There are times when less is more, smaller is better and the stripped down beats a more complicated version.
The Fleche Buffoon on the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border brings that idea to life in marvelous fashion.
The Fleche, a tribute to the Ardennes Spring Classics, has everything needed for a memorable day — a great and well-marked course, a lone food station by a windmill, around 150 friendly riders, and post-ride pour-your-own beer from the back of a pick-up in a church parking lot.
As James Flaherty, who I met on the ride, put it: "It's like the feeling of having a meal that's just the right amount. Not so much that you feel bloated - perfect."
The approach is proving popular as entrants have increased by significant percentages each year and organizer Brian Ignatin was clearly happy with the growth.
The first edition in late March 2011 saw 57 register, but rather fewer ride due to rain. After a two-year gap the event returned in mid-April 2014 with 90 registered. Around the same number signed up in 2015 when the ride shifted its base of operations to the current home, St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in New Hope, PA.
This year saw a jump in numbers to around 150 and at that rate of growth the Fleche Buffoon may well hit its cap of 200 in 2017.
Whit Yost, former Directeur Sportif of the Mercury Pro Team, contributor to Bicycling Magazine, and founder of the Pave blog, came up with the name as a play on Fleche Wallonne and the Fools Classic.
Rune is about 40lbs lighter than me and springs away whenever the tarmac tilts upward. I like to think I can hold my own on the flatter stuff though and I punch a hole big enough that he can coast along on my wheel when I'm up front.
In his absence, I was hoping I would not spend too much time riding solo given the relatively small field.
Much like the Ardennes Classics, one thing the Fleche Buffoon does not have less of is short and sharp wooded climbs.
It was a stone cold (200lbs) certainty I would not be able to hang with the fittest riders in the lead pack once the climbing started and the Fleche's first incline (of 14 - gulp! - adding up to over 6,000 feet) came on Comfort Road after just three miles.
The skinny clockwise loop runs north and slightly west along the Delaware River that also serves as the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The flat sections of the course, such as there were, come alongside the Delaware with Brian using the bluffs and valleys either side of the river to provide the up and down.
I held on with the front pack until the significantly greater challenge of Fretz Mill Road after nine miles. No mucking about here with a very steep ramp early in the climb that sent the HR rocketing and had back wheels slipping on sections of loose surface as people got out of the saddle.
The Tohickon, Stover and Clay Ridge Road climbs followed in quick succession over the next 10 miles before a reviving run along the river where I found myself leading a line of half a dozen before a sharp left that pointed us directly to a covered bridge at the base of the river bluffs.
The guy next to me asked what distance I had thus far and then said that if that was the case there was a climb coming up.
He wasn't wrong.
Uhlerstown Hill Road is 11% average over 4/10ths of a mile with the steepest section nudging 25% according to Strava and that seems about right to me.
I managed to ride up — determined to not allow Brian to force me off the bike for a second time after the Oktoberfest Ride — but it was a close-run thing. At one point I wondered "can the heart fracture ribs from the inside?".
Others succumbed and waddled up in their cleats, including the rider who'd asked the distance. He had jumped off pretty early on after sprinting up the first section. It was only after he caught up with me a couple of miles on that I realized he was on a single-speed ......
We rode together for a while and crossed the Delaware to New Jersey at Milford, where we caught a knot of riders (probably because they had walked their bikes on the bridge as they were meant to while we had cruised over in blissful ignorance — sorry). This is where, 33 miles in, I caught the tail of the five-strong Friends in Fitness train.
They were good enough to drag me round with them and it was a relief to see them regrouping after every climb as I came over the top with the back marker in white and green. I held on tight all the way to the finish back in New Hope.
We crossed back to Pennsylvania over the Raven Rock pedestrian bridge at 67 miles and from there it was one last sharp climb away from the river up the Armitage Wall, a few steps higher and then down to the finish.
No razzamatazz, no medals or official times - just a check-in, a pint of a very nice Rubber Soul Brewing Session IPA in the parking lot, a few introductions to and chats with my companions on the road and a heartfelt thanks to the Friends in Fitness gang.
This Fleche hits the bullseye.
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