Flahutes Terrain of Choice

Many say bikes aren't made to ride on anything but smooth pavement.  Work with this!!

What we're talking about here, are "Flahutes," known in the cycling world as the toughest riders in the fiercest races. To put it another way, if your cycling spirit dampens at the sight of rain, you sure as shit ain't a Flahute.

Flahute racers focus on such classics as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, those tough northern classics filled with some of the worst roads and weather imaginable in bike racing. The only thing tougher than the races themselves are the guys that win them. They are the real Flahutes.

French speaking journalists nicknamed their Flemish neighbors Flahutes, a term of endearment given to riders raised amidst the rough conditions of industrial northern Europe after World War II. They came to bike racing well-trained in hardship. "The Flahutes were a generation of riders who learned to suffer long before they ever got on a bike," explains Briek Schotte, the granddaddy of the Flahutes. "Kids had the choice of working in the fields or riding their bikes. I picked beets for ten hours a day when I was a kid. Believe me, I knew how to suffer long before I raced bikes."

                                                                Definition by Flahutes website