The whole goal of this 600K was to cross the Red Deer River 10 times, and thus get some hill training in. It seemed like a great idea to have 10 river crossings ... a nice round number. The whole idea appealed to me immensely ... before I rode the route.

Where to begin???

That was the most gruelling 600K route I have ever ridden!!! I shall have to speak with the route designer about that!! I don't know what she was thinking!

Somehow I managed to gather all the hills in central Alberta together ... and put them on this 600K route. Then I chose some very long (and hilly, of course) roads with no tree coverage ... bare and wide open so the wind could howl. And then I somehow managed to find every single chipcrete road in the area, and put it on the route. I am going to have to rethink the whole thing. There's tough, and there's ridiculous!

My 600K began two days before the official start time when I was doing a pre-ride check of my bicycle and gear. I had been hearing a "clunk" when I pedaled, so I thought I'd take a quick look and see if anything was loose. My cassette appeared loose, so my father tried tightening it to no avail. We took it to the local shop and discovered that my freehub was failing. This is the second freehub failure I've had in 4 years!

I was extremely relieved that we had taken the wheel to the shop, rather than just ignoring it, because a complete freehub failure basically means that the ride is over. I bought a new wheel, and while the technician was putting my tire onto the new wheel, he discovered a hole in my tire. We changed the tire too.

At 5:00 am on Saturday, May 26, I set off with my new wheel and tire on the brand new 600K route.

It was a lovely morning . +5C, sunny, with barely any wind, and a hint of fog. I made it to the first control, 83 kms down the road, an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. The only bit of excitement in that stretch was my second crossing of the Red Deer river. The entire valley was thick with fog and I was a bit concerned about visibility as I went through, but there wasn't much traffic and everything was OK.

Not long after the first control I began heading south, along a beautiful, hilly, road (decent shoulder, good pavement, no traffic) into a headwind . with no trees to block the view or obstruct the wind. Still, I made it to next control in decent time. My second control was Big Valley, an interesting little "old west" town. http://www.villagebigvalley.ca/

It was warming up, which was lovely, and the sky was a clear blue. This was one of my warmest rides this year . the temperature reached 20 degrees both days!

The next leg of the journey traveled through the big valley next to Big Valley, another Red Deer River crossing. I've driven this route, but have never cycled it, and I forgot one thing . at the bottom of the 9% grade decent is a one-lane wooden bridge!! That made for a hair-raising moment or two! The climb out of the valley was quite something too. I just about kept pace with a heavily loaded semi who was crawling up the hill with his 4-way flashers on. I nearly blew a gasket on that climb . I was way overdressed so I was overheating badly, and I was absolutely covered in mosquitoes, which had me flailing around trying to get them off.

Mosquitoes continued to be a problem for the rest of the ride, and I rode with my base layer zipped to my throat, and my entire body liberally coated in OFF. Still, I was surrounded by a cloud of them for most of the ride.

This valley, and the next two on the route, are all very similar to the Drumheller area. If you aren't familiar with Drumheller, think dinosaurs and Flintstones. Dry Island Buffalo Jump is in the same area. http://raysweb.net/dryisland/ It's fascinating and quite beautiful. You almost expect to see a pterodactyl fly over or a triceratops to come round a corner.

I wanted to make a longer stop at my next control but a group of loud, bored teenagers, boasting about smoking joints, parked themselves on a picnic table near me and my bicycle, so I decided it was time to move on. As I left the town, I heard something behind me. I glanced back and discovered I was being followed by a cyclist! A cyclist ... way out in the middle of nowhere!!

Another big valley with a stiff climb out, another barren southward stretch of road into a headwind, and the third big valley. I was now getting very tired of the big climbs, but thankfully they were finished. There were, however, many, many, many smaller climbs to come.

Darkness fell in Three Hills, and my father and I got ready to head into the night. He had arrived in his van shortly before Three Hills and would drive near me, leap-frog me, for the rest of the night. He and I both feel uncomfortable with me cycling alone at night. You just never know.

