness for steel frames, 700x28's and Brooks saddles. The 2nd half of it is also full of rollers which we were finishing just about the time the sun went down. Leaving the forest behind took us into central Florida and the cities of Altoona and Umitilla where we stopped for dinner at a Pizza Hut. I made the mistake of ordering hot wings which were too hot for my taste but I got lucky and they didn't come back to haunt me later. From there we pushed on through Taveres and Eustis and out into the hinderlands of central Florida. Most of the roads were a real pleasure riding on with little traffic nice riding lanes. Our 22hr control was at a waffle house where we needed to kill some time so I had about 4 cups of coffee and their famous hashbrowns all the way. I was getting daring at this point since I had gotten away with the hot wings earlier and added Tabasco sauce to them. I had been riding strong up until that point but 15 minutes after leaving the Waffle house, I was having a real hard time staying awake. I wasn't the only one either. My team mate Betsy was having the same problem. We managed to push through the tiredness and once we hit the Withlacoochie Trail which would take us through to Floral City we stopped to rest and kill a little more time. It turns out we almost killed too much time and had to really put the coals to it at for the last 6 miles. That was the fastest 6 miles we had ridden in the last 23+ hours averaging about 19mph to get to the last control on time. Just as we blasted out of the trail, the RBA was just pulling up in front of the restaurant on his bike.

thanks for the reports, claire & FL Rando!! sounds like you guys had fun out there.

i can't wait to do my first fleche, we're starting at 6 PM this Friday.

it's gonna be an adventure for sure.

well, we made it! we rolled into Olympia at 6 PM - i've never been happier to see a mediocre hotel (red lion inn).

we had plans of extravagant meals at fancy diners, but in the end our pace was slower than planned (duh), so we never really needed to waste any time.

luckily, nor did we really need to rush, although towards the end a mechanical might have put us over the 24 hour mark.

i haven't written up a blog post yet, but here are the photos from the adventure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157616935723309/

well, we made it! we rolled into Olympia at 6 PM - i've never been happier to see a mediocre hotel (red lion inn).

we had plans of extravagant meals at fancy diners, but in the end our pace was slower than planned (duh), so we never really needed to waste any time.

luckily, nor did we really need to rush, although towards the end a mechanical might have put us over the 24 hour mark.

i haven't written up a blog post yet, but here are the photos from the adventure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157616935723309/

can't wait for the blog post.
what was your speed in the end...? i've mapped out a route with what i feel are generous stops and generous (and declining) average speeds between stops... but i know things change on the road.

congrats! sounds like you rode in the true spirit - keep moving for 24 hours... with a few stops and longer rests...

can't wait for the blog post.
what was your speed in the end...? i've mapped out a route with what i feel are generous stops and generous (and declining) average speeds between stops... but i know things change on the road.

avg (rolling) speed came out to about 22.5 km/h, which i was happy with given that one of our team mates puked during the ride! (there's some old saying that randos are "too dumb to quit," and while it may be true, i'm glad he didn't! somehow he pulled through)


congrats! sounds like you rode in the true spirit - keep moving for 24 hours... with a few stops and longer rests...

we did have a two hour sleep stop (at one of the rider's lakeside cabin), so we did "cheat" a little as far as that true spirit goes. another team we ran into was heading to a cabin as well, seems like a popular out around here.

although it does seem to me that the originators of the fleche probably wanted us to sleep at some post office or something.. but honestly i was fine with the cabin.

avg (rolling) speed came out to about 22.5 km/h, which i was happy with given that one of our team mates puked during the ride! (there's some old saying that randos are "too dumb to quit," and while it may be true, i'm glad he didn't! somehow he pulled through)



we did have a two hour sleep stop (at one of the rider's lakeside cabin), so we did "cheat" a little as far as that true spirit goes. another team we ran into was heading to a cabin as well, seems like a popular out around here.

although it does seem to me that the originators of the fleche probably wanted us to sleep at some post office or something.. but honestly i was fine with the cabin.

i think it is still in the spirit. we're crashing at a favorite bike shop in vt... and hopefully if speed is carried for a second stop 20 miles up the road in a friend's garage.

might be a stretch for 2 2 hour stops... but if we stay aggressive on the timing of the intermediate stops... might work.

congrats again... cabin sounds great.

congrats again... cabin sounds great.

thx mike, i hope y'all have fun on your ride as well. how far are you riding?

the cabin was awesome - the owner (our captain) had gone out there earlier in the week to turn on the heat and bring supplies (pb&j!!).

