Ottawa 600K Ride Reports: June 22, 2002
With contributions from David McCaw and Jim Morris.
Ride Organizer's Report
The Ottawa Randos completed the 600 km brevet on the weekend. Yvon
and Sylvie drove from Montreal to do the ride.
Congratulations to Jim Morris, Patrick Chen, and Sylvie Menard for finishing their first 600 km brevets (actually 610 kms). Also, special mention for Yvon Dionne for improving on his time from the 600km, he did two years ago. Also, it was great that Yvon and Sylvie took the challenge with me and rode through the night (or some of it).
We left the Westport checkpoint approximately 9:45 pm and arrived at the Tim Horton at approximately 12:15 am. Unfortunately, the last 35 kms of 55 kms was foggy/misty. We had to stop several times to clean our glasses.
Yvon had the good idea to take the glasses off. However, I did not have
contacts and tried to keep them tilted.
We changed our clothes at Tim Horton's, and washed up and ate as much as we
could and then headed back North at about 1:45 am. We made it back to Westport General Store at approximately 4:00 am. The 55 kms took longer than normal since the road had more fog than before, and we had to go back to get Yvon a few times since he was falling asleep on the bike (he did not bank any sleep for the ride).
I have never had to ride through so much fog/mist, and especially at night.
I decided to ride by the yellow center line, and Yvon rode by the white
outside line. The problem with the outside white line was that it disappeared in some areas, and the yellow line was always there. (Last year, when I rode BMB, a Dutch rider that was with our group did this all the time back to Boston. I thought it was crazy at the time, but I tried it on the weekend and it worked out very well.
Other then the fog, the ride went very well, lots of hills, and I look
forward to a route change from Westport to Kingston and back for traffic and now the fog. The majority of the roads were very quiet, and we did not see many cars at all for long durations. Another highlight was Sylvie climbing Foymont with her 39 chain ring x 23 cassette and out of the seat for the 14% bottom section and 10% top section for 2.3 kms.
Lots of bullfrogs singing their songs from the open swamps towards Kingston. We saw several Deer, especially around 6:00 on Sunday morning.
We almost made it through the night riding, but we stopped at Westport for
me to clean my glasses and to grab a drink from the vending machine, and then Yvon and Sylvie got some sleep on the picnic table. I think it
must have been 30 minutes, but they thought it was an hour. We left at 5:00
am since I was cold and wet. Good thing I brought my clothes and we had a
good hill to climb and warm up quickly. We had to stop several times for Yvon to cool his hot feet and he walked for a distance on the pavement.
Amazing Sylvie had lots of energy coming in to Ottawa and wanted to sprint. She was ready to do another 600 kms and will try to register for the B-M-B.
Unfortunately, they may not accept her registration since she has not done
the brevet series. It was her second time in Ontario, the first time was
two years ago for the 400 km ride.
Overall we (Sylvie, Yvon and myself) were on the bikes for approximately
23h45min and off for about 7h45min. We took our time and Yvon thanked me for being patient with him; however, I thank him and Sylvie for riding with me through most of the night. Next year, we will do more miles during the
night.
I am happy that both Patrick and Jim rode most of the 600 km brevet
together. It is great to think that Patrick has only ridden four rides this
year, and three of those rides have been with the Randos (300, 400, and 600). Soon, he will have 200 km to complete the series. It is great to see the progression that Jim has made to the 400 and 600 km ride, my hat (helmet) is off to these rookie 600 km riders, and I look forward to seeing them doing a 1000 or 1200 km ride in the future.
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A First 600K Brevet
I have been riding the 200, 300 and 400km rides for the last few years, but never felt I had the ability to complete a 600 until this year. I will say right up front that I am a slow cyclist. My motto is that I always finish, not first... but I do finish.
Bright and early at 5 am, I met up with Dave McCaw, Sylvie Menard and Yvon Dionne. Patrick Chen would catch up with us later after watching the soccer game. So off we went in perfect weather with a slight breeze and it seemed we were the only ones on the road. We went through Kanata, into Almonte and over to Pakenham.
The terrain was rather flat so we travelled at a quick pace and arrived in Pakenham. We stopped to have our cards signed, ate and chatted for a few minutes. Then off we went to the next major town of Renfrew that was almost straight north. Dave, Sylvie and Yvon are stronger riders so they went ahead and I was left to my usual method, riding alone. By the time I arrived in Renfrew, I was getting hungry. It was time to visit the local Tim's for a couple of muffins, then off to the next checkpoint of Eganville. The route goes along some nice country roads, which I had never been on before. I arrived in Eganville and the main group of three was just getting ready to leave. They said they had been there for an hour. Considering I stopped at Renfrew for 1/2 hr, this only put me 30 minutes behind them, which I considered not too bad.
The group left as I went to have lunch. Still no sign of Patrick, but that soon changed as he came in a couple minutes later. Patrick and I rode together for the rest of the 600, which was approximately 460km. We left Eganville and headed towards Foymont cycling up the famous Foymont hill, which can only be described as tough. We headed towards Denbigh followed by Vennachar Station. After that it gets kind of foggy as the kilometres fly by. As we got closer to Kingston the fog rolled in and we could barely see. By this time it was getting well past midnight and we were getting a little wobbly so we stopped several times and slept on front lawns or in ditches.
At one point, I asked Patrick when had we started biking as we had been sleeping, then had started cycling again. I guess I didn't actually wake up until one minute later. We arrived in Kingston at 5 am, having been on the bikes for 24 hrs. We headed to Tim's for some breakfast, then to a Queens frat house where we had a reservation. For $25.00 we got a clean room, soft bed, hot shower and a ton of food to eat for breakfast. We were back on the road by 9:30 and the day was going to be a hot one.
The next stop was Westport to fill the water bottles and get more food. Then we cycled further north to Waberly where we stopped for ice cream. The next stop was Lanark. By this time it was in the mid 30's and I was really feeling the heat. Patrick went ahead and I caught up with him at the Lanark grocery store, which had lots of food, drink and air conditioning. Next, we were off to Hopetown which is a village about 10km north of Lanark. The clouds were building and the wind was really starting to blow from the west. The sky had been clear all day but was now overcast. The riding was tough with such a strong crosswind. We reached Hopetown and turned to the east. At this point there was a really good tailwind and were we moving along very quickly. The rain started and wouldn't you know it, the wind shifted again into a crosswind. We rode to Almonte, stopped and fuelled up one last time. It soon stopped raining and we rode the last 40km to Ottawa with a clear sky and wet roads. We made it back to the start point by 8:30, tired but commenting how tough this ride really was.
As mentioned before, there was 15,000 ft of climbing where you are either going up or downhill with very little flat riding, except close to Kingston and Ottawa.
I purchased a 10W Avenger headlight from MEC. It has a very bright light and used sparingly, lasted six hrs. I also used a Cateye light that served as the primary light. I used the Avenger when either cars were approaching or I actually needed a brighter light. I think this is an ideal set-up.
Dave McCaw recommended that I try a liquid "food"/meal replacement drink of some type. I tried the President's Choice brand of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours. They are all reasonable in price and taste and helped a lot to maintain a high energy level.
I want to thank Patrick Chen for riding with me for the entire route (I know he can cycle faster), which also makes a big difference and allowed me to complete the ride.
600km is a long way. My neighbour said that 600km was a long trip in a car and couldn't imagine what it would be like on a bike. Proper training, determination and motivation are enough to make it a worthwhile challenge. Although I still think the route we use for the Ottawa 600km is very tough for a rookie.
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by David McCaw
by Jim Morris