Tomm Willians

Because it’s a crazy notion? I see talk of single and double century rides, who out there has gone for 24? Sometimes I get a wild hair to do something I know I’m going to pay for dearly and this has caught my attention.

unterhausen

It's not crazy at all, I have done it many times. I definitely have taken more than 24 hours to ride 400k, the max randonneuring time is 27 hours. 600km, 1000km, and 1200km all feature the opportunity to ride 24 hour days, sometimes more than one.

I have thought about riding a 24 hour time trial, but I'm not sure I see the point. I have also never bothered to get my 400km routes approved.

pdlamb

I get the feeling rides advertised as 24 hour rides fall in a crack between racing (who wants to race for 24 hours straight? too long!) and randonneuring (who wants to race for 24 hours? completing 400 or 600 km within the time limit is strenuous enough!).

That said, do you have specific questions or comments about 24 hour rides? There may be some here who have participated, or might be interested.

gif4445

A year ago I did a 400k that took me just under 24 hours to complete. The last 90-100 wasn’t much fun, as I had to fight threw some lower back/leg issues. Intended to cut the ride short, but kept pedaling for some insane reason.

cb400bill

https://www.n24hc.org/

kingston 

I had a fleche planned for last spring, but it got corona'ed. Maybe next year.

Machka 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the two 24-hour Time Trials I've ridden. I wish there were some in Australia.

I also enjoyed the one Fleche I've ridden. We were all set to ride a second one in 2018, when Rowan had his accident. We haven't ridden long distances since.

StephenH

Are you meaning 24-hour races (of which there are a number)? Or 24-hour randonneuring events?
For the races, www.ultracycling.com.
For randonneuring, the only specifically 24 hour events are the fleche and the arrow. They tend to be leisurely events, as if you use the minimum event distance in "normal" terrain, it's not much of a challenge to cover it.
Any randonneuringe event over 400k has more than 24 hours allotted to it.
Personally, I'm not too keen on the general 24-hour idea. Theoretically, if you get lots of sleep prior, you should be able to go 24 hours okay. But the once or twice I've done a 24-hour race, the race started at 6:00 PM or so. "Great, I'll just sleep all afternoon and be awake all race!" I thought. Well, surprise surprise, I just wasn't the least bit sleepy in the afternoon, so by race time, I had been up since 5:00 AM, and I just wound up taking sleep breaks so I didn't kill myself.
And, I felt stupid taking sleep breaks on a 24 hour race. But one of those two times, we had taken a break and were headed back out on the tandem. We met a recumbent rider coming back (the wrong race direction) at about 10 mph. Turns out, he had been going great guns, went to sleep and had a slow-speed crash out there. No serious damage to him or bike, but still, not what you want.. After seeing that, I didn't feel so bad about making our sleep break.

downtube42

I found 24 hour event mentally harder than brevets. Riding faster doesn't mean finishing sooner. On a 400k, you can push the pace and be rewarded by finishing sooner. On a 24 hour race, you can push and push, but if it's over at 8am you're riding until 8am. I found that tough.

kingston 

The Natchez Trace 444 was last weekend. The fast guys finish that in around 24 hours, but it's not a 24 hour race per se.

StephenH

One tip I learned from a friend, by the way- "The key to 24 hour races is riding 24 hours. A lot of people go to 24 hour races and ride, say, 21 hours and stop."

adamrice 

I'm hoping to enter this event, which the organizers optimistically plan on holding.

joewein

I rode a Fleche last year (24 hours, 360+ km randonneuring) and greatly enjoyed it. I was invited to join the same team again this years (slightly different participants), but then came the pandemic and everything was cancelled or postponed. It will now take place the weekend after next.

The plan for a Fleche is basically the same for me as for a regular 400 km brevet: Stay up one day with (almost) no sleep, but get as much as possible before the ride. That means not just the day before but aim for 8 hours a night the week before and a very early night the night before a morning start. Move your daily cycle to make that easier, if you can.

On my last Fleche I rode with someone who had only had 3 hours of sleep before and he finished it on that. I could never do that.

downtube42

The randonneuring fleche is the most fun cycling event I've experienced. A good team makes the ride.

Richard Cranium

Me.

Hey grasshopper - hold your horses...... Me thinks you need to spend some time in the saddle before jumping to 24-hour events.

There is some risk to mindlessly trying to push for 24 hours - if you haven't been conditioned by years of regularly cycling. Knee injuries, neck and back and butt problems will often show up among those riders who may be very proficient at 30 or 40 mile distance but seldom spend "all day" in the saddle.

If you really want to see if you are 24 hr material go out ride for time not distance. A good test would be to plan for a ten-hour time trial - with the goal of the ride to be staying in the saddle for at least nine out of ten hours.

The last time I tried anything like this was in 2003 - Calvin's Challenge. I rode 250+ miles in twelve hours - never putting a foot down or stopping the entire ride. ( and all I got was the age group win)

Good luck - but use good sense.

rhm

I agree. Ive done the fléche four or five times and it is definitely my favorite randonneuring event.

But whatever it is, it is not a race.

joewein

A week from today I'll already be asleep at a cheap hotel, the night before the Fleche. We'll mostly be riding through an area where I've never cycled before, too far from here, and ride back towards where we all live.

Both before last year's Fleche and this year's we did a practice ride as part of a regular brevet (last year: 300 km, this year: 200 km) and that was great fun too.