it was cold enough (only ~38F but all night in that starts to get to you, or at least me) that the cabin was like an oasis (at 4 am). the hardest part was waking back up, of course.

thx mike, i hope y'all have fun on your ride as well. how far are you riding?

the cabin was awesome - the owner (our captain) had gone out there earlier in the week to turn on the heat and bring supplies (pb&j!!).

it was cold enough (only ~38F but all night in that starts to get to you, or at least me) that the cabin was like an oasis (at 4 am). the hardest part was waking back up, of course.

we're targetting 225-6 miles.
our route is here (http://littlecirclesvt.com/?cat=42), basically riding from home to the meeting point.
for the daylight hours we'll be riding on some of the most scenic roads in the state.
as it turns to night we'll be crossing through some terrain, still very scenic - but we're hoping for a clear night so we can see stars and moon at higher elevations.
middle of the night we'll be on some familiar and busier roads - but with services... then on to breakfast in a college town and to the finish.

we'll probably lose our second 2 hour break and turn it into a 1 hour breakfast. we'll see.
3 strong (physically) riders (2 of them race), 2 experienced rando riders, and 3 new to brevets (that doesn't add up, but it makes sense for 5 teammates with varying abilities.


cabin sounds great! esp with PBJ!
we're probably shipping some supplies to our stop and sleeping amongst the bikes in the loft (http://www.westhillshop.com/).

well, we made it! we rolled into Olympia at 6 PM - i've never been happier to see a mediocre hotel (red lion inn).

we had plans of extravagant meals at fancy diners, but in the end our pace was slower than planned (duh), so we never really needed to waste any time.

luckily, nor did we really need to rush, although towards the end a mechanical might have put us over the 24 hour mark.

i haven't written up a blog post yet, but here are the photos from the adventure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157616935723309/

Congratulations, Matt! It looks like an awesome ride from the pictures. I'm looking forward to the full blog post. Your ride reports are always fun reading. Other than being a bit chilly, seems like the weather couldn't have been much better. Now I'm jealous. Guess I'll have to wait for Flèche 2010.

well, we made it! we rolled into Olympia at 6 PM - i've never been happier to see a mediocre hotel (red lion inn).

we had plans of extravagant meals at fancy diners, but in the end our pace was slower than planned (duh), so we never really needed to waste any time.

luckily, nor did we really need to rush, although towards the end a mechanical might have put us over the 24 hour mark.

i haven't written up a blog post yet, but here are the photos from the adventure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabikr/sets/72157616935723309/

Hey Matt. Great photos and I look forward to the writeup. I noticed you used the 705 on the ride. How'd the battery life work out and what did you use to keep it charged for 24 hours?

Hey Matt. Great photos and I look forward to the writeup. I noticed you used the 705 on the ride. How'd the battery life work out and what did you use to keep it charged for 24 hours?

thanks doc - i never got a recharger, so i just ran it until it died (at exactly about 15 hours of recorded ride time, just like the specs say).

even so, since i started it late (forgot to turn it on until 30 mins in), it lasted all the way to our 22-hour control. i tried to turn it off when we stopped at controls, but forgot to do that a few times so it might have lasted longer into the ride had i done that. (and there are gaps in the recording due to that)

in the end it logged something like 330k out of the ~380 that we did - most of the ride.

next time around i'll either not use it for longer rides or get one of those portable chargers.

Leaving Saturday at 0700 to start our fleche!

Curious to hear how you guys and gals figure your ETAs at the controls and various other points along the route where you might want to stop. My route is dead flat and the weather looks to be very good (warm and dry with a slight headwind or cross-wind during the day). I've figured rolling averages of 15mph during daylight and 13mph at night for our group, plus a total of 7 hours off the bike. What do the rest of you do?

Leaving Saturday at 0700 to start our fleche!

Curious to hear how you guys and gals figure your ETAs at the controls and various other points along the route where you might want to stop. My route is dead flat and the weather looks to be very good (warm and dry with a slight headwind or cross-wind during the day). I've figured rolling averages of 15mph during daylight and 13mph at night for our group, plus a total of 7 hours off the bike. What do the rest of you do?

we figured a rolling average of 12.6 to 13.5 mph with 6:15 off the bike at official stops.
i built in some cushion - the time to cover a distance was rounded down during the day, and up over night.
we'll see how it works out. :eek:

Leaving Saturday at 0700 to start our fleche!

