Here is an overview of the rules regarding a flèche:

• Completing a flèche is one of the requirements for achieving the Randonneur 5000 award.
   
• Each team must complete an Application form, and each rider must sign and mail in a Release form.
   
• The flèche lasts 24 hours. The start time and date are chosen by the team. Teams can start their flèche any time between Thursday noon (3/27/08) and 10:00am Saturday (3/29/08). It would be nice to have teams start at 10:00am on Saturday so that they're all rolling in to the finish line at 10:00am on Sunday (3/30); but this is by no means a requirement.
   
• The starting point is left up to the team, but the finishing point is the same for every team: Denny's, Oceanside, CA. This is close to Amtrak, Coaster, and Metrolink connections.
   
• The ACP does not allow a flèche to start and finish in the same city. So, you can either do a giant one-way (Solvang to Oceanside) or an almost giant loop (Leucadia to Oceanside, via Palm Springs, for example), but not a loop from Oceanside to Oceanside.
   
• Different teams may not start at the same location and at the same time. After a captain has a route approved, any subsequent proposals that have the same start location and time will be sent back to the captain for changes. Any changes that need to be made to the routes are the responsibility of the captain to resolve in a timely way.
   
• A team is comprised of 3-5 bicycles. Teams can be comprised of any combination of solo and tandem bicycles.
   
• The last control on the route must be at least 25km from the finish, and the teams must document that they are at that control 22 hours into their ride (or 2 hours before the ride ends). Teams can check in farther from the finish than 25km, with 2 hours remaining, but they'd have to cover that greater distance in the remaining 2 hours.
   
• All routes must be submitted by February 14, 2008. This will allow late entries to be approved and any conflicts resolved before the flèche.

Click here for a complete set of rules from RUSA. It is the responsibility of each captain to know all the rules, and to communicate those rules to their teammates. Here is another helpful link.

To get your team posted on the list, you must:

• submit a route sheet to Mike Berry in PDF or Excel format, complete with addresses for each control.
• submit a map of the route via www.bikely.com (preferred), or in .jpg or .bmp or .gif formats
• have the submitted route approved.

Notes:

You do not need to have a team to have your route approved, or even submitted, but there's little point in riding a flèche if you don't have a complete team. All of that is to say that it's better to get a route approved and then look for teammates than the other way around.

The approval process will evaluate whether: the path between controls is the shortest practical path for cyclists, there are enough controls on the route, there is sufficient distance between controls, and whether the last control is at least 25km from the finish line.

Captains might have minimum requirements for choosing teammates. For example, captains might require that rides have completed rides of a certain distance, have completed rides within a certain time frame, or something similar that will demonstrate that riders can ride 360km over a 24 hour period.

Below is a list of the team rosters, the start locations and times, and a map of their approved route. If you're a captain who's looking for additional teammates, or if you're a solo rider looking for a team, post messages at http://groups.google.com/group/sdrando-fleche. For a variety of reasons, SDR will stay out of assisting or guiding team formations - it'll be the responsibility of each captain to field a team with two to four other teammates. If you can't find a team, consider becoming a captain and finding teammates.

More information will be posted on this page as it becomes available.