I have to say that while I am rethinking much of the route because of the quantity of hills, wind, and rough roads, I actually enjoyed the night portion of the route. The road was very good, with almost no traffic. It also seemed quite bright out there . I had a good moon, and the quantity of farms and oil derricks provided areas of light here and there. I was actually able to make some time after dark because I was heading north, and finally had a tailwind. It was a great relief after all the head and crosswinds I had dealt with during the day. I got into my 7th control at the 400 km point (home) at 4:30 am after cycling for 23.5 hours.

Unfortunately the first thing I was faced with was the news that some moron had smashed the windshield of my car with a baseball bat about 45 minutes earlier. GRRRRRRRR!! While I was getting things ready for the next leg of my journey, my parents were talking to the police. Not the most relaxing break I've had on a 600K. Nevertheless, I did get a couple hours sleep.

7:30 am I was on the road again for the last 200K of the ride. I had forgotten how hilly this section was. In fact, I thought it was basically flat. I was wrong!! I don't know how Alberta manages it, but they've got hills here that just make you want to curl up in a ball and die.

The hill starts gradually, and up ahead, you see the road get steeper ... and then there's the crest. So you cycle up the gradual part, put a bit more effort in to get over the steeper part, fully expecting a downhill, but as soon as you can see over the crest, you see that the hill continues with a gradual part at first and with a steep bit in the distance. OK fine. So you top that crest to see ... the hill continues with a gradual part with a steep bit in the distance.

This goes on and on and on ... at the top of every crest you think, there's got to be a downhill! But there isn't!! Once in a while there might be a downhill, but it is a mere dip in the road ... and then the uphills continue again.

The wind was still from the south, and of course, the first 40 kms of this final 200K loop was south, after that it was a crosswind. The roads in this final 200K loop were also predominantly chipcrete, slowing me down all the more. I could not seem to gain any time, and was crawling into the controls with only about half an hour to spare.

What was interesting, and a bit sad to see, were all the broken branches from the trees. We had a storm come through here in the middle of the week before this brevet that dumped nearly a foot of heavy, wet snow. It melted fairly quickly, thankfully, but left a lot of damage.

As the day was heating up I arrived in Dickson, a tiny Danish village restored to look much like it did back in about 1930. It's a cute little place, and I want to go back there again to spend more time.

Unfortunately, not long after Dickson, just as I was starting to make some time because I had a bit of a tailwind, I flatted. There is so much debris on the roads . too many people throwing beer bottles out of their vehicles!! I took quite a while changing the tire . it was my first real break in the 100 kms since I left my sleep control. However, I was now pushing the time limit!! And to make matters worse, the wind switched and grew stronger while I was changing my tire. I had a headwind again.

I had to work to get to the next two controls . my poor aching quads were faced with even more climbing including the Medicine Hills, a series of three good-sized climbs through some pretty scenery. Thankfully, the wind gradually shifted ever so slightly to become a crosswind, but just a bit from behind.

From Bentley, home of Bentley Cycle and Trading Post http://www.freewebs.com/bentleycycle/ a bicycle shop with very interesting array of rather unusual bicycle choices, all the way to Lacombe, I had a tailwind!! I pushed it, even though my quads were protesting, and was finally able to make up some time!!

I had some extra motivation though . right from the time I was changing the flat, the clouds were gathering in the west. When I got to the Medicine Hills, they had collected themselves and were producing quite a bit of rain off to the south, combined with flashes of lightening. As I rode out of Bentley, I started to hear the thunder. I was really hoping to be able to out run the storm, but as I reached Lacombe . the rain began. By Blackfalds it was pouring and I couldn't help but notice the occasional brilliant flash.

Totally soaked and very tired, I rolled into the finish area at 39 hours and 30 minutes.

For whatever it's worth, I mapped the route on Bikely and the total ascent on this route was about 9460 ft. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it is probably ball-park.

A big "thank you" to my father who supported me on a good portion of the ride.

And I have to say that I felt the best I've ever felt on a 600K, with the exception of my quads. I'm not sure what made the difference, but whatever it was, I'm pleased!