Went looking for the anarchists...no luck

I was on a course today,,,right beside the Don, so I thought...why not do a Don ride, and then checkout the setup for the G20, maybe take in a few protests
The Don was great, dropped in at Leslie & Eglington...took the flats down to pottery the the paved trail down to lakeshore..graffiti...

interesting....lots of police, correction...so freakin many police, the barriers, sort of like watching some movie where Toronto has been turned into a police state..more police than people.

I rode by the waterfront..no anarchists, I road up bay street, no anarchists, front street...again...no anarchists, just some people walking, and police everywhere, up to city hall...where are these damn protesters!  Okay...ride up to Queens park...surely there must be some protesters there....nada, just some peace lovin hippies.

Okay, so no clashes today.  I decide to go see the roadside memorial that was setup for Darcy Allan Sheppard (earlier today I ran into Michael Bryant...like a uniform he was wearing one of his pretty suits, with a purple tie).  There was no memorial, no fire hydrant, no trees -everything has been removed in advance of the summit.

Headed back to the Don...what a great place to ride....but what's up with the bobcats?  Is the ridge trail being turned into a multi-use trail?

Later...no Durham hammer ride tomorrow as I will be at a TRCA meeting at Dagmar...dealing with the GlenMajor/Walkers Woods lands (now called East Duffins Headwaters)...Click here for more info

Final ride Stats

39.4km

Epic Sat. ride from Courtice

On an invite from Mr. John Connors I headed out to Courtice this morning for what was promised to be an epic, hilly ride.  Met Pierre & Art at Johns... then picked up Geoff on the way.  Beautiful roads out that way...north of Bowmanville & Newcastle.  I new we were really "east" when we went over 35/115...along the way we picked up a couple other riders (Chris & Anne...good company).
The hills were a blast we me "determined" to drop Geoff...(he he I thought...he gave me a hard time...beat me up the hills on Thurs....but today, I have gears, I will conquer!) Ha! it was

not to be...Geoff is the king of the mountains....We raced up a couple hills, and held together  - along with John.

  Here's Geoff moments after finishing the Starkville climb...looking relaxed (I however was gasping for air, heart pumping, trying desperately to get oxygenated blood to the legs)

John at the top of Starkville...

I snapped this photo just before hitting the climb... John...in form...

This was an epic ride, almost 3, 000 feet of climbing over 84km at a good pace, very little traffic, good asphalt...tiny bit of rain at the end to make it interesting - and I was ready for the end.

Then finish up at Casa John's with a couple cold beers & snacks!  Thank you

One other note:  Got a good hunger on on the way home...came up Markham road...eyes peeled for a roti shop..even better...found this place.  Food was possibly the best Indian I have ever enjoyed.

Durham hammer

Good ride on Sunday...Headed out to Durham with Mark where we met up with Louis, Martin, and Toby.



The call I got from Louis on Sat. afternoon said it all..."Hey Tom I want to do an endurance ride, 60km, no stopping" Nice!
 From the main parking we headed right over to GM/WW, and then over to the Wilder property, down to the Brock track - really nice change up. Mark & Martin took a left to start heading back, and Toby, Louis and me made our way over to three rocks (all of us on single speeds)...the plan was to climb the back of dagmar (biggest, baddest hill in the area) once or twice. I had been leading the group today, and fully expected to get passed on this climb...it didn't happen? hmmm is Louis having an off day, or am I getting stronger?

We all agreed that one climb of this hill was good enough, and we started to make our way back to Durham...this is a good 10k return with lots of ups & downs,,,I kept the pace high...and did my best to drop both of them....they were not having it...Toby always on my wheel, Louis maybe 20 meters back.

Louis ended up breaking a chain on one of the steep little ups, and had to walk out to the road. Me & Toby decided to race to the top..about 1.5k with overall 40 meters of climbing...we took off, climbing a bunch of switchbacks...Toby right on my wheel...once we got to the double track, he pulled out and passed me :( f*$%# anyways...(I love racing this section)...I relaxed my upper body and just concentrated on moving the cranks over faster, trying to catch him. In the end, he beat me to the top by about 100 feet...I was gaining on him, and I would like to believe if there was another 500 feet of distance I would have caught him..but who knows..although he said he was tired..he may have had more in the tank. Damn! :)

All in all, 34k, just over half what we planned...but the intensity more than made up for it. My legs are feeling it today.
Click here for our route..no HR data

Tues night Albion races

I got out to Albion last night for the Tuesday night races...great series, and a great bunch of people racing.

This type of racing is so different from the long endurance races.  Think three 5km laps all out, gasping for air, quads feeling like they are going to explode.
Summary...a 5k warm up...then
Bang!
15km
58 minutes
Ave h/r 154 Max 170
Ave speed 15.3km/h
Finish invigorated on a high
body starts to shutdown  on the 1 hr drive home
Asleep by 10.15

Mohican 100 report

Summary:
Conditions were terrible
Completed in 12hrs8min - 19th of 33 singlespeed starters

Rain - lots of it.  I was watching the weather closely leading up to the race, and it had rained pretty much every day last week, rolling in to the area on Friday it rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain - most cars stopping on the highway.  It stopped for a while, long enough for me to register and get the tent set up.  It was an early night to bed, as race start was 7am.

