Team Fleche Rippers

Team Fleche Rippers

Darren Garnier, Mark Paigen, Roger Kim, and Phillip Stern.

Our plan

Leave Winchester on Saturday at 10 AM and finish in Providence exactly 24 hours later on Sunday at 10 AM. In between, we will ride 232 miles through Newton, Hull, Duxbury, Barnstable, Falmouth, Fall River, Newport, and Bristol, never stopping for more than 2 hours at a time.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4709483

The following ride report is taken from my Facebook posts during the ride.

Like John Denver, All my bags are packed I'm ready to go.

At Hull for 15min break. Right on schedule.

Forecast for rain all day was blessedly wrong. Just slathered up with SPF 30

Photos taken from the saddle, before and after dropping phone.

Roger is cramping and trying to decide whether he can continue.

And then there were 3. Roger is going to get lift to Provincetown.

More trouble; a flat tire for Darren.

My teammates would have been disappointed if I didn't include a little bit of dirt road on the route.

Sunset on the water, makes me feel fine.

Now we are in Falmouth having burgers. 120 miles in 10 hours. Just another 120 in the remaining 14 hours.

In Acushnet 1.5 hours ahead of schedule, but the 24 hour Dunkin Donuts is drive through only.

60 miles to go at 2:30AM. We are at Al Mac's all night diner in Fall River and the place is hopping. Just finished 55 miles of night riding with nowhere to stop for rest and warmth. The 24-hour places we were counting on only had the drive thru open.

In Newport at 6AM. Right on schedule. 198 miles down. 34 to go and 4 hours left. Sunrise was spectacular.

Ghost bike - a memorial to a fallen biker.

Ghost wheelchair.

Our 22 hour control location was a Dunkin Donuts in Bristol. Just 2 hours and 17 miles left to Providence. Then we have brunch with the other teams and take the train back to Boston.

Our last 17 miles was cruising on this great bike trail.

 We finished at the Amtrak station in Providence.

Two IPAs before brunch at CAV really mellowed me out.

There were other 5 Fleche teams, but only one other showed up for brunch. They started Friday at 4PM, rode through a huge rain storm, did twice as much climbing, lots of dirt roads, and Emily was on a fixed gear. This team does a ton of randonee rides and we were blown away by their accomplishments.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Took train from Providence to Alewife and biked home on the Minuteman.