Winnipeg bike ride
Today the wind seemed to beckon us to do an impromptu ride to Winnipeg. Ben, Jeff and Shaun were the first to leave town. Curt and I decided to give chase and rode a hard steady "sprint" and, (with a lot of help from a sweet tail wind), managed to catch up with them in St. Jean where Jeff's sister offered a wonderful spread of sandwiches, tomato soup and peach juice. After resting our legs and re-hydrating, we set off again to Morris. In Morris, our group split ways and Jeff and Shaun mentally prepared themselves for the long hard ride back home against wind. Ben, Curt and I continued to enjoy the winds steady push to Winnipeg. There were times that it seemed that the wind was pushing us faster than we could pedal! Sweet! We took a little break to replace Ben's inner tube after unsuccessfully navigating some of the 75s many potholes and drop offs. We reached Winnipeg after 3 h 6 min of riding time, average speed 33 km/h, top speed 60 km/h.
Just to make the day more sweet, we bumped into Albert at the McDonalds on Pembina who had also decided to make the bike trek to Winnipeg. Good times!
CK
Well done. Sounds like fun. How did you get back to town? JS
ReplyDeleteAddendum to “Winnipeg Bike Ride”
ReplyDeleteThe Morris Double Back
Unable to secure a ride back from The ‘Peg, Jeff and I continued along with the original plan to do a 100 (a hunnert in A-Town) k going from Altona to Morris and back to Altona. After the trio of Ben, Charles and Curt continued north to Winnipeg, Jeff and I made the stereotypical U-turn on the Morris strip to have some pie and ice cream at the Classic Diner. Environment Canada had forecast that the wind would ease in the early evening. It was our intent to wait it out a while in Morris and head south under more favourable conditions. But after only 30 minutes or so, still pumped up on the joy and ease of the north leg and probably a little creeped out at the thought of spending more time in Morris than was necessary, we headed back south on the second half of the trip.
Not only did the wind not die down, but according to Environment Canada, it actually picked up to a steady 35-40ish km/hr, with 50 k WSW gusts to boot. The easy ride in honeymoon was over and it was time to push. We set our course towards the various visible landmarks going around 24 km/hr and hopped from Morris to St. Jean and St. Jean to Letellier, with a few short gootch/heart/lung/cigarette breaks in between. In Letellier we stopped for some mozza burgers and cigarettes, which gave us just enough time for us to convince ourselves that the wind had died somewhat and had changed direction in our favour slightly (where in fact the opposite was true). Full of burger and resolve we headed directly into the wind for the last 20 k of the trip. Just before entering the Rhineland, we stopped to take a leak, whereupon Curt, Charles and the gang pulled up in the car. They regaled us with stories of 60 k sprints and reassured Jeff and I that our 20ish k pace against the 50k gusts was a little better than they’d expected. We finished off the last kms of the metric century in Altona with a final sprint. The ride was totally awesome.
Incidentally, this was my and Ben’s first 100k ride and was Jeff’s second – about a year into the founding of ABES. ABES is awesome. Bikes are awesome.
Cheers,
Shaun
Hey Shaun, It was my first Century ride as well!
ReplyDeleteGood times!
CK
Holy Cro-Moly! I had no idea. I'd figured you'd whip these off on a regular basis. Congrats on the milestone.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with the amount of road riding people are doing these days. Aside from these rides, Bruce biked to Moose Lake on Friday, Duke has been riding to Rosetown and back, and I'm sure there's more.
ReplyDeleteI give Shaun and Jeff the super studs award for biking back in that wind. I'd say that effort merit the award. 100 the hard way. Way to go.
Bikes are awesome,
JS