A week of challenges, food and fun...

Started to post this last week and got caught up in life and it was left with only photos and a title... The last couple weeks saw a couple of new challenges for me. Challenge one was highlighted in my last post (Mi first road century). It wag good times but already talked about at end so on I move.

Saw an acquaintance's FB profile pic of a ridiculous burger contest in town and wanted to try it. Thursday (week before last) my wife asked if I wanted to go there for dinner. The guy in who tried it and posted to FB had failed to finish the beast BTW.

 So we went over to Mel's Diner and I toyed with the idea of the challenge. A 3 pound burger with all the trimmings on what seems to be a loaf of bread (I generally don't eat bread or buns on my burgers except after a long ride/race. I went to town on the burger and in just under the allotted hour it was complete. I was not the owner of a big t-shirt that tells me I can eat a whole lot of food... All in all good times and no requirement of food for a couple days...

Next was Tour de Creemore, a ride I was doing with a friend who is training for LeTape Du Tour stage 11 - Albertville. The 100km would have been my longest ever road ride had I not decided to do Tour de Grand on a whim the Sunday before. It did however have a challenge built into it. Scenic Caves road up the Blue Mountain was like nothing I have climbed before. Like most things in life and cycling though it only hurt until 5 minutes after it was over.

It was a great ride and a beautiful day on the bike. Hard to believe his coach had him ride 78km to the start line of the ride and then an additional 2 hour ride later in the day.Good luck in France Willie!!

That's it for now... I'm out...

Last minute ride - Tour de Grande

Saturday evening I was sitting on the couch with the laptop trying to decide what was on the schedule for Sunday. More just comfy on the couch with TV and laptop. I remembered Pat at Brauns Bicycles had told me I should do Tour de Grande as a good weekend ride. "Sunday is supposed to be an awesome day". I opened the page and read the info and that was it. I shall ride.
 The odd story here is my little-no road riding experience. I have pedalled bikes on pavement yes, but never ridden in a proper group road ride with all of the intricacies. I just installed slick tires on my CX bike on Thursday so this was a good way to test them out. The closest I have done is the Paris to Ancaster race twice. I know little about pulling or riding in a group who are pulling you. I am just amazed at how a strong guy can bridge the gap between groups and all you have to do is get in behind (oh and take your turn every so often too).

I was lucky to ride with an awesome group of strong riders who helped me ride faster than I would have expected I could. There was an unfortunate bail around 50K though that got in my head. The guy beside me wiped out on a water bottle and a nasty chain reaction from there. A few of us stopped until we knew things were under control. We then started back up not thinking we would find the pack again. Someone then took the lead and pulled us back up. I was amazed that this was possible. Later in the ride I found myself falling off the back of the group and was perplexed by how difficult it was to just make up a couple bike lengths afterwards. I fought back on and made sure not to do that again. In the end I was happy with the time on my cyclocomputer of 4:28:05 for my first century. The Blackberry GPS is slightly off this time and I am ok with that too :-). What a great day on the bike!!

I could ramble on all day but that's all for now... I'm out...