Great job Mikey - I'd love to hear your version of the day. But, that
roadie thing can be addictive - any thoughts of heading out and buying
a roadie bike today?
We had a great weekend down in Placid. We got a bit split up on the
ride, so I'll give you my version.............

Arrived down there Friday at noon, and proceeded to saddle up and head out for an "easy spin of the legs" and to make sure the bike was running fine. We did that, with Tigger controlling his desire to assume the TT position and bolt off. Well, mostly, at one point a bunch of motorcycles sped off the front and I tried to go with them
motor-pace style....but that was just to open up the legs. We did the run course and then the group headed back to ride the 3 Bears and head back for a swim in Mirror Lake. But, the call of Whiteface was irresistable, and while the rest of the group turned left to head back, Tigger waved goodbye and headed off the 86 north. Of course, it would've helped if he had told Sandy what he was up to, but sometimes
Tiggers get carried away (ooops!). The Whiteface climb was glorious: 22:20 of sitting in, solid 39x23 work, 3mi, 10% avg grade. Wonderful!

I so wanted to get back there and do it a few times over, or even come off hours and do the summit, but it was not to be this weekend. Someone once told me that you should leave each destination with something undone, to give you a reason to return. I've got that now!

Early off the next morning, with a staggered start to allow for some cohesion at the support van that was going to be at 50, 90, and 140 kms. Tigger was a bit pissed at the start as he had woken up to another broken spoke on his Zipp front wheel, so needed to borrow a cyclocross wheel from Coach Rich. However, after 15minutes of riding the feline of little brain realized that this was actually a lucky break. The challenge was now to have a great 2-looper on the cyclocross wheel, and therefore build the confidence that a great 2 looper could be had on the newly spoked 404's. So, when Rich offered up his Mavic wheel, it was declined. Not a chance!

The group rode well together, staying as a relatively tight pack despite Rich's best efforts to have everyone "ride like in the race, give it three lengths". You can't take a bunch of folks who have ridden together for years, who completed the IMC bike course within 5mins of each other, and have a meaningful spread over 45kms. Attacks were launched. Flats did his name disservice by swooping down Keane Hill, while PB and Ron gave a clinic in bike handling and how to peddle at 140rpm in your 53/11 down the same hill. Quick left at Keane and Tigger and Darcy traded spots cruising at an easy 38 through to Upper Jay. At this point, Flats came back to form and dropped his back flat down on the new P3SL and picked up the pace through to Upper Jay. The group spread out behind but stayed within attacking distance of each other, with Flats charging ahead. The group compressed back up again on the hill into Jay and we sat up to ride the hills to Wilmington. At the end of the first hill, Flats (or should it be "Hills"?), looked over and said "That felt good.". Define Good! Besides, there's more goodness to come. It just keeps on coming! Flats said "Oh, I forgot about this next bit". But, we tooled through it at good pace and even HR. Onto the out and back and the pace picked up again. Ron had enough of these pansy Tri-guys keeping the pace and so he let off an attack on this stretch, showing his fine roadie form and easy climbing skills. We pulled into the support van at the end of the out and back and refilled on fluids (leaving some other fluids in the bushes - it's really just a fluid exchange).

Flats, having the strongest kegel muscles, finished his fluid exchange first and bolted off on the bike. Tigger took a moment to commiserate with John Deans, who had banged himself up and totalled his helmet pulling into the exchange. Poor guy's ride was over. We headed back up the 11mi grind to LP, with Flats and Coach Rich working the front, and Darcy, Tigger, and PB holding a steady pace a few 100m back Cherries and Bears all fell to our racers, and we pulled into the support van at the 1/2way mark in a tight group. Flats off first again, and the second loop monkey was preparing to pounce on everyone's back. 2:36-2:38 -ish time.... hmm, perhaps a bit too hard!

The climb out of town had been cranked up a few degrees since our first loop, and Rich made Tigger compare his speed up the second time to his speed the first. Damn - that just made me ensure that I did it the same or better again! But, I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't too hard to pull off. We talked about this and that, riding
comfortably and holding a good speed until the last of the climbs before the reservoir. Then, my back wheel went flat. So, I had the opportunity to experience changing a tubular for the first time. Damn, that's hard! Rich carried on as I knew I was going to be ok, and I waved on PB and the others we had passed as I set in trying to stretch out that new tubular onto the rim. I thought for sure I'd brought out Des's 650c spare instead of my 700c spare! Eventually, I bit the bullet and flagged down a couple of riders and borrowed a tire lever to wrench the gd thing over the rim. A big shot of C02, a slug of water, and after about 20mins of rubber wrestling and practicing my cursing, I forced my shortened muscles into action, determined to try to make up for lost time. Well, I did manage to catch a few of the Group B/C riders, but by the time I'd made it to the out and back still no group A riders (truly an unrealisted goal to
make up 20mins over 50kms!, but I wasn't being smart about it!). In fact, I was a bit beaten down as I saw Flats at the aid truck. Knowing that the out and back takes about 45mins I thought I'd been gapped by another 20!!! Little did I know that he was suffering with a HEED induced body cramp! Thank goodness they don't provide that stuff on the course!

I'd ridden hard through the headwinds that had pushed up through Jay / Upper Jay, and now wanted to make up time from my perceived deficit on the out and back, so I didn't stop for water but was going to at the end. Not thinking again, I didn't realize that I only had a few sips left in my bottle and that was it. I rode the o-and-b on no fluid, trying to slurp the last vapours from the bottom of my profile bottle and licking every drop of perspiration that came within a tongue's distance of my lips. I could feel the grip of dehydration settling in, and it was made worse by the sound of water babbling from all the brooks and streams around. Water Water EVERYWHERE -and not a drop to drink! So, I pushed it up a notch, reasoning that the faster I went
the faster I got to water. With cracked lips and a parched mouth, I pulled into the wagon finally, and whatever they were selling, I was buying. It was less of a support vehicle, and more of an "all you can drink" buffet. I drank till my stomach sloshed, and headed off again to make up more time.

