Monarch of the Mountains: August 21, 2023

When I was at the Tour de Whitewater, I saw a brochure for a series of organized rides starting in Eganville, Ontario, in August.  The Tour de Bonnechere offered rides of 20 and 65 kms on the road, with another one of 60 kms on gravel but what interested me was the 100 Km "Monarch of the Mountains," which I overheard someone say was a very hard ride.

Looking up the course online, I did in fact see a reference to it being one of the most challenging rides in Ontario but I also found a GPS course of the route, which I was able to download.  With my experience of the Tour de Whitewater, I was not sure that I would want to pay again to ride by myself.  Admittedly, that ride had included lunch and two rest stops with drinks and snacks, but as I often do 100 km rides with some good climbing getting to and from Gatineau Park self-supported, I decided to do the route that way.

I sent a copy of the map and directions to Alec, my neighbour who does triathlons, and asked him if he wanted to join me. He would be available on Monday, August 21, when the weather looked promising, as he had taken the day off for other reasons.  He said we could go with his SUV, making handling the bikes easy, and I said I would be happy to buy him a meal in Eganville after the ride so all was good.  There are a few advantages besides saving the registration fee in that you can ride when the weather is most suitable and start the ride whenever you want.  Alec pointed out that he was not an early riser and with a 90 minute drive to Eganville leaving at 8 am would be fine.  An organized ride would also have a much earlier start time as I found at the Tour de Whitewater, which was a negative, but an event also has refreshment stops and as we discovered on this ride there is basically nothing en route.

I had checked a map of Eganville and found that there was a community arena, so hopefully we could use the showers there after the ride.  It turned out we couldn't but while we were able to park in the arena lot we saw it was right beside a small beach and there was a building for changing and outdoor showers so that would work.

The directions for the ride are quite straightforward as it is a big figure 8 and there just are not a lot of roads here.  We followed County Road 512 southwest for just over 20 kms.  The road was fairly quiet but there was some construction along the way and it was a relief to get past that.  Then we came to the Foymount Hill, which I experienced years ago during a randonneur ride and I recall as being quite hard.  It definitely is, climbing around 185 m in 2.2 kms, with maximum grade of 14%.The hamlet was once a listening post in the NORAD Pinetree Line during the Cold War but the base was decommissioned in 1972. There was a nice wide shoulder to ride on so traffic was not an issue but it was a slow grind.  My gears were a bit of a limiting factor but not as much as my weight as Alec is 15 kgs lighter so he flew up the climb.  Well, he was faster than me, anyway!

Reaching Foymount my GPS kept us on the course but in the wrong direction as we should have turned right onto Opeongo Road West but instead continued straight through on 512 until we reached County Road 66.  There was an absolutely marvelous descent on freshly-paved tarmac, which was such a pleasure that in the end we did not care we were going the wrong way around the loop.

There were plenty of up-and-down bits but the scenery was beautiful as we rode through the heavily forested countryside, with the odd farm and summer cottage and skirting along the edges of some lakes.  Turning onto Letterkenny Road (all the names in the area reflect Irish Catholic settlement), we discovered why this ride was considered one of the hardest in Ontario as there were some brutal (albeit short) climbs to deal with as we continued along this segment for 18 kms.

We reached the hamlet of Quadeville, which was the only settlement after Foymount, and reputed once to be close to the summer home of gangster Al Capone, which was very unlikely but is clearly something of a local legend.  We turned onto County Road 515, rolling northwards for 17 kms and reaching Foymount again.  Back on course, there were a few dips and climbs as we followed Opeongo Road West, which took us to McGrath Road after 13 kms.  This was a lot easier to ride as the road was flatter and descending and I felt quite invigorated and was able to push the pace a bit.  12 kms further and then we turned onto Highway 41N, which was the road we had driven in on, and this brought us soon back to Eganville, although this 4 kms was not very pleasant given the amount of traffic.

Back in Eganville we showered at the beach (cold water only but it was a warm day) and got changed. I had packed some cold water and that was good to have after the ride.  Then we had a very pleasant lunch at the Rio Tap & Grill, sitting outside and overlooking the Bonnechere River, before heading back to Ottawa.

The GPS course I had downloaded showed that we would be climbing 1100 m on the route and even though we did part of it backwards I was still astonished that in our 105 kms of riding we had actually seen nearly 1700 m of altitude gain.  But it was a great day out, with riding time of just over 4 1/4 hours and an average of 25 km/h.

Tour de Whitewater, July 15, 2023

With the Covid-19 pandemic basically killing all travel plans and the inertia that takes over when one is retired, I realized that it has been ages since I went riding anywhere outside of Ottawa, with the last major cycling trip being along the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2017!  Figuring that the least I could do was get to know this region a bit better, I discovered an event taking place west of Ottawa that was a reasonable drive away.  The Tour de Whitewater in Westmeath, Ontario, offered a number of different distances and so warranted a two hour drive to get there.

Of course, getting there turned out not to be as easy as I expected.  The Queensway in Ottawa, the main east-west highway, was closed as there has been major work going on in bridge reconstruction, so going that way was not an option.  Crossing the river into Quebec, there was a slow drag through Gatineau, getting every single stop light even though there was no traffic whatever at 5 o'clock in the morning, but then the road was quite pleasant and I let the Corvette off the throttle a bit.  There are very few bridges across the Ottawa River west of the city but there is a small two lane one behind a small hydroelectric plan at Portage du Fort.