It rained overnight - a lot.

Lined up with 600 starters - and it was't raining ....

We headed out of town up a long hill on a paved road, felt good, single speed gearing felt great (32x19 on the 29r), had to remind myself that this is a hundred mile race, take it easy, onto some dirt roads, then down a mud trail...slick slippery.

Before long we were into the Mohican MTB trails...we covered something like 35k of these trails...very cool, bench cut switch backs..technical rock gardens, would be fantastic riding if it wasn't covered in 2" - 4" of mud.  The mud got worse and there were lots of hike a bike sections...seemed like a lot of people were having chain suck issues (again, happy for the SS).

I think it took me about 5 hours to reach the aid station #2 - the 34 mile mark.  Crazy. Things did pick up after this...there were some dirt road sections, some country lanes....and climbs there were some crazy climbs that went on and on that would have been tough to walk in good conditions...add the mud and a bike to push.  Did I mention steam crossings?  Swollen streams 2-3 feet deep.

Here are a couple shots I took while pushing the bike up a dirt road  - I promise I wasn't tilting the camera...it really was that steep :)

Anyways...at this point I had been all over the map mentally...quit at the next aid station, I'm not having fun...I don't want to quit etc.  Well I came to aid station 3, mile 46.  This is where the 100 kilometer racers start to head back.  There was a big sign showing  <-100km  100m->. Decision time. Coming into the station I was close to bonking (last section was a ride across soaked grassy fields..just sucking the power out of the legs) I was getting encouragement from a rider behind me, (don't bale...do it!).  I pulled in to the aid station, popped a couple ibuprofens, and ate a PB&J mmm....*

I took a few minutes and watched what the other racers were doing...waited to see anyone take the 100 mile direction (a long long climb up a grassy hill).  I saw a singlespeeder head up the hill, and thought..what the hell, give it a go.

So climb, push bike, controlled slide down hill, climb push bike... fun...feeling good on the climbs again.  Then some road section, and the skies open up...rain..biblical rain.. I hit the rail trail (10 or 12 miles, gradual up hill) and it is a river...I am riding uphill into this river averaging 3" deep, with sections over 1 foot deep.  During this time I did not see one other rider...I just put my head down and turned over the cranks...being on the SS, I was concerned about getting caught/passed by geared riders (strange..at this point I am only trying to finish the race, and I am still thinking about passing/being passed).  At one point with the rain raging around me (amazing thing is it felt good at first...got all the mud washed off me) I hear a siren - loud.  Really Really loud, like something is going to run me down....I found out later this was the tornado warning.

Before hitting checkpoint 4 (yes, it was a long 26 miles between 3 & 4) I got caught by a couple other riders..one of them was Doug from Syracuse ...he passed me, I passed him, and in the end we ended up working together on the road sections, and just generally chatting, his positive attitude was infectious.

At Aid station 4 it was 28 miles to the end and "only" another 4,000 feet or so of climbing - the rain had stopped, but  the damage was done...the singletrack was 4" deep mud.  Lots of push bike - and the final 6 miles of the race was single track. The final 1 or 2 miles was mostly downhill singletrack switchbacks, rock gardens just trying to keep the bike upright. One final stream crossing and we were at the finish line..

...the beer glass that the finishers get...was filled with beer a few times after the race.

In closing...this was a "mental" race, the decision to keep going.  I am glad I completed it, and the feeling afterwards was really really good. I am already thinking about doing the Wilderness 101  Cleaned up and back at the campsite with my feet up listening to Tom Petty's Highway Companion, enjoying a glass of wine. Cool.
btw...it rained overnight again.
I cannot get over the results of the top people..the top singlespeeder finished almost 4 hours before me...at the same time it looks like half of the 250 registered entries in the 100 mile either dnf'ed or dns.
Full race results are here...http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-2-mohican-100-ne/results


My race details are here

*Yes the aid stations were really well stocked pb&j, bananas, Heed, gels, cookies etc.  The volunteers were truly amazing - so many people .. marshaling, working the aid stations - in some miserable weather, and everyone of them that I met had a smile and words of encouragement.

4 days until the Mohican 100

Friday I am heading down to a place called Loudonville, Ohio to take part in a  100 mile mountain bike race on Saturday.
So this week I am preoccupied with drop bags, tire choices, remembering my passport etc.
As for riding....I am going to take it very easy, a light spin tonight and then again tomorrow.
Last week's riding has set me up well - Joyride on Tuesday, skinnys & Jumps, Thursday hammer ride with buddies at Durham (actually....this ride really knocked to snot out of me....Geoff was out with us (work has meant he can't join us often)....anyways between Alan (way to fast) and Geoff the pace was higher than ever...with me and Geoff racing up the final set of climbs...me in front of Geoff...him passing me and opening a 200 foot gap...then me just relaxing the upper body and moving all energy into spinning the cranks...catching him on the final climb and finishing 100 feet up on him.  Took everything I had.  Love those rides.  Saturday was planning on doing 60 or 70k mtn bike ride..but I learned a good lesson..I hadn't recovered my depleted reserves from Thursday, so I managed 38k with 3200 feet of climbing (went for every hill I could find including the back side of Dagmar).  Sunday was a quick, hard 45k road ride with Mark & Martin.