Photo: No prizes for guessing where I was at 01:30 on Easter Saturday

“Ciao Colin, come stai? Sei libero a Pasqua” So began the phone call from Beppe. “Do you fancy riding in the first Flèche National La Florence organised by Audax Randonneur Italia on Easter Friday and Saturday?” I’d read about it so I knew what I’d be letting myself in for. I told him I’d need to check my diary but I knew before the end of the call that I’d be in.

A week later four of us (Beppe, Pino, Stefano (Steve) and I) were discussing over pizza our plan to ride for 24 hours non stop, a minimum of 360km, finishing in Florence. Pino would design a course of 400km. I would book the train tickets home. Beppe came up with the name: “Opossum dall’Adriatico”. We had no idea why he chose that name but we elected him to be our Captain anyway.

It’s a 24 hour event but the important bit is 22 hours into the ride. To stop riders going too hard and arriving at the finish with hours to spare the rules of a Flèche Nationales state that we all had to stop 22 hours in, take a photo and get a café receipt at least 25km from the finish. As we started at 08:00 on the Friday then we stopped at our pre chosen café in Signa at 07:59, 33 km from the finish. Perfect timing I thought. We’d finish with loads of time in hand. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Over the years I’ve learnt that Italians and good time keeping rarely go together so arriving at the café bang on time was a bit of a surprise. The previous day we’d arrived at Beppe’s place, a few minutes ride from the start, an hour before our 08:00 departure. He and his wife laid on a wonderful breakfast. That was the problem. Eating with friends/family takes a long time in Italy. Despite the constant reminder from the Anglo Saxon in the team we had to leave the breakfast table in a hurry and ride swiftly to the start. We arrived with two minutes to spare before a 24 hour ride. A compulsory team photo had to be sent to the organiser from our chosen starting location. In our case the Arco di Augosto in Rimini. Amazingly we started at 08:01.

Teams for this event were a minimum of three and a maximum of five riders. A couple of weeks before the event Jana asked to join us. I joked that she’d withdraw her request when she found out what were were called.

The 128km to Bologna (control point) with a supporting side/tailwind went quickly as the four gents in the team shared the workload at the front as we passed through Cesenatico (Marco Pantani Museum) Forli, Faenza (control) and Imola:

The big challenge of the ride was in Bologna. The San Luca climb. Alongside the longest portico in the world it’s only 1.8km but it’s steep. At one point my computer was reporting a 25.8% incline. I felt the front wheel lifting off the ground so leant forward to stop me doing a wheelie and falling off.

The thing about climbing is that it’s very different the second time around. The first time it’s difficult to know what’s coming no matter how much research you’ve done. The second and subsequent times are much easier as you know how hard you can push. I finished my first attempt last year in 16m 18s. I gave it some beans this time and got up nearly 3 minutes quicker in 13m 25s (second fastest in our group behind our Captain). Just to put that into context the current Strava King of the Mountain is professional rider Simon Yates at 5m 25s.

Even to celebrate a strong climb I can’t drink alcohol on these long rides but no problem for Steve:

Our next climb would take us to the highest point of the ride. 780m above sea level. The very good news was that we had 80km to do it in so nice and easy climbing with just a few short ramps along the way.

During this climb my hiatus hernia started to remind me that I still haven’t had any treatment for it. Diagnosed a few years ago I was given the advice that I could just live with it or have an operation to try and fix it. So far I’ve gone for the live with it option. When this happens the best course of treatment is a Gaviscon tablet, followed by something dairy. The good thing about living in Italy is that I can find ice cream even in a thermal spa town.

Over the boarder into Tuscany we hit the top of the climb at 20:00. Half the time gone, a little over half the distance. We needed to gain a little more time to allow for dinner. At 5° ambient temperature the descent was bitterly cold but we had an incentive. At the bottom was our next control Pistoia, and another Italian classic:

Refuelled with pizza we headed into the night and into the wind. Four of us sharing the work at the front through the night to Lucca and Pisa.

From Pisa we had 67km to get to our 22 hour control point, which as you know we just made it.

That left us 33km to do in two hours. I thought it would be a breeze. Traffic lights, tourists, stopping for photos slowed us down. Time was ticking by as we approached the final climb. We had 15 minutes to complete the last 3km to Piazzale Michelangelo 80m above the city. I felt strong and climbed steadily. Despite being nervous about the time, at 1km to go I slowed so that Beppe, Pino and Steve could catch up and we could finish together.

I stopped my Wahoo at 23:59:21. We’d done it. 413km.

We’d started 1 minute late, arrived at the 22 hour control with one minute to go and finished with 39 seconds to spare. Who said Italians aren’t good at timekeeping!

Out of 25 teams we came equal 14th, which I’m delighted with as when we met for pizza to discuss the event we had no intention of competing for the podium, just enjoy the challenge, which we did. Considering that Pino was born in March 1951 then that’s a remarkable result. I don’t know many 73 year olds that can ride 400km in 24 hours without sleep. We celebrated with a beer.

After lunch we succumbed to the inivitable:

My thanks to my team mates for an amzing experience but special thanks to Donato Agostini and all the volunteers from La Polisportiva Casellina di Scandicci for organising such a great event. Donato worked tirelessly organising and answering so many questions from the riders. I don’t think he slept for more than 24 hours either as he received the photos from the team Captains from our selected control points throughout the night. Bravi ragazzi e grazie mille.