 

The organizers had even put up a YouTube video showing the 100 km route which, while not looking exactly like the Swiss Alps, offered at least a chance to ride some new, and probably very quiet, rural roads.

I was directed to a good parking spot beside the local hockey arena as the volunteers were concerned that the Corvette was too low to get into the temporary lot they were using.  I registered inside and noted that the changing rooms were ideal for my quick-change into cycling gear.  I enjoyed a coffee and a donut and breakfast was available for those wanting it. I unpacked the bike (to the bemusement of several people who were surprised you could fit a bike into the back of a Corvette), got changed and joined the others getting ready at the start line.  I chatted with a lady from Orleans (east of Ottawa) who was wearing a jersey that indicated she had done a bike tour in Italy.

The organizers told me that they had 400 registrations, with one-quarter doing the 100 km route.  There was a group of younger riders on fast carbon bikes who were going to run a paceline from the way things looked.  It was to prove so as after the start at 8:00 am sharp I only saw them once as they passed in the opposite direction.  Slowly riding out with a big group, I looked around are realized we were all of a certain age, although I soon found myself riding beside someone in his 30s who was good company and quite proud of his new-to-him fancy carbon bicycle.  However, although I was riding a fairly relaxed pace, all those months of training in the Pain Cave were showing results as I pulled away easily on each climb and soon found myself alone.

The first part of the ride had some nice rolling climbs but I was surprised when at around 25 kms we came to Beachburg and the first rest stop.  I didn't see much point in stopping so just took a photo and headed onwards.

Although I had loaded the course onto my GPS unit, I was somewhat confused when I saw the fast people riding back along the road I was going down, not realizing that the course ran down one road and then up another that was parallel.  So after reading down the long straight and rather boring Queen's Line Road, I turned right at Chenaux, following Chenaux Road east but then got confused at Magnesium Road, which led me to Mine View Road.  At this point, I could not figure out the way so just rurned around and went back--realizing later that if I followed Mine View Road for its full length south I would have been on the right track!  

No matter.  After the long drag back along Queen's Line Road, I turned right onto Foresters Falls Road, which soon enough took me to the small town of, yes, Foresters Falls.  Here was the second rest stop and it was very busy.  I took a short break but really should have joined the long line and filled up my water bottles but my Tommasini attracted a great deal of attention and being the proud owner I had to answer lots of questions.  

The next stretch along the Grants Settlement Road was the best part of the ride, going for around 15 kms alongside the Ottawa River.  There were some sharp little climbs and I paid the price as I seized up with bad legs cramps.  Luckily I had brought my Hot Shot stuff with me and that took care of the problem right away, although it tastes pretty terrible.  I continued along the edge of the river, rejoining Lapasse Road, which was part of the outgoing route, then turned left onto Gore Line, which brought me on a very straight course back to the finish line in Westmeath.  Of course, the few little hills on this road were enough to start the cramps up again but I persevered.

After getting changed and packing up the bike, I enjoyed a simple lunch in the arena, and was particularly happy to have something to drink, going through several bottles of water.  It had not been a very hot day or very windy but I was definitely dehydrated.  

Returning to Ottawa, this time I drove along the Trans-Canada Highway, stopping at friends in Carp where I had arranged to use their shower as I knew it would be a long trip home.  In fact it was pretty bad as all the alternative routes to the Queensway were completely snarled up and instead of the usual hour to get home from Carp it took closer to two and a half.  But arrive I did in the end.

The ride itself (except for getting a bit lost and having cramps) went well enough.  I ended up adding 12 kms to the official route, making my Tour de Whitewater 116 kms long and there was around 500 m of climbing involved.  I was surprised that my average speed was 29 km/h since I rode almost the entire course alone but the Tommasini is such a pleasure to ride quickly once you find a rhythm.   It would have been nice to work with a group but I could not find anyone riding at my speed so perhaps my next ride does not need to be an official event I have to pay for since I ride alone anyway!  At the arena I did see a flyer for a ride near Eganville, the Tour de Bonnechere, in August and that looked interesting as I heard someone say how hard it was!

Steve Bauer's Yellow Jersey

Steve Bauer
photo by Pedalmag

A few years ago, shortly after I discovered E-Bay, I located a pristine Team7-Eleven jersey and sent it off to the Niagara Peninsula to see if I could get it signed by Steve Bauer, who remains Canada's most successful stage racer.  He was kind enough to autograph it for me.  Although Alex Stieda was the first Canadian to don the Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France, Steve Bauer had the yellow jersey for four days at the Tour for 1988, and for nine times in 1990.  Now I see that he is, in addition to his bike touring company, the Directeur Sportif of a Canadian professional team, SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy.  (As an aside, I always thought it was weird when this "presented by" thing appeared.  I think it was Team US Postal Service presented by Berry Floors where this ridiculous naming convention first appeared.  What would be wrong with SpiderTech-Planet Energy,  like Garmin-Transitions, or HTC-Columbia?).  To raise money for the team, Mr. Bauer auctioned off the last of the yellow jerseys he won and it raised the goodly sum of $23,500. 

There are recent news stories that Jim Balsillie, one of the founders of Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the omnipresent BlackBerry, is a keen cyclist and wants to support Canadian cycling and this team in particular.  As the 327th richest person in the world, let's hope he comes through with some money so Steve doesn't have to go through those remaining 12 jerseys.

N.B.  The single most ridiculous name for a pro cycling team has to be this Italian one:
Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli