This is the first time I have not finished a ride and at first I felt pretty bad about it. Most of the ride was pretty enjoyable. Only three of us went this time, it started at midnight so I stuck with them until the sun came up. Most of the ride was pretty enjoyable, during the night there were only a handful of cars that passed us and we went through some pretty nice areas during the rest of the day.
Things started to go wrong after Stellarton. I was not aware that the road from Stellarton to Sheet Harbour was completely devoid of any businesses and homes for the most part for about 70kms. This was during the hottest point in the day and I only had a few cliff bars and my two bottles of water and hadn't eaten lunch. The road was fairly good but every once and a while an enormous pothole would show up. As I started getting tired and hungry my eyes left the road far in front of me and I was mostly starring at the road directly in front of my wheel as my head was hanging down. Eventually I hit one of these potholes at a good enough speed to severely damage my rim. I adjusted my brakes and was able to continue on at a fairly good pace but my biggest downfall was that the route was going direcly past my house, 50kms from the end.
I was getting very tired by the time I was on the Eastern Shore and decided I was going to stop in at my house in Jeddore to switch wheels and get a bite to eat but once I sat down there was no getting up again and the ride ended there.
Since then I've decided not to do anymore brevets for now (I'll need a century in July though) and I took the wheel to be repaired but the shop told me it couldn't be so I took it home and repaired it myself (it's not 100% but it works until I can get enough money to buy a new set, maybe in a few years).
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Beaverbank - Rawdon 300km Brevet: 31.05.08
300kms is also a distance I really enjoy. This time I decided to leave the group behind and chart ahead. After a while I started catching a glimpse of some bikes ahead of me and after a while finally caught up to them. They were a group of three riders training for different triathlons and were very pleasant to ride with, they didn't mind me sticking behind to save a little energy and in fact the rider in front wanted to be there at all times which saved me from trying to share the pulling position.
Eventually we went our separate ways and when I got to the first checkpoint I decided to wait for the others so that I wouldn't get lost (as I often do) as the roads ahead were not as straight forward.
I pretty much stayed with the group for the rest of the ride but the one point I did venture ahead I missed a checkpoint (and meal stop) by quite a bit.
As the evening started to set in the temperature dropped and a heavy fog rolled in, and having lost my light earlier in the ride I was starting to feel panic setting in. This is one of the things I like about 300km rides, usually by the time the ride ends a I feel real sense of accomplishment and relief, which didn't happen on my next ride.
map comming.
Eventually we went our separate ways and when I got to the first checkpoint I decided to wait for the others so that I wouldn't get lost (as I often do) as the roads ahead were not as straight forward.
I pretty much stayed with the group for the rest of the ride but the one point I did venture ahead I missed a checkpoint (and meal stop) by quite a bit.
As the evening started to set in the temperature dropped and a heavy fog rolled in, and having lost my light earlier in the ride I was starting to feel panic setting in. This is one of the things I like about 300km rides, usually by the time the ride ends a I feel real sense of accomplishment and relief, which didn't happen on my next ride.
map comming.
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