Pushing the Needle

For the last two months there's been plenty of riding. From Spring classics, to Kanata Lakes one or two times a week, and many road rides. The needle has budged. Every night my legs feel abused, but by the next afternoon they spring back. Two weeks in Texas I'm off the bike: jogs from the hotel.

 Dog-days of Summer and long rides await. First up is the Ride of the Damned route. Later on I'll link this up to the stone dust path to Maniwaki for a really big day. I plan on doing a Garanaska race, Lost in the Rocks and Trees in Mattawa, and perhaps the Wilderness 101 in PA. Then off to Utah for another bikepack in the South Central mountains near Boulder.

Mufferaw Joe Lucky 7 Sportif

After four hours and 45 minutes we rolled into Quyon to find a dusty parking lot full of cars and empty bike racks. Quyon was our starting and now ending point for the 83-mile Sportif event. Our six-man group was the only souls around. About 10 minutes later some of the "faster" riders came in, on accounts that they started 15 mins after us. The ride was named after the Canadian lumberjack folk hero of the Ottawa valley called Mufferaw Joe (see video, credit to the Vegan Vagabond for finding this). It traversed the the farm country at the edge of West Quebec bush: Hilly, gravel roads. Awesome. Like the legend, the course was more of a concept and easy to get lost on.

Our fast time was attributed to the lack of getting lost, and the fitter-than-thou Quebec Wheelers who led the way. I can only take credit for having been able to hang on to the pack. This took everything I had.

After a casual first 40k, the main pack broke into fast and slow components. There's me in the grey (photo cred to Gary Monette). As per usual, I tried to follow the fast group. Halfway through I blew up and rode the next 15 miles solo down the highway. Those 15 solo miles were great. Riding in packs makes for speed, but I relish solitude in country riding. I eventually merged with the aforementioned finishing group. By chance, the fast riders took a wrong turn, and the slower riders got lost as well. Our middle group stayed on course and on pace, and the no other competitive teams passed us, which was weird for me.

Ottawa Valley Paris-Roubaix Ride

I all started at 4:30 in the morning. My memory is fuzzy, but I think I was changing a diaper. My wife knew I was going to ride the Ottawa Paris-Roubaix and, thoughtful as she is, did not wake me up at the usual 2:00 AM diaper-changing and did it herself. Hence, at 4:30 I was relatively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but still fuzzy.

Coffee. Oatmeal. Drive.


Out west of Ottawa, over the Mississippi river (the Canadian version), past the cultivated pastures, to Lanark county, Ontario's maple syrup region, apparently.

Register. Tire pressure dialled.


I have no further pictures. Cameras don't work well at 180 beats per minute.

The course was incredible: 87 km (~55 miles) of mostly hardpack dirt and gravel roads, some tarmac, a bulldozed torn up rock field that passes for a road, rocky 4-track, and ankle-deep sand-traps that you hit at 20 mph.

You know, road biking.

The region is beautiful. Ancient log cabins abound. Small wedges of tilled spring earth are tucked amid the pine forests and beaver dams. Farming done here is fringe. Not much further north is the literal edge of civilization. And at 8:00 on a Sunday morning, about 175 riders had it to themselves, wending from the town of Almonte up through the Canadian shield escarpment and back on rolling terrain, totalling 1200 feet of climbing.

The event is technically not a race, but for many here, its the premiere road cycling event of the year. I'm not a road racing type of guy, especially in the shape I'm in now, but I played along. For about the middle fifth of the race I ended up in a chase group of very strong riders that, for reasons mostly related to flat tires, were trying to claw their way back to the pack. This was great fun for me. I grabbed a wheel and tried to hang, and by mile 27 I had gone anaerobic, right calf cramped, and then peeled off. For awhile I was thinking how stupid I was for blasting my legs when I had so much distance left to go. I'd do it all over again though, and my legs came back eventually. As for the chase group, they were blessed with the good fortune of having the entire "race" peloton take a 6km wrong turn. I arrived to see them cussing about the mis-marked arrows as they double-backed, and was able to again hang with the pack for about a femptosecond.

