The Easter Flèche
The Flèche is Audax ridden as a team. Your team of three to five bikes plans its own route, rides it for 24 hours over the Easter weekend, and covers at least 360 km. Every team in the country aims for the same finish, so the routes arrive like arrows at a target. That is where the name comes from: flèche is French for arrow.
At a glance
- Team
- Three to five bikes, riding together
- Distance
- 360 km or more in 24 hours
- Route
- Your own, approved by the organiser, to a shared finish
- When
- Easter weekend, usually starting on Good Friday
It is modelled on the Flèche Vélocio in France and administered by Audax Club Parisien, as brevets are. Ireland has run one every Easter since 2010. Dublin was the first finish, and teams have since converged on Cork, Galway, Mullingar, Derry, Dún Laoghaire and Longford. Arriving together, seeing who else made it, and swapping stories of the night is part of the ride.
How it works
- Form a team. Three to five bikes. A tandem counts as one bike, so it counts as one team member.
- Plan a route. Design a route to the official finish that is comfortably more than 360 km, with controls at sensible places, and choose a start time.
- Get it approved. Send the route and start time to the organiser, who may suggest changes or extra controls.
- Enter individually. Each rider enters separately on Eventmaster and gives the team name.
- Ride for 24 hours. Record the time, distance and place at each control, and at the 22nd and 24th hours, then finish together.
You do not have to ride every kilometre of the route you submitted, only as much of it as you can in 24 hours, within the limits below. The ride usually starts on Good Friday. Easter can fall anywhere from late March to late April, so plan for bad weather.
The rules
They look complicated, but most of them exist to keep the team together and the distance honest.
The team
- Three to five bikes, with a tandem counting as one.
- No help from anyone outside the team, except in a medical emergency. You may only draft behind members of your own team.
- If two teams want to start from the same place on the same route, their start times must be at least an hour apart.
The route
- At least 360 km, measured as the shortest road distance between your controls, avoiding motorways.
- Point to point is best. A loop is acceptable; an out-and-back route is not.
- No stretch of road may be ridden twice in the same direction.
On the road
- Every rider carries their own brevet card and notes the time and distance at each control, with proof of passage: a shop or ATM receipt showing the date, time and place, or a stamp from a Garda station.
- For controls late at night or early in the morning, a photo or video of at least three of the team at a landmark or signpost is accepted.
- At the end of the 22nd and 24th hours, get proof of passage and note the time and place. You must cover at least 25 km between those two points.
- The team may not stop anywhere for more than two hours.
- If a road is closed, you may detour, but get proof of passage at the furthest point of the detour.
Finishing
- At least three members of the team must finish together and declare the same distance.
- The distance ridden must be at least 360 km, no more than 15% longer than the approved route, and no more than 20% shorter.
- A rider who covers less than 80% of the planned route, or less than 360 km, is not a finisher.
- Every team is expected to make a real attempt to reach the official finish.
From the road: Hours 22 to 24 decide the ride. Plan the route so the last stretch is roads you can ride at a steady pace when tired, and leave enough distance in hand for those two hours to cover 25 km without a scramble.
Entering
Entry works the same way as any Audax Ireland event: online through Eventmaster, with a Cycling Ireland licence. Any level of licence is accepted, Leisure included, and a one-day licence is added at checkout if you do not have one. Each team member enters separately. The entering an event guide covers licences and Eventmaster in full.
Finishers receive the Audax Ireland Flèche medal, and Audax Club Parisien sends completion certificates later.
What it counts towards
A Flèche is one of the required events for ACP Randonneur 5000 and 10000, and its distance counts towards them too. It also counts towards Brevet 2000 and 5000, 4 Provinces, RRTY and RRTY 100, but not Super Randonneur, 4 Nations SR or ISR.
It is also good preparation for Paris-Brest-Paris: a night on the bike with little or no sleep, early in the season, with company.
The tracker records each completed Flèche of at least 360 km as its own achievement. It appears in Achievements without locking the ride, so the same ride still counts towards the awards above.
Track The Easter Flèche as you ride
Sign in with Strava and the free tracker shows how close you are to The Easter Flèche, which of your rides count, and what is left.
Other awards
- Super Randonneur A 200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevet in one season.
- 4 Nations Super Randonneur A Super Randonneur series with each distance in a different nation: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
- Brevet 2000 and 5000 2,000 or 5,000 km of qualifying rides in one season.
- 4 Provinces A qualifying ride in each of Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster in one season.
- RRTY and RRTY 100 A ride of 200 km, or 100 km for RRTY 100, in each of 12 consecutive months.
- SR600 One demanding 600 km ride through the mountains, with 8,000 m or more of climbing.
All Audax Ireland awards also covers the time windows awards use and how to plan a season around them.