My Ride

I am incredibly late in writing up this trip because it is now Nov 2 and this trip was taken on Oct 8. I was trying to do so much on this trip and the fact that I was staying with people I didn’t have many chances to hide in a corner and write like I do when I am camping.

I was much happier with my packing job of the bike this trip than when I shipped it to Kelowna this past summer. I was very nervous about the flight, if I was going to get any sleep before trying to ride the course. Rob gave me a ride to the airport and we had planned on packing the car and then coming back upstairs so he could study some more but when we put the bike box in the car it wouldn’t go all the way in. So I was at the airport very early, which is good with me. I boarded the plane and got an Isle seat with and old couple. Good thing you can hear much once the engines start up because the lady could natter on and on.

We landed in Hamilton and I wasn’t the only one flying with a bike there was a guy that had his bike in a bag. If I am flying more that might be an idea. I ended up putting the bike together next to the security office, one lady officer stopped to chat with me about what I was doing and where I could get rid of the box. She seemed annoyed that I was OK with leaving my stuff for a few moments at the airport. I mean at 5am not too many evil people are awake!

I started riding and it was warmer than I expected for some reason. The road was not very busy but there was lots of gravel in the shoulder. I didn’t do the route I had planned on because there was a lack of streetlights off the main drag. I knew that I had gotten to the course when I saw all the barricades stacked on the sidewalk. It was 12Km in 36 min to get to the course.

My first leg was to go down towards Claremont access it was a nice downhill run it was definitely bigger than the Calgary valley climb. I got to the bottom of the hill and because of some one ways I didn’t stay on course. I also had some hecklers leaning out their car window. Next thing I know I am climbing back up the hill. It was fun on the way down but I got to look around more on the way up. I found my first painted road names at the steep section of Claremont. I kind of regret not coming to this area of the course then next few days because this was just a monster climb.

James Mtn Road I had read that it was a steep descent but I didn’t realize how steep until I was flying down the hill and being thankful it was light traffic that morning. I wasn’t trying hard I even sat up and I was flying down at 56Km/h. The manhole covers could cause some excitement is all I could think of.

The start finish area was huge!! The stands were as tall as some of the buildings. There were some guys working in the area so I didn’t blast through with my arms up like I won the race. The start house for the Time Trials was much further down from the finish line than I expected. Then there were the team tents, Canada as host I think got the very last tent stall.

Next was the Beckett climb, it reminded me of a parabolic curve gentle to start and then just builds. It had a lot of trees that were close to the road so it was very scenic I noticed a lot of red leaves, something I am not used to. I heard later that the red leaves are Oaks and Maples. I stopped half way up the climb to take a few pictures. The top of the hill kind of pops out at you, all the trees just stop. It puts you in a bit of an open area.

Scenic Drive was not so scenic it was kind of lame, there was a large park on the left and lots of trees to the right blocking the view of downtown. This section a guard I stopped to chat with said be careful of the big hill, I am still trying to figure out what this local was talking about.

My last section to my finish line was the top of the course Fennel Ave. They had given the Time trial half the road but they would give the whole road to the road races and it was so wide I can just imagine the peloton shuffling on this wide flattish stretch.

I crossed my finish line as the sun rose fully and my batteries in my headlight went dead. I rode 19.31Km in 1hr 13min, David Miller did two of these laps in 54 min to win the gold. I was very happy with myself. I stayed on my corner writing in my log and eating a little. I was very hungry at this point.