My target was a 3-hour ride. I came in at 3 hours 5 mins, which is close enough, although I think I could have hit my 3-hour time if was more prudent with my legs. At the end I found a two-person group that I worked with, including the Women's 3rd place rider, who kept looking back at number four 200 meters back. Eventually I peeled off that group and at 3km to go encountered 4th place, a Tall Tree rider (check out their race report, quite exciting), and I said "there's a woman in that group up there who really wants to stay ahead of you." She said she was hoping to catch up, but that it was probably too late. I told her she was probably right, but to grab my wheel anyway and I'd try to give her a few more seconds at least before I blow up.

Classic Spring

The tires are mounted for the Ottawa Valley Paris-Roubaix. For the rest of the season, I'll be sporting these tires on the cross bike. Test riding these was awesome. Soft, but still very fast. The long dirt roads of Quebec await. But before then, I've been getting some speed back to do the P-R. I won't hang with the pack, I won't even see the pack probably. My swiftness is relative. I'll ride as fast as I can, plain and simple. I'm resting for the next few days to Sunday, but last Sunday I blitzed my regular 50-miler in 2 3/4-hours (18.2 mph average), which is fast for me on that course. I'll go a little faster for the race, hopefully, which I've heard is about 90K, just over 50 miles. Since then I've hit up Kanata Lakes trails on the MTB, and frankly, been dreaming of mountain biking...

Classic Spring

The tires are mounted for the Ottawa Valley Paris-Roubaix. For the rest of the season, I'll be sporting these tires on the cross bike. Test riding these was awesome. Soft, but still very fast. The long dirt roads of Quebec await. But before then, I've been getting some speed back to do the P-R. I won't hang with the pack, I won't even see the pack probably. My swiftness is relative. I'll ride as fast as I can, plain and simple. I'm resting for the next few days to Sunday, but last Sunday I blitzed my regular 50-miler in 2 3/4-hours (18.2 mph average), which is fast for me on that course. I'll go a little faster for the race, hopefully, which I've heard is about 90K, just over 50 miles. Since then I've hit up Kanata Lakes trails on the MTB, and frankly, been dreaming of mountain biking...

Season Starts

After a Winter of scant riding I'm back in the saddle and feeling good, if not a little slow. Last year I focused on doing long rides at a comfortable pace. I just wanted to put miles behind me. I succeeded in that goal: many 12-hour days, a 24-hour race, some bikepacking, and other enduro races made for some progress. This helps me toward my ultimate goal of doing the Great Divide Route at some point in the future. This year I plan on upping the pace judiciously, and doing multiple-day longish rides. Of course, new challenges are ahead since I am now a father, but I won't fret about all the demands in life. You take what comes and be thankful for it all.

The last two weeks I've ridden many short rides, just getting back in to the swing of things. I'm trying to parcel out intensity days interspersed between some disciplined recovery slow-riding days. This is hard, since my default is to go hard till my legs ache. But this leads to longer-term burnout. So in general, my strategy is to be thinking days in advance in choosing how hard to go. Of course, this is all just elementary training philosophy, its just the first time I've personally employed these ideas in practice. It takes discipline.

Cross Rebuild

I put gears back on my cyclocross bike. I am weak of will. In Ottawa, not many ride single speed cross and there is no category for it unlike other race series I've been in. I felt there was no use handicapping my self anymore.

My Cannondale is getting on in years. The frame has a dent but is still good. The dura ace/open pro rims are doing terrific. I outfitted it with a big 12-27 cassette, which will come in handy on the steep climbs at the Almonte course. I bought a new old-stock ultegra 9spd shifter which works like a dream. I also got new Avid brakes and a new chain. All the new parts pretty much constitutes a full rebuild. After an afternoon of tinkering the bike rides like a dream.

Tomorrow is the first race. Unlike previous years I have not done any specific training. All my rides this summer have been long long long. As usual, I'm planning on hitting my stride when the weather gets really really crappy.