Flèche 2022

Last weekend my Audax Atlanta club had a flèche.  Unlike brevets and permanents, a flèche is a team randonneuring event.  I had ridden a flèche once before, six years ago. We intended to have a flèche in 2020, but then the pandemic hit. I'm glad it worked out this year.

Flèche is the French word for "arrow," which sort of describes how the event works. Teams of 3-5 people ride at least 360 km (about 225 miles) over 24 hours. At least 25 km must be ridden in the last two hours; therefore, you can't just hammer through the ride. Ideally, multiple teams take different 360-km routes, and they all ride to the same destination like arrows converging on a bullseye. This time we had just one team for our flèche: Brian, Ian, Robert N., and me. Our team name was "Sins of the Flèche." Oh, yeah - we had an unofficial fifth team member, the Black Knight. He rode pinned to the back of my jersey like he did in 2016 when my team was "It's Just a Flèche Wound."

The Black Knight is a little cattywampus here.  He has a sword,
but I kept that in my bag so that it wouldn't fall out on the road.

Brian mapped our route. Everyone met at his house in Dawsonville, GA. From there, his partner Lisa drove us all to the start of our ride in Lavonia, GA. Our team rode a big arc through Greenville, SC and back into Georgia, finishing back at Brian's house.

We started at 5:00 PM on Friday. The route from Lavonia to Greenville was pretty easy. The weather was great, and the countryside was beautiful. (I must say, however, that GA roads are in much better shape than SC roads!)

Ian, me, and Robert

Our first control was a Wendy's in Belton, SC, where we had a leisurely late dinner.

Social distancing

We approached Greenville around midnight, riding portions of the Swamp Rabbit Trail (SWT). Brian had scouted out an interesting path to get us to the SWT that involved a slight hike-a-bike section over some large chunks of broken concrete. Additionally, a small section of the SWT was unpaved. Expect adventure!

Lisa was so generous to let us use her house in Greenville as a control. There we took showers, got something to eat, and took an all-important nap! We rolled out again in the middle of the night.

Not far from Greenville, we stopped at the custom furniture shop of one of Brian's friends. The shop also has a really cool cyclist support center that includes air pumps, a water source, etc. We appreciated the unexpected hospitality!

Ian, me, and Robert

Riding in the middle of the night can be difficult, but it seemed easier this time because of the 5:00 PM start and being able to take a nap in the wee hours, which more closely aligned with my regular sleep schedule than other overnight randonneuring events I have done.

Also, night riding means much less traffic. We saw almost none between Greenville and Walhalla, SC, where we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. We watched the sun rise while we were there. Sunrise is always an encouraging time on overnight randonneuring events.

Our next control was in Toccoa, GA. The only negative about the whole adventure was several extremely rude drivers that we encountered there. We were riding single file through town all the way to the right, and a guy in a convertible Corvette screamed at us, complete with the F bomb. A short time later another driver lay on the horn as they drove by. I hate to even mention these incidents because overall it was such a great ride, but I was really bothered. We stopped at a convenience store on the edge of town, and I was glad to find a water spigot on the side of the building so that I didn't have to spend any money there. I won't be going back to Toccoa anytime soon. But on to better things...

Brian was tired when we stopped in Toccoa. There was a picnic bench in front of the store, and he laid his head down and slept for about 10 minutes. Robert got a great photo of that. (Wish I could have included his photo here, but he went almost straight from our flèche to a 1200K in Virginia!)

It had gotten hillier after we left Greenville, and now that we were back in Georgia, the climbing started in earnest. We climbed a total of about 15,000 ft, and most of that was the second day.

The next control was in Cornelia, GA. A Dairy Queen Blizzard hit the spot, and it didn't make me too cold because by then the day had warmed nicely. I had prepared well clothing-wise, wearing shorts and a short-sleeved jersey with arm and leg warmers - just right to adjust to both the cool night and warm day.

I had one very sleepy stretch after the stop in Cornelia. I was riding a short distance behind the others. To try to wake myself up, I started singing "Dust in the Wind" at the top of my lungs. It must have worked because, amazingly, the sleepiness went away, and I didn't have any trouble the rest of the ride.

We had planned on stopping for a while at the final control around 25 km to go. However, we were already within the two-hour mark, and so we kept going to the end. The rules of a flèche necessitate a pretty chill pace, but we didn't have much wiggle room to finish within the 24-hour time limit.

We had one bit of unexpected adventure about seven miles from the end. Brian accidentally routed us over a very gravelly section. I generally don't mind a little dirt/gravel on my road bike, but this was challenging! I took it very slowly because I didn't want to get a flat so close to the end. Fortunately, we all made it through without incident.

Ian and me

All smiles at the finish! We finished with less than 10 minutes to spare.

Brian, Ian, me, and Robert

Brian and Lisa were such gracious hosts for our post-flèche festivities. We got to take showers, and then they put out a spread of appetizers, hamburgers and hot dogs, a delicious kale salad (I always crave green vegetables after a randonneuring event), and other goodies.

Thank you to my teammates and Lisa for making this flèche possible! As with the best rides, it was tough but fun. I'm also excited to have completed this flèche successfully because it was one of two remaining events I need to earn the ACP Randonneur 5000 Award. All that's left is a 1000K, which I plan to ride in October in Florida.

BTW, I did have to stop for a nap on the drive home from the flèche!

Juan Antonio Flecha is a retired pro cyclist. He was born in Argentina and rode for Spain. His last name is the Spanish word for "arrow." When he won Stage 11 of the 2003 Tour de France, he pantomimed shooting an arrow from a bow as he crossed the finish line.