Lessons Learned

I thought I would give Branson a chance to comment since I knew he would hit on all the highlights and lowlights of the fleche.

I don't have a lot to add other than my observations as a new fleche rider. The big thing I learned is that navigating at night is infintely harder than navigating during the day. Road signs are a piece of cake when you have actual sunlight illuminating them.

As for getting lost I think a couple of things would help me in the future. First, don't rely on Google Maps for everything. When we got back I looked at MapQuest and naturally they list a 74A. If I had simply double-checked the road numbers using MapQuest I suspect that the 74 debacle wouldn't have occurred. Of course, having said that, something else will bite me in the ass, but it won't be the same bear!

On the plus side I had added road numbers as a separate column along with distances from the previous control. That worked out really well. There were a couple of times that the road name didn't match but we were able to follow the road number and wend our way. Same thing with the control distance. No worries about cumulative errors from 200 miles of riding. Now they're simply from the point of the last control.

Overall it was a blast and I now have some bragging rights over a few other cyclists. Now, back to sitting on the couch and liberal amounts of Chamois Butt'r. It's not just for breakfast anymore!