A little weekend short tour.
Saturday 24 June -- Rowan and I cycled what was probably the most difficult / challenging 200 km randonnee (long distance cycling event ) I've ever done. 210 km with 2700 metres of climbing in a heat we haven't experienced since we were in Queensland at Easter in 2016.
We made a guest appearance with the BC Randonneurs and did the 200K event of the Peace to Parliament "hell week". Some riders also did only the 200K, but some did the whole set of four rides from Fort St. John all the way down to Victoria.
Peace to Parliament - 4 brevets from Fort St John to Victoria in June 2017
Rowan was all right in the heat. He is usually the one who struggles with hot temperatures. But this time it was me. By about the half way point I knew I was battling heat exhaustion. I think May's surgery put a dent in my fitness level.
Nevertheless we finished the ride in Victoria within the time limit ... with 30 min to spare! Our total time was 13 hours.
And then went for a 2-3 km walk to find dinner!
Distance: 212.1km (including the ride up to our B&B)
Elevation: 2,729m
Moving Time: 11:39:32
Elapsed Time: 13:36:03
Speed: Avg: 18.2km/h | Max: 50.4km/h
Sunday 25 June -- After a deep 8 hours of sleep, we were up for a delicious breakfast at our B&B, and then off again.
We needed to cycle back to Duncan to complete the circle. Today's ride gave us a chance to ride some of the cycling trails in Victoria and that was a really pleasant part of the ride. Then up and over a hill to the ferry to take us across to the second half of the journey. That second half of the journey was a little bit more difficult with a few more climbs ... and heat. The official "in the shade" temp reached 32C, but our on-bike computers showed as high as 40C while we were cycling.
We finally stopped for lunch where we ate salty food and had quite a lot to drink to rehydrate.
From there, we only had about 10 km to go, and were into our destination in no time to complete a challenging little short tour loop (a randonnee + recovery ride) on a hot, hot weekend!
Distance: 51.6km
Elevation: 422m
Moving Time: 3:24:10
Elapsed Time: 5:52:08
Speed: Avg: 15.2km/h | Max: 47.9km/h