Fleche Velocio is a special brevet, where teams of 3-5 cyclists take each it's own way to the common finish. The ride is 24h long and even if brevets are not competition, each team strives to reach the most kilometers possible. The first Fleche in Slovenian randonneuring history took place last Saturday/Sunday March 24th/25th 2012. Here is an account of our team's ride:

Personaly I find a 24h training a bit too much for this part of the season, but considering that I still miss a Fleche to become a Randonneur 5000, I decided to find a team. My first choice were  Alan, Boštjan & Silvo, guys with whom we rode together for the 2nd day of PBP 2011. They are fast riders and we always have fun time riding together, so we agreed quickly. Alan set up a route, which (also at my suggestion) didn't have much climbing, as much as 2.700m in 551km. Unfortunately Alan had to cancel in the last minute, but we added a new member Sandi Bayer, another fast cyclist and RAS finisher. I was sure we'll have a great time riding together.

On the night before Fleche I only managed to sleep less than 6 hours and I comforted myself it would be a good training of no-sleeping for RAS Extreme. Sandi picked me up at my home at 5.45 AM and at 6.30 AM we were drinking coffee with Bostjan & Silvo at a gas station near Postojna on the was to the start. We were discussing the was we were going to ride and decided that each one will try to pull the group for 15 minutes, so it would be one shift for everyone an hour. We had some trouble finding a starting/fionishing point, so we were a bit late to start. We started 10 minutes past 8 AM, which didn't worry me too much, as I knew that for such a great team riding 551km in 24h should be a piece of cake. We set up a pretty fast tempo and despite lot of climbing in the first 3 hours, we managed to pass Ljubljana with an average of 31km/h. At the 2nd Control Point in Komenda, we sat down and drank coffee with Alan, who took a few hours to join us on our way through Gorenjska. In Gozd Martuljek we stopped for a large bowl of spagetti, courtesy of Jure Robic's brother Marko Robic. Thank you Marko! As it was raining outside, we prolonged our stay for a few minutes until the rain subsided. At the cemetary in Kranjska Gora we stopped at Jure's grave to light up a candle. Everytime I stop here I get the same heavy feeling and this time was no different. I just wish Jure would be with us on this glorious ride in flech, instead in our minds. 

After a few minutes the raindrops made us move out quickly, as the sky over Italy was still sunny and the storm seemed to be coming from behind ur. We quickly pulled on the rain vests and moved forward towards Italy. There, the roads dried and as the night moved in, the sky became clear again and the first starts were greeting us. We »punched« our brevet cards at the 3rd Control Point in Pontebba and were quickly off into the night. During the night we had a lot of problems with navigating, as noone has ridden this route before. It meant a lot of stops with looking at the maps, trying to figure out where are we and where to go. Even had to ask some people for directions at one point of the Fleche. There was only one huge mistake that cost us an addition of some 10 kilometers to our route on the was to 4th Control Point in Jesolo, the Western point on our route. In Jesolo we had some trouble finding a place where to stamp our brevet cards, but finaly we manage to find a Pizzeria opened, where they stamped our cards and we even got to it some pizzas at 1AM in the morning. We ate good, drank some coffee and were on our way back towards Slovenia at 1.30AM.

The wind that was at our backs until then wasn't as strong on the way back, so we could still ride at a tempo between 30 and 34km/h towards the next CP in Grado. Even with some new extra stops for navigating, we managed to reach 5.CP in Grado before 6AM. There wasn't a living soul at that time of night around, even the hotels were all locked up, se we got our receipt in ATM machine. After a short rest, we continued our ride towards Monfalcone and were hoping some cafee shop would already be opened when we got there. After a quite prolonged search, we got lucky and found a coffee shop, where we stamped our cards at the 22th hour of the ride and we took quite a long rest there, as we only had 26km left of our ride to go. After getting lost a few times, we finaly found a climb out fo Monfalcone towards Slovenia and as a dessert there was a climb of 18% to Sela na Krasu just a few kilometers before the finishline in Temnica. We arrived there with 15 minutes to spare, but nobody was really eager to get a few more kilometers in, so we shook hands and finished glad that everything has worked out fine and we rode those 551km (or 560km ridden) with 2.700m of climbing.

The whole team did a great job, everyone did their pulls at the front of the group. Sandi & Silvo showed they are in a great for RAS and could surprise a few people there. With a little less navigating problems, we could easily have done more than 600km which was my wish before the ride. But, knowing this really isn't the point of randonneuring, I am not the least sorry for taking lot of time at the stops and enjoyed a bit, before we set out to ride fast again. In really was an excellent training ride in a great company, so I cannot wait for the Fleche 2013, when Alan will presumably join us for the whole ride and we will have some fun again (and try to make it 600+ kms!).

At the ceremony we got the news that out 551kms were enough to earn us the trophy for teh most kilometers ridden in Fleche. We only had a 15kms lead on 2nd placed team of Randonneurs Croatia, but nontheless the feeling when receiving the trophy was very nice. Even better is knowing it was another succesful training ride and (after February's illnes) I am back on a track to be in shape for RAS. There was no physical problems, no sore muscles or feet, hands, neck for that matter. Well, the back side did suffer a bit, which is not surprising after 560km in the saddle, is it? Not even for ultracyclists... ;)