Yawn, Just another
600 km Bervet.
Not! This was not anything but a routine ride.
The ride started to fall apart earlier in the week when our club coordinator
Sam crashed his bike. Luckily he was not
hurt. Sam is usually the youngest rider
and only in his third year riding Brevets. He is raising 2 young boys and is
the only income in his family. His frame was bent and a new bike or frame was
not in his budget. Sam is really tall and needed a 64 cm frame. The call went
out on Face Book and a used frame was found by one of our members on Thursday.
A late night was spent with Jasen Carter and his son, and Sam’s bike was whole
again. He would ride Saturday.
It was a
good thing Sam got his bike fixed. One member was sick, another was still not
back from a tour, and the weather forecast scared the rest of them off. It was
just Sam and me doing the 600 km. It was a beautiful start. The sun was just
rising in the east, no wind, no clouds and it was about 18C already. We started
southwest to our first control in Carman. I let Sam set the pace. His bike
speedo got damaged in his crash so he did not know his speed. I told him to
travel at what ever felt comfortable. He was doing about 27 KPH. Sam and I are
opposites. He is normally in the back group and I’m out front.
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| Sunrise behind us. |
If we were
going to complete this ride we must stick together. The ride to the first
control in Carman was about 80 km on flat highways with no wind.
So far, so good. We left the control at 8:08 am.
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| First Control - Sam on left |
We went
about 20 k west and the climbing started. A few valleys and hills but mostly
climbing. We continued another 20 km and then turned south heading to our next
control in Manitou. More climbing and we passed a wind farm along the way.
Every time I see these 75 wind turbines I am impressed. Our high
point is passed and it is only 500 meters above where
we started in Winnipeg. Sam is a
better climber than me. I am carrying more weight than him, but if I get a run
or have rolling hills I can keep up.
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| The Quest at the high point. |
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| Wind Farm |
We arrived
at our second control in Manitou at noon.
Just in time for the lunch rush at the Burger
Shack. After we refueled we headed west though a town called La Riviere. It is located
in a valley so I shot some video on the fun down slope Of course I shut off the
camera for the boring grind out of the valley. I am getting faster every time I
do this slope, but lower gearing might help.
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| See the road across the valley that I had to climb. 8% |
From here we were treated to brand
new asphalt that they were working on last week when I did a pre-ride. The bad
news is we now had a bad headwind. When we reached a town called Pilot Mound we
headed North to wards Glenboro. Part way there we ran into a Thunder storm and
got separated. Sam found an open barn on a farm to take shelter in, and I
continued on to the next town. With “DA HOOD” on I stayed dry. I stopped at the
local store and had coffee with the local farmers while I waited for Sam to catch
up. I learned about making Hay that day.
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| The storm approaches. |
Supper
was at the control in Glenboro at 6:59
at the 247 km mark. Sam was riding slow as the heavy winds had him riding in
first gear a lot of the way. The wind seemed to change as we changed direction.
Always a head wind.
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| Passing by a lake. |
After we
ate a great meal we headed east to wards Rathwell passing though Holland
Manitoba. By now the wind had died down but
Sam was tired. We got to the next control in Rathwell at 10:52 pm. We were at the 302 k mark there.
From
Rathwell we headed south towards Manitou again. We would be climbing some of
the same hills again and passing by the wind farm once more. This time we were
in the dark. Climbing one of the longer slopes in first gear I had the RCMP
pull me over. Flashing lights and everything! I pulled over right away of
course. He asked for my license and registration. I said I didn’t have any as I
was riding a bike. He was wondering why I was going so slow. He thought I might
be an electric vehicle. We talked for a bit and he took a couple of pictures. I
had to start again from a dead stop up the hill.
We stopped
along the way for an hour nap along the road. I brought my cover out and
covered the Quest. I stretched out with my feet in the nose and my blanket over
me. It was a very comfortable nap with no bugs thanks to the cover.
Upon
waking up we continued on to the town of
Morden. We arrived at the
coffee shop control at 3:45 am. At
this point Sam was falling asleep on his bike so we got a motel room to get 3 hours sleep and
a shower. Witha fresh change of shorts and jersey, I felt great. We left into a
strong side wind again and headed north and east to our next control. We
arrived at the town of Rosenort
with only a hour to spare. At this point we had only traveled 464 km. Sam was
dead tired now and called it quits. There was no way he would finish on time.
That and it was starting to rain again. He called his wife to pick him up.
I headed
east at a good pace and picked up quite a bit of time despite the pouring rain.
I had four more controls and about 140 km to go. I made it back to the Winnipeg
control at 15:21.
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| Last Control! |
It was one of the
worst weather conditions I have encountered on a Brevet. I stayed dry and still
felt great when I got home. It just proves that the Velomobile with “DA HOOD”
is the best suited bike for these adventures. And despite the weather I still
had FUN…
