Today's ride profileI decided to roll out early again this morning and make up for my limited weekend riding by going on the Ottawa Bicycle Club's Sunday ride. When I got to the Billings Bridge Plaza parking lot, there were, it seemed, a lot fewer people than usual although the weather was ideal. Perhaps a lot of people were still burned out from Rideau Lakes last weekend, or else they were getting ready to race the criterium on Preston Street this afternoon.
As usual we divided into subgroups and the offer today was a short ride to Manotick, a longer one (78 km) to Kars and a more serious distance of 151 kms to Merrickville. As tempted as I was by the Merrickville trip, this would bring me to 171 kms for the day, including my ride to Billings Bridge and back, or the equivalent of the first day of Rideau Lakes. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, so I decided to do the Kars trip.
I was fortunate in that a Touring 2.5 group got established under the leadership of Larry, and joining us were Alex and his father Jules, Frank, Mike and a few others who subsequently split off from the group. We set a surprisingly fast pace leaving the city, potholed streets and all, and soon came to Manotick. A left turn on Main Street and then we were in Kars' General Store.
Larry suggested that we add a few kilometers by going through Metcalfe and we all agreed. The trip back went very well as our paceline worked steadily, averaging around 32 km/h for 90 kms.
After returning to Billings Bridge Plaza, I decided to ride up to Preston Street to see where the crit would take place. Col. By Drive was closed to traffic, as usual on Sundays until 1 pm and I scooted up to Carleton University pretty fast, and walked the bike over the lock on the canal before following the bike path around Dow's Lake. Coming to Little Italy, Preston Street was blocked for cars and a lot of people were warming up for the race. I ran into Andrew Davy at the Prescott and wished him luck in his race before retracing my route to Dow's Lake and coming home by following the bike path along the canal. Total distance for the ride: 120 kms.
My plan is to do some more time trial training today but it looks like thunderstorms this afternoon. Iced tea until then!
3 comments:
Excellent ride Leslie. Alex and I enjoyed meeting you as well. I came home to find a fathers day gift. A copy of "Blazing Saddles" the "cruel and unusual history of the Tour De France" by Matt Rendell who also wrote The death of Marco Pantani that I have just finished.
I have been looking at the http://www.veloechappe.com/ for next year..but your trip sounds much more interesting. We would love to see the iteniary.
Cheers,
Jules et Alex
Jules, send your e-mail address to me at l_reissner@hotmail.com and I will send you some info on the Tour d'Enfer. As well, you can check out the Cheat Mountain Challenge in West Virginia here: http://www.wvcf.org/cmc/
As mentioned, we are looking at going down on Friday, August 15, doing the ride the next day and heading back on Sunday.
Sounds like a great Sunday ride Leslie. Did you get my email last week about the training question I had for you? I was wondering if it didn't make it because I hadn't heard back.
I had a good long ride for Father's Day. I was solo for the first 60 and then met up with a friend for another 34. The solo part was a good chance for me to think about by wonderful family.
By the way- Is your iced tea like the iced tea served here in NC? It's served so sweet here I have to ask for a half-n-half. Part sweetened... part unsweetened. Cheers!
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