Curious to hear how you guys and gals figure your ETAs at the controls and various other points along the route where you might want to stop. My route is dead flat and the weather looks to be very good (warm and dry with a slight headwind or cross-wind during the day). I've figured rolling averages of 15mph during daylight and 13mph at night for our group, plus a total of 7 hours off the bike. What do the rest of you do?

i was lucky enough that our captain had worked out rough open/close times to get to controls (even tho controls don't have open/close times on a fleche, apparently), so we had that to gauge our pace.

also another team mate made a spreadsheet that estimated arrival times; of course neither estimate was exact, but good enough to guide us.

in the end, we were really lucky we didn't have any mechanicals that might have cost us valuable minutes towards the end.

good luck!

Leaving Saturday at 0700 to start our fleche!

Curious to hear how you guys and gals figure your ETAs at the controls and various other points along the route where you might want to stop. My route is dead flat and the weather looks to be very good (warm and dry with a slight headwind or cross-wind during the day). I've figured rolling averages of 15mph during daylight and 13mph at night for our group, plus a total of 7 hours off the bike. What do the rest of you do?

For our fleche last year, we went conservative and pegged a 12 mph moving average across the entire ride, eventhough the first half of the ride was flat and the second half was rather hilly. We figured that we'd exceed estimates early but then fall under later, and that it would even out by the end. The estimates were based on the average speed for a 400k for the slowest rider (me).

If you assume that your team will stay together for the entire ride, then the only speed that matters for estimates is the speed of the slowest rider.

Like mattm's team, we made up a spreadsheet with proposed opening and closing times for controls, and tried to place a higher priority on long rest times at night, rather than trying to spread it evenly across day and night stops.

Like mattm's team, we made up a spreadsheet with proposed opening and closing times for controls, and tried to place a higher priority on long rest times at night, rather than trying to spread it evenly across day and night stops.

you can view our spreadsheet here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pdMM6v1mBliAHWPxg0PxVdw). (assuming the googledocs thing works...)

we put more time into the overnight, with quick stops during the day.
we'll probably burn our lunch time and have to eat while moving - but everyone agrees that dinner will be a sit down affair if possible.

finally posted my fleche report here: http://cyclinginseattle.blogspot.com/2009/04/24-hours-of-painted-fleche.html

good luck to anyone doing one this weekend!

Leaving Saturday at 0700 to start our fleche!

Curious to hear how you guys and gals figure your ETAs at the controls and various other points along the route where you might want to stop. My route is dead flat and the weather looks to be very good (warm and dry with a slight headwind or cross-wind during the day). I've figured rolling averages of 15mph during daylight and 13mph at night for our group, plus a total of 7 hours off the bike. What do the rest of you do?

so how'd it go?

so how'd it go?

Awesome. Mea cupla for the late ride report; hectic week at work.

Our four-man team left Ann Arbor at 0702, Saturday after finishing up an awesome breakfast at Angelo's (http://www.angelosa2.com/). A perfect, warm (about 50F) sunny day awaited us. No one awake in town yet. Past the stadium, a few miles through the 'burbs, and we were out in the country. And the wind. A south wind that would blow at times up to 25mph with higher gusts. And we were heading south.

Every few miles we'd jog for a few blocks east or west to pick up another road to the south and we'd get a little rest. Then, back into the wind. Working together we could maintain 11-12mph, sometimes less.

Stopped at a wonderful cafe for caffeine and pasteries at mile 35, and then back on the road. More of the same. Beautiful county and township roads with no traffic. Hit the first control (Liberty Center, mile 71) an hour behind schedule. Folks were pretty wiped; some stretches brought us down to 9mph. An all-you-can-eat pizza buffet was just what we needed. That and massive amounts of Pepsi.

We were back on the road 40 minutes later. Good news: the wind had shifted to the SW and we were now headed west for the next 40 miles. Even a crossing tailwind pushed us alonjg at 20mph without us expending any effort. The occasional jogs to the south hurt real bad, but we'd get a few miles of crossing tailwind to recover before the next segment into the wind.

At mile 114 (Gibsonburg), we had lunch (again!) at the second control. It was now 4pm and we were still off schedule, but not by much since we were canibalizing time budgeted for stops to keep rolling. That "15mph during the day" average that I'd figured was killing us. Oops.

