Team Events
Team Events

The San Francisco Randonneurs organize different Randonneuring Team Events, the Fleche, The Dart and the Dart Populaire. On the day of the team event, multiple teams of 3 to 5 members* ride a one-way route of a minimum distance in a preset number of hours, with all teams converging on a common finish location where we usually share a meal. The goal is to finish the route in exactly the required number of hours; i.e. teams pace themselves so as not to arrive at the finish before the time limit.

EventMinumum DistanceTime Limit# Team Members*
Fleche 360k 24 hrs 3 to 5
Dart 200k 13.5 hrs 3 to 5
Dart Populaire 120k 8 hrs 3 to 5

(* a member is a bicycle with one or more riders, so a tandem or triple counts as one team member.)

  • Riders form a team, design a route, and choose a captain, then have the captain contact the SFR Dart/Fleche Coordinator who sends the registration materials and payment info, and work with them to get the route approved.
  • Teams start at similar times (or staggered if more than one team has the same start location) Start times are assigned by the organizer based on how many teams are registered.
  • Riders do not need to be RUSA members to ride in a Fleche, Dart or Dart Populaire.
  • The Fleche, Dart and Dart Populaire are accepted as Team Events for RUSA awards which require a Team Event.
  • It is encouraged to have teams with members of different capabilities, new and seasoned randonneurs/euses.
  • In order to use a route created by another rider, teams should contact the route author and ask for permission to use their route. Many route authors use the same route more than once. The Fleche/Dart coordinator can help you find out who the author of a route is. We plan to offer a Team Event Route Archive in the future.
  • A critical part of successfully completing a team event is to use a route that can be completed by all team members within the time limit. When designing a new route or using an existing route from a previous event, team captains should use as base for speed/time calculations the pace the slowest rider in the team can comfortably maintain.

Team Events Rules
General team event information from RUSA
Fleche rules
Dart rules
Dart Populaire rules

Team Events Cuesheet Templates
To help you plan your route, we are providing two slightly different cuesheet templates used by previous teams:
All Mixed Up Team cuesheet Sample
Oblio's Dog Team cuesheet Sample

To use the templates simply replace your route directions and distances and the average speed for every given segment. Pay special attention to the column for Time of Day at every single instruction, it is calculated using the average speed (in miles per hour) A good starting point is 13.5 average mph for all segments. However make sure to account for slower average speed on hills and faster speeds on descends. The average speed used should be that of the slowest rider on your team.
Please do not send questions about the excel formulas to us, try sending your question to the SFR mailing list.