| May 4, 2002
Suddenly at 3:15 am, the dark and quiet room filled with music. I rolled over and checked the time; yes, it was time to get up. 45 minutes later at 4:15 am, dressed in a balaclava and helmet, three shirts and a jacket, shorts, tights, and windpants, two pairs of socks, shoes and neoprene booties, and cotton gloves with neoprene gloves over top, I rolled my bicycle out onto the street. I had a 5 km ride to where I was meeting my ride. I sailed along the dark and quiet streets with the strong wind behind me. Then I heard a noise, a faint clinking coming closer, I glanced behind me and spotted the large dog running full tilt toward me. I picked up my pace but the clinking continued behind me and when I took another glance over my shoulder I discovered that there were two of them on the road a few meters behind me! Just then a car pulled out of a side street seconds after I dashed through the intersection. It must have startled the dogs because, to my relief, they didn't continue their pursuit. What a way to start the day! We all gathered at the start point and at 6:00 am, a group of 14 of us (6 guys and 8 girls), one of the largest turnouts we have had, headed out on the road to begin our 200 kilometre ride (actually the route works out to be 212 kilometres!). The sun was just coming up, the temperature was 0 degrees, and the wind was 30 gusting 40 from the North West - which was OK at first because the wind was behind us as we headed East. The first 50 kilometres were cold but fairly uneventful. The organizer of these events, and one other rider disappeared in the distance in front of us, and a group of 4 dropped back, but 8 of us stuck together. Shortly after we started the second 50 kilometres we began noticing a bit of snow in the ditches and as we continued, the snow got deeper and covered everything. On the road, the snow had pretty much melted at some point, and the water was partially frozen. Cars would speed past us hit those partially frozen puddles and spray the ice particles and water all over us. At the same time, the temperature dropped to about -5 or so, with a pretty good wind-chill. The water in our waterbottles froze and a number of the riders were pretty cold. We made it to our 100 kilometre stop in about 4 hours where I changed into dry clothes, and we all ate well, stocking up for the next 112 kilometres - into the wind. We flew out of that stop and plunged into the wind with 60 kilometres until our next stop. In the next hour and a half we covered 20 kilometres, averaging 13.3 kilometres per hour. I was dying that whole hour and a half trying desperately to hang onto the back of the pack. Toward the end of the hour and a half, our fatigue began to show. There were very few people in that pack who had been trained in the art of riding in a paceline or echelon (I think there were only 3 of the 8 of us), and riding so close together in those conditions, with the goal of getting us through the wind, was a bit dangerous. As we became more fatigued our concentration was diminished and with one quick swerve of one of the riders, the rider behind him went down - right beside me. She was OK, but about 5 minutes later, and another quick swerve of another rider, one of the guys went flying - right beside me again. We decided to take a break and all ended up lying down in the ditch so we could get out of the wind. When we got on the road again, I had a burst of energy and pulled for most of 15 kilometres to a campsite where we took another break. After that our group ended up splitting in two and I found myself pulling again for most of the next 25 kilometres to our third stop. We had picked up the pace a bit and ended up doing the 60 kilometres in 4 hours. After a good lunch we started off again to do the last 52 kilometres. The wind never died and we pushed against it for another 30 kilometres - and I pulled for about 1/3 of that section. About half way through that 30 kilometre section our group split into two. The lead group, who I was with, didn't quite know what had happened to the people in the second group, so we pushed on to a restaurant at the 30 kilometre mark where we decided to take a quick break. It was then, when the second group caught up to us, that we discovered what had happened. One of the guys (who, incidentally is 70 years old!) had crashed and ended up in the middle of the highway. He was shaken up, but seemed OK! I guess he hit his head quite hard, and the helmet was damaged, but it did its job and saved his head! For the last 22 kilometres we had the wind more or less behind us, finally. But by that point, after pushing against if for 90 kilometres, it didn't make too much difference. However, we had to fly down those last 22 kilometres because by now we were in danger of running out of time - and we made it with 1/2 hour to spare! Our total time was 13 hours. That had to be the hardest 200 I have ever done. The cold and wind took so much out of
all of us. But we did it!
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