Now we turned south again. Good news: It felt like the wind was dying out. Hey! We're going 14mph! As dusk came one, spirits remained high as we were proud to have made it through one tough day of riding. We'd stuck together almost the entire distance, working together into the wind and telling lies about past riding adventures and future projects. No one had yet to swear off ever riding a fleche again, so we were definitely still in good shape. Throughout the day people in towns and at controls inquired about our ride and it gave us huge encouragement to hear their positive responses. No one could believe we'd ridden so far, and in that wind -- wow! A few words like that from total strangers keeps the spirits high for hours.

After another quick stop at mile 140 to pump up with more stimulants, we rolled into Upper Sandusky (mile 158) at 9pm -- one hour off schedule. We found another pizza place and ordered toasted subs, a bunch of garlic cheese bread, consumed more coke and relaxed. We'd budgeted the full two hours here and ended up spending one. Back on schedule.

When we left the restaurant, the wind had stopped. Occassionally we'd get a little breath of air from the South, but it was pretty much still. Woo hoo! I'd budgeted 13mph for night riding and we were able to maintain that without difficulty. We continued to ride together and enjoyed some nice chats into the night. A 30 minute stop in Prospect (mile 178) had us refreshed and ready to head to the 22-hour control. We were still on schedule.

Our route took us down the Scioto River on narrow, tree-canopied roads. There was no moon. Somehow we missed three raccoons that ran out directly in front of us. And one deer. The wind hadn't stopped us, and neither could the wildlife.

We hit the 22-hour control, Worthington (mile 216) two minutes ahead of schedule. Damn, the scheduler was good! ;) We had 80-minutes to kill here at an AM/PM convenience store. We cleaned up a bit, had some snacks, and proceeded to go to sleep in the store. The guy working there was a cyclist and thought what we were doing was awesome and helped make us comfortable for snoozing in the store. We were out. Sixty minutes later, we awoke feeling refreshed and ready for the final push.

Our route took us right down High Street, the main N-S arterial in Columbus. Some folks were out returning from after-parties and we actually saw one other cyclist. As the sun rose, we rode right through the heart of downtown and then made our way to the finish in Grove Ciy (mile 234) where we completed the ride at 0625. A celebratory breakfast ensued.

This fleche was a real joy (as were the other two I've done). The team worked very well together and the time just flew by, even when the miles didn't. I'm already at work on next year's route!

This fleche was a real joy (as were the other two I've done). The team worked very well together and the time just flew by, even when the miles didn't. I'm already at work on next year's route!

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

Awesome.

+1, that was an awesome report.

glad to see another fan of pizza & soda on the road, i just wish i could find it somewhere other than gas stations.

bike (over)loaded. route double checked. brevet cards in baggies. rain gear at the ready. weather is looking sketch.

we roll at 8am. 225 or so miles. looking like 12,000+ feet of climbing. hitting the most scenic roads for most of the length of the state...

wet, windy, a real piece of work. headwinds all morning biting into banking time on the local parts of our ride (we all rode to the start from our local coop).

226 or so miles, 12k of climbing, rain all night, 17 hours on the bike, 1 to 1 1/2 hours of sleep. time off eating, stretching, figuring. deluge, fog, concert of peepers on mountain roads, a bike / ped ferry ride around a torn up bridge, wind, frogs every 10 feet throughout the night, rain and a time trial to hit the 22 hour control and another to hit the 24 hour control. we came up short in our final target, but still got in the miles required for the fleche, finishing shivering and cowering in a mini mart eating microwave mac and cheese and soup while we re-coordinated our pick up ride...

was a great and epic 24 hours. some pics and a blog post to come.

wet, windy, a real piece of work. headwinds all morning biting into banking time on the local parts of our ride (we all rode to the start from our local coop).

226 or so miles, 12k of climbing, rain all night, 17 hours on the bike, 1 to 1 1/2 hours of sleep. time off eating, stretching, figuring. deluge, fog, concert of peepers on mountain roads, a bike / ped ferry ride around a torn up bridge, wind, frogs every 10 feet throughout the night, rain and a time trial to hit the 22 hour control and another to hit the 24 hour control. we came up short in our final target, but still got in the miles required for the fleche, finishing shivering and cowering in a mini mart eating microwave mac and cheese and soup while we re-coordinated our pick up ride...

was a great and epic 24 hours. some pics and a blog post to come.

Sweet! Congrats on what sounds like an epic fleche! (Aren't all felches epic? That word was created to describe the fleche experience....). I can just picture the frogs hoping around in y'all's headlights. Hop. Hop. Ribbit. Squish.

Looking forward to the blog entry and the photos.......

