It was -7C/20F when I left the house, but by the time we started it had come up to about -3C/26F. We had about 19 people register - the largest group we ever had! That was nice. At precisely 7 am, the lead group set off at a brisk pace. That group consisted completely of regulars and all the new people were left in the dust. I hung with them for about 5 kms, and then I decided that they were moving too fast for my comfort level - I was actually feeling nauseated (not sure what that was all about). I was also concerned that it might look a little rude for all the regulars to go blasting off the front like that. So I dropped back.

However, somehow I ended up riding alone for most of the first 100 kms but I managed to keep a pretty good pace covering it in 4.5 hours. After a delicious plate of French Toast, just before noon, I set off again ... alone, and into the wind.

About 15 kms up the road, I caught up with a couple on a tandem, latched onto their wheel and rode with them almost the rest of the way back in. By that time we were fighting a gusty and irregular crosswind while riding down a fairly busy road. To get a good draft I needed to be riding beside them, about 1/3 of the way up the tandem, but unfortunately that's where all the cars were, so I often had to drop behind, and didn't benefit much from what could have been a great draft.

The couple was also struggling a lot with his saddle and her setup. The tandem was brand new (although they've got another older one they've used for a number of years), as were the saddles. Hers was fine, his was not. A little tip: don't ride a brand new saddle on a 200K! Goes to show that even experienced long distance cyclists can make mistakes!

Their pace kept slowing and slowing until finally with 20 kms to go, they wanted to stop to take a break and stretch and I decided to keep riding. The way the wind had been blowing we were supposed to have tailwind through that section, but the wind died quite a bit, and the trees actually blocked what there was, so there was no free ride in. At least it was better than fighting that wind.

The temperature reached a high of +8/46F briefly but had already begun to drop by the time I got home. We had partly cloudy skies and when the sun came out, it felt pretty good ... I even got a little bit of a sunburn on my face which was my only bit of exposed skin. And fortunately the predicted snow didn't materialize. However, I am getting very tired of these sub-zero starts on my long distance rides. When is spring again??

Some additional notes:

1. I had developed a hip flexor problem on my first ride with my usual saddle setup on a training ride a while ago and have been in a great deal of pain when I ride. I ended up switching my saddle to my mtn bike saddle because I've done quite a bit of riding on my mtn bike over the winter. I rode with that saddle on my Marinoni in preparation for this event, and it seemed OK. Last night, I spent quite a bit of time stretching my hip flexor, IT band, and back. Today I rode 200K ... and I had NO pain!! Wonderful!

2. Unfortunately I do have some neck, shoulder, and wrist/hand pain. I'm not sure why.

3. The Carradice bag worked very well. I've got it set up so it's comfortable, and it doesn't fall off my rack like my other bag did.