This third leg was to be cut short by the sight of my wife bent over at the Ausable Creek, gasping for air. In the still air at the bottom of the valley, a patch of especially aromatic fir trees had set off her asthma, and she was having one helluv an attack. Derrick was with her and taking good care of her, but I stopped and sent him on. We
waited about 1/2 an hour for the sag wagon and Sandy shut her ride down early, but only 10mi short and having had a stormer to that point. I, once again, creaked out the old, very short now, muscles, and gave a yell as I set off the the bike (more to scare the muscles into action than anything else! Took it all the way back to the tennis courts and stopped the clock at about 5:30. Truth be told, I don't think the cyclocross wheel vs the 404 makes that much difference, but the psychology is oh so important!

I think all of Group A (Darcy, PB, Flats, myself) stopped the clock at about the same time, +/- 10mins, which is simply great. It was a good run through of the course, with those second loop hills delivering as promised. But, everyone is poised for greatness on race-day - it's going to be sooooooooooooooo much fun!

Congratulations all, on a job very well done. You are SO READY!
{...........next ride report, anyone?........}

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Dickison (Scotia Capital)
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 8:23 AM
To: Bruce, Tara and; Catani, Rob; Moore, Daniel; Moore, Deborah;
Rae, Mike; Windbreaker
Subject: Mike Rae's first roadie experience...

So there he is...Serge Bonker in front of the Gear's store and ready to ride. This isn't going to be an active recovery ride Serge! Out we headed with a group of 8-9 guys on road bikes and Serge trying to figure out how the aero position was going to work in a pack. Really nice meandering pace the whole way to first sideroad, with Hamish,
Kevin, and Quad swapping the front from time to time. As we hit 1st sideroad there were no explosive sprints and we began picking up the pace a bit. Serge was sitting in and looking strong. The group splintered a bit as we climbe across Guelp line, but was able to reassemble and then we started progressing north. Kevin and Hamish began pushing the pace a bit, but no attacks were being launched. We were single file and cruising along at a pretty good clip. Serge was still doing a fantastic job of sitting in. I think Quad's warning about going off the front had really hit home with Serge. As we hit the next climb we still continued with the "I'm not going to be the guy to mix it up today, are you?" theme. It was along this stretch that I had a good chat with Hamish and realized he was racing the next day so was reigning it in. Quad surged a bit on Kevin to see where he was at and he was able to respond. To this point the ride felt pretty darn easy. Heading up centre Rd everyone did there best job of not being at the front before the TT section along Campbelleville Rd. Naturally Quad ended up at the front at just the wrong time. As we hit the first climb we were prisingly mellow and nobody went up the hill all that hard. But the group had already started tostring out. When we hit the next hill the pace picked up a bit more, and finally the ack was starting to fracture. Going into the next hill the pace got lifted a little bit more and all of a sudden it was just Kevin, Hamish, and Quad. We settled into a less than maximal cruising speed and drifted along allowing a few other guys to drift up to the back.

The pace was not hard, but the last couple of hills had taken the legs out of most of the guys. We were setting up for the final sprint letting one fo the riders come thru to pull. Hamish and Kevin were getting noticably itchy. When we crossed the track Hamish went first. Quad immediately grabbed his wheel. Now it was Quad v. Hamish. Kevin yelled at Quad,"Go get him. Get him!" Hamish had about a bike length
and Quad began closing it. Quad gave her and pulled up neck and neck with Hamish. Hamish was not expecting this. And at the line Hamish inched Quad out by a tire width. Both Quad's calves had gone into full cramp. At the store the group reassembled and Serge was still in. Quad gobbled down all the salt tablets he had, quaffed a gatorade and tried desperately to stretch out his calves. Serge was still in,
but got pretty buried in the last stretch.

As we left the store the youngest rider was still trying to recover. He was a skinny kid but was doing really well keeping up. Everyone else didn't notice this, but Quad stayed at the back of the group and looked for the kid to catch up. But the kid was making a BIG mistake and allowed a good 30 second gap to open up on him. Quad knew he wasn't going to make it back, so sat up. The group seemed to disappear in seconds and the kid was giving it all he had but not making a dent. I motioned for him to get up to my wheel and then started barking at him,"DO NOT LOSE MY HEEL. I WILL MAKE IT BACK BUT YOU HAVE TO HOLD MY WHEEL." With that I dropped the small little hammer I had left and buried myself for 3 minutes. But it was enough to get back to the group. At this point the group did the smart thing and began pacelining. Serge did not understand this, but was willing to give it a tri...He was getting good direction from Hamish and Kevin and soon settled in. The only problem Serge had was accelerating a little too quickly up to the front when it was his turn to pull. But Serge was riding strong. On and on the paceline went, keeping a good tempo. It was a high enough speed to cause a dull ache to develop in the legs, but nothing so hard as to make breathing difficult or induce hallucinations. Soon the group was back in Mississauga and Serge was looking great. No big attacks occurred and we all came into the bike store pretty much together. Serge did an awesome job! He rode strong and took his turn pulling in the paceline the whole way back. He was an animal. But when he got off the bike his hips were so locked up from the ride and the run the day before that he was reduced to doing the robot walk. We celebrated the victory with a beer and called it a day. You guys would've been proud of Serge. He did a great job out there.