Sweet! Congrats on what sounds like an epic fleche! (Aren't all felches epic? That word was created to describe the fleche experience....). I can just picture the frogs hoping around in y'all's headlights. Hop. Hop. Ribbit. Squish.

Looking forward to the blog entry and the photos.......

thanks!

upon review of my pics... i'm a bit disappointed... but we had 2 other cameras clicking.

we did our best not to squish the frogs or the red efts! a teammate even stopped to help a large (huge!) frog get out of the road.
our most serious bit of work was into the wind early on, working hard to maintain a 13.5 mph average over a stretch we commonly clear in the 16 mph range...

another challenge was when i routed us off of many major roads, and into some familiar territory in southern vermont just a few miles from where I used to live and ride... 32 miles, 16 of which seemed like up up up, all with 134 miles in the legs, and stretches at 11%, in the dark, and me, tired and wet, not being able to tell the teammates when 'this' is going to end.

we had the rain pouring down, and a warm bike shop (its nice to have friends) for our sleep stop just on the other side of the 'terrain'.

yes, epic is as fleche does.

ok, now to hydrate and sleep. i want to get up early and spin to keep things fresh.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_0jkA5M3PGcY/ShCj6wR1D6I/AAAAAAAAK-A/X6zuFzWgVKo/s800/IMG_8288.JPG
Route 100, heading south, in Granville Gulf, prime moose habitat... lots of waterfalls, a bit of rain, and a fun descent when you get over the top... between Warren and Hancock - or Rt. 17 and 125...

Sounds awesome, Mike! Congrats.

Definitely want to see more pics from the ride - that one shot looks pretty cool to me.

Flèche NE 2009 was a windy and wet affair. Our team of three departed City Market in Burlington on Saturday at 8am. We left with partly cloudy skies and a wind out of the south - southeast. That wind would never stop - and the partly cloudy would turn to full cloudy, then rain, then deluge, and finally cold wet monsoon.


Our route took us through Richmond, VT and we made use of the recently opened bike and pedestrian ferry. I’m fairly certain we are the only flèche team to include a boat ride. We rolled some familiar roads to Middlesex where we stopped at the wonderful Red Hen Bakery. One of the bakery owners was on one of the four teams from our great state - we chatted with his wife while enjoying second breakfast - and then fought the wind pretty much all the way to Warren. We rolled through Granville Gulf on Rt. 100 - a beautiful stretch of road that includes waterfalls, roaring creeks, prime moose habitat, and several ponds. Dropping down from Granville we opted for a lunch stop at the Rochester Cafe. Sitting outside with our bikes we answered a few questions of a bewildered local roadie.



The stretch from Rochester to Killington was tough for me. The wind picked up and we pace lined the best we could in rolling terrain. My stomach started shutting down - even water was hard to swallow. By the time we reached the climb up to River Rd. I was in distress - my teammates up the road (making it look easy) - and me crawling up the grade in a 32×29 and wishing I had something lower. I recovered a bit on the long descent into Bridgewater Corners as we had to pace line downhill into a really stiff breeze. I was feeling better but desperately needed a restroom - both gas stations had ‘out of order’ signs, and I was preparing to trek into the woods when Jim managed to find an open shop and was waving me across the road. Many thanks to the snowboarder / mountain biker / adventure dude with the electric motocross bikes shop for letting me make use of his facilities…




Feeling better we started rolling up towards Ludlow for dinner. The route took us along several lakes and was dotted with summer camps and cabins. We rolled into Ludlow only about 10 minutes behind schedule at 6:40pm. We had hoped to build up some bank time - I had thought we would have an hour or more in the bank by Ludlow - but the wind and weather took its toll early on. Tacos Tacos called out to Jim so we ordered up some grub at a hole in the wall Mexican place. We kept the stop short - and rolled out on 103 now 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Rt. 103 is a wide shouldered and moderately traveled road. After a short climb and quick 5% descent the road steadily drops toward the Connecticut River valley. At times we were cruising at 16-18 mph three up and chatting while safely tucked to the right of the 8 foot or larger shoulder. Due to a math error it took forever to get to our turn on Pleasant Valley Rd. A short burn on 103 turned into a bit of a panicked slog as I misread the cue and completely screwed the math while reviewing notes over our dinner. When we finally did reach our road we were running in full night gear - reflective vests and ankle bands, headlights, and blinkies and heading into some climbing in the rain. The road took us over some mild terrain - and the frogs were out singing a full symphony. It was an inspiring way to climb - mother nature soaking us in water and sound.



