Rando Rambles

This ride report is co-narrated by Fred Chagnon and JungAh Hong, two randonneurs representing each of the participating teams in the 2023 Randonneurs Ontario Fleche Event. In this event, two teams departed on the evening of Friday May 19th, and rode for 24 hours until the evening of Saturday May 20th.  Though coming from opposite directions, the two teams would aim to meet at the predetermined destination of Belleville, Ontario.  =-=-=-=-=- The Teams - =-=-=-=-= Fred, Marc, Brenda, Tim, Dave, Rob Team: Les Quintuplets de Belleville (Huron) Members: Fred Chagnon, Dave Cole, Marc Deshaies (SAG), Tim O'Callahan, Brenda Wiechers-Maxwell, Rob Thibert Starting Point: London, Ontario FRED : Les Quintuplets de Belleville  was a Huron Chapter team jointly spear-headed by Tim O'Callahan and Brenda Wiechers-Maxwell. It was mostly a reprise of their 2022 team Dropping Ants , but with a few notable changes. Dave Cole was a shoe-in to return to the team, but Darcy Haggith and John Kie...

Route / Event:   The Great Canada Bicycle Tour  / 600km Brevet [  Ride Log  ] Premise of the ride: The Great Canada Bicycle Tour was the brainchild of John Cumming, a fellow randonneur from the London area in Ontario. In his blog , posted in the spring of the year prior, John noted that 2023 would mark the 140th anniversary of a bicycle ride that took place in 1883, by 40 "practiced gentlemen" on their high-wheel bikes. These men were members of a cycling club from Chicago who devised a tour through south-western Ontario to demonstrate the effectiveness of the bicycle as a form of transportation used for long-distance purposes. In the pre-car era of the late 1800s, horse-drawn carriage would have been the only mode of transport used for such endeavors.  Using articles from the archives of The Wheelman magazine, written both before, and after the ride, John pieced together the route that these gentlemen rode, the result of which was a 600km point to point journey...