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Old 04-02-12 | 07:35 AM
  #75  
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leaping_gnome
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15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 474
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From: Pacific Northwest

Bikes: 1975 Eisentraut Ltd, 1995 Trek 7000 MTB, 2007 Masi Vincere, 1974 Masi GC, 1981 Specialized Allez, 1984 Specialized Sequoia

Late March Entry

I have a late March entry also. My randonneur club put on a Fleche, a 24-hour ride, across 31 March to 1 April. I rode my Trek TX700 with a team of 2 others for a total of 223.8 miles. We did about 160 of those miles on March 31st so I think that counts. Just like two weeks ago, we had a strong winter storm pass through the coast and it hit us just after sunset out on the Palos Verdes peninsula. The rain was strong for about an hour and the wind was howling all night in our faces as we made the long stretch up the coast. But we made all the checkpoints on time and arrived at the finish along with one other team. Here is our route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/932024 My teammate, Kevin, took all the pictures since my camera quit working almost immediately, and I will update with some pictures as soon as he sends me some.

Just a little bit about what a Fleche is. A Fleche is like the tail feathers of an arrow and the concept is that teams start from different points to ride 24 hours to a single finish point, arriving at the same time, like arrows into the bulls eye. So the fun is to see everybody at the finish for the stories. We actually saw one of the other teams heading down the coast (with the wind, the dogs!) at about 2:00 AM. I didn't know they were another team but I figured anybody out riding in those conditions was a randonneur by definition, so I yelled "hey rando" as they went by. Turned out that they didn't finish (at least on time) so I didn't get to meet any of them. Our other team started from San Luis Obispo.

Cedar Valley Trail looks awesome, ThermionicScott!
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