Pleasant Valley Road dropped us into Saxtons River for a post card control. We were now a full half hour ahead of schedule - but we had the toughest stretch of road ahead. We dropped the postcard at 8:51 and headed for Putney, VT via Westminster West. I’ve ridden this route dozens of times when I lived in Putney - I knew the road well enough to warn my teammates that it wouldn’t be easy. The skies opened up by the time the first 11% grade hit… and the conversation turned to ‘How far to the top?’, ‘When does it stop?’. The road is a series of climbs stepping up to a high point above town. We worked those miles in the dark, with frogs leaping across the road and a few cars passing us with care - as I’m sure we looked alien rolling up the road at 10 pm in the rain. The road eventually returned the effort of the climbs and we dropped directly into town and rolled to the West Hill Shop for the first of our 2 hour stops. At this point the photography essentially ends - wet, cold, hungry, focused on the task at hand.

Warm and relatively dry with full bike shop at our disposal we tweaked some cranky bikes, adjusted lights, repacked gear, changed clothes, snacked, and took a nap. The rain poured down on the metal roof. Websites were checked for weather. Phone calls made to wives and girlfriends. Stretching, coffee, and then dressing for and heading out into the weather. We rolled about 8 miles to the Dunkin Donuts in Brattleboro, thankful that the chain smoking workers were gainfully employed and the coffee hot. Answering their questions was fun… and the eggy cheesy bacony croissant was just what I needed to warm and perk up. We were now running well behind our ideal schedule - and we knew that our second planned ‘rest’ stop would have to be cut short.

Rolling through southern Vermont brought back many a memory - cruising through town brought back memories of after dark training rides as well as sessions at the local pub enjoying a good pour of single malt. We rolled through Brattleboro to blinking yellow lights and crossed into New Hampshire on Rt. 63. Our next stop was a friend’s garage in Northfield, MA for another ‘rest’. We worked hard trying to make time and arrived about an hour off our planned pace. Craig had the coffee ready to go - and staged the garage with air mattresses, warm sleeping bags and towels. I caught a half hour of sleep before my phone alarm went off. I made the mistake of taking off my wool jersey before I crawled into the warm bag - putting it on was not fun - cold socks, cold shoes, and now a cold jersey. We suited up in rain gear and took off for Amherst and our 22 hour control.

Rt. 63 was tough. We had over 180 miles in our legs and we’d been on the road for nearly 20 hours. The rolling climbs slowed us down and we struggled to stay warm and not overheat in our gear. As the sun came up we were still struggling with the terrain - what seemed like endless rollers - wondering if we would make it in time to pause for the 22 hour control. The 22 hour control is unique to the flèche - it requires all teams to stop and verify their location. As 6am drew near we went into pace line and time trial mode - we needed to find a convenience store, ATM, diner - any place that we could verify time and location with a receipt or business stamp. I crested a small roller and saw the glow of 2 ATM machines in the distance. 2 minutes to go and we pushed hard - and in the same little plaza a 24 hour Cumberland Farms! We warmed, ate, and waited in line behind a fellow checking and purchasing and checking and paying out hundreds of lotto tickets. 10 minutes later we were on the road again - heading into Amherst proper. Again in ‘get it done mode’. Two hours to go, and we needed another 20 miles.

Rolling through a college town on a Sunday morning was uneventful except for two gents who appeared to be doing the walk of shame home from some late night festivities. The sun was well up, the rain just starting to pour down, and the strength of our Edeluxe lights apparent by the blinding gestures and yelling they made in our general direction. Mumbled obscenities ensued, and we were in and out of town - heading into commercial road strip mall city just as the rain reached its peak flow - buckets fell from the sky as we made our way to Northampton. The road was covered in a wave of water. Potholes disappeared. Cracks swallowed wheels. Our speed dropped but we pressed on. Fenders were practically useless as there was so much water coming down it didn’t matter that we were in rain gear, fully fendered, and wearing wool base layers. We were now soaked to the bone wet, cold, and an hour away from reaching our goal. We poked through Northampton, Easthampton, and Southampton as the clock ticked away - and with 4 minutes to spare a likely 24 hour control appeared on the horizon - the glorious ‘All In One Store’ in Westfield, MA. We rolled in, picked up receipts, and breathed. Done. Finished. Epic.

226 miles, approximately 12k of climbing. 17 hours in the saddle. 1 1/2 hours of ’sleep’.


Pics on the blog (http://littlecirclesvt.com/?p=495), and more to come when my mates upload theirs...