My First Fleche (Ryan Lange, Feb 07)  

Preparing for a new personal record distance ride that is 100 miles further proved to be a difficult task.  Its APRIL in Texas and the temperature highs are projected to be no more than somewhere in the 40s with a chance of rain.  To put this in perspective, I rode the Tuesday Crit on April 3^rd and the temperature was hot and humid in the 80s.  I spent Thursday night packing my bag thinking of staying light and warm.  I packed everything in ziplock bags or a solid plastic bag that wouldn't rip or leak.  I didn't get to sleep until a little after 1 am Thursday morning.

I woke up unassisted at 5:50 am.  Doh, I can't get back to sleep.  Fine I'll get out of bed and start getting ready.  Took a nice warm shower while I had the chance and packed the car.  7:15 am leaving the driveway.  Before arriving at Lynn Creek Marina, I stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank, get some Starbucks Mocha and empty my hydrated body.  8:31 am arrive at the marina; excellent I see George and Sharon.  As I park the car I see Dan Driscoll and all of the other bikers.  I didn't know other teams were finishing there.  I am happy to see Dan, he gives off this positive energy and confidence that is welcome before the storm of insanity sets in before a ride like this.  I shake his hand and tell him I don't know what to think of this ride.  Before Dan and crew leave he gives one last word of advice, "If you're trying to determine on what to take and what to leave, take clothing."  I was one step ahead of him as I was trying to crawl through the back seat to pull out my snowboarding gloves from the trunk.  If you read my first Brevet report, these are the bulky gloves I unfortunately left behind.  I told you all if I ever did this again it would be too soon.

I detached the removable liner from the snowboarding gloves, so that I could just slip the neoprene gloves into the "waterproof" shells.  They will at least provide cover from the cold and wind when the neoprene gets wet from sweating.  I load up Sharon's bike onto my bike rack and it secured fairly well.  Our 4^th member Mark arrived, he and George loaded it onto George's bike rack.

We get on our way to Shreveport, LA.  After going over many hills along I-20, I realize where the 10,000+ feet of climbing are going to be.  We finally arrive in Shreveport a little before 1 pm.  We all organize our things and prepare to pedal all the way back to Grand Prairie, TX.  We still had to ride 14+ miles to get to our official starting location (bonus miles).  We finally get on the road at 2 pm and arrive at the official start at 3 pm.  After a short break we start the official Fleche course and let the miles start counting down.

Our first pause was brief for a few pictures at the Texas border.  The roads have been smooth so far, so I've been able to keep a very efficient pedal stroke conserving energy for later.  I have no idea how my body is going to react to this ride.  It took awhile to get to Jefferson, but we made it there without any trouble, I was staying warm so things were looking good so far.  We were averaging 14.1 mph, so we were on track.  We ate at the Burger King that was inside the gas station.  I needed some food by this point.  I hadn't eaten much real food for the day with all of the traveling.  That hit the spot, back on the bike.  Burr, its getting colder and my base layer is wet.  As we are leaving town, I am standing on my pedals to produce some heat.

Next stop is Gilmer, 40 miles away.  This stretch included the beautiful sun setting as we were on 726 crossing a section of Lake O' the Pines.  Other than that I don't remember much about this stretch.  I must have been zoning out or something.  I do remember the Gilmer stop was welcome.  I slammed a whole bottle of SoBe down and swallowed a couple of breakfast bars.  There were tables and chairs at the gas station we stopped at.  For some reason, this seemed like a hangout for the locals.  Several people were asking questions about what we were doing biking in this cold.  Luckily I took note of the next stretch of road ahead.  It was a simple route; just follow 49 all the way to Mineola.  That saved us some bonus miles because we didn't miss our turn when 49 all of a sudden split off of 1795.  49 had some nice hills for night ridding.  The road was great so I couldn't help myself; I had to test my legs out on the hills.  I kick it up a few notches and start to fly over the hills.  Wow, this is fun at night.  I can't see the hill, so I just think of it as a tiny hill.  Which after training in Austin, they all were tiny hills.  I am very surprised that my legs feel this good and have this much power.  It feels great to glide up the hill and then scream down the other side.  Once I got out of sight, I pulled over to wait for everyone.  When everyone went by, I played a bit more on the hills.

Once in Mineola, we made the stop quick so that we could find shelter where we could lay down for a bit.  All I wanted to do was eat.  We finally found the post office and the other 3 laid down for a bit while I eat some food.  About 30 minutes after we left Mineola I hit the sleep wall.  I only had 5 hours of sleep Thursday night.  Partly due to preparing for the ride and partly do to not being able to go back to sleep.  I struggled through the majority of the way to Canton.  All I wanted to do was crawl into a warm bed and go to sleep.  My eyelids were heavy and my head was slumped over all I could do was remember what Shanna told me during my first 200k, "just keep pedaling."

When we left Canton my body was shaking like a leaf.  I believe this was the 3^rd or 4^th time I had to stand and pedal to generate heat for the first couple of minutes.  Luckily between Canton and Crandall I broke out of the sleepiness and into my second wind.  It happened shortly before sunrise.  I was glad to see the night drift away into morning.  There was a Sonic inside the Crandall stop.  Yippee no sitting on the floor and warm food to boot.  When we left Crandall, something I had eaten earlier and/or the Sonic breakfast burrito didn't agree with me.  My stomach did summersaults for most of the next 18 miles.  We were going to make Ferris a quick stop, I just wanted to get a restroom break.  Aahhhaa, we made it to Ferris and fixed my stomach problems.  At this point we have about 35 miles to go.  I can do this, the legs still feel good - lets go.

In between Ferris and our last stop before the marina is where the flurries started.  I don't believe this; it is snowing in April in Texas.  It must be my fault, I came to Texas for warmer weather and now the only 2 randonneur events I have taken part in, the weather has been unreasonably cold.  I did hope that it wouldn't rain, which it didn't, so I got my wish.  It just decided to snow instead, unbelievable.  Well one more item to add to the war stories of my first Fleche.  The last stop was rather uneventful; I was ready to be done.  The flurries really picked up for a few minutes, almost to a full on snow.  Now we are on the home stretch.  I thought George said there were just a couple of hills left.  I call bs, there were plenty of hills to climb in that last stretch.  My legs were fine, so they really didn't bother me.  "Are we there yet?"  Sharon and I had asked George that for the first half of the ride until he stopped responding.  Then I forgot to ask when we finally finished.  George that one is here just for you.  We arrive at the marina and all is well.   No flats or injuries, we all arrive safely to ride another day.  What a story this will make when I am a wrinkly old man.

Ryan Lange