Well, that was some day!!

I realize I haven't blogged for a while for various reasons, but mostly because we had no internet for the last few days. And so I am behind and I have made notes to blog those days, but in point of fact, most of what happened on those days is wiped off the mental map by today's ride.

Absolutely Incredible!

Picture screaming down a narrow two lane mountain road at 75 k/hr, the wind whipping your face, you wondering whether something is going put you down on the pavement at that speed. Picture grinding out a 7 kilometer uphill in your lowest gear, sucking for breath, legs burning.

The terrain we crossed today was insane for cycling. 133 kilometers of steep hills up and steep hills down. I started early (10 to 7) with Art and within the first half hour we had hit 8 hills that we had to scale by dropping down to our lowest gear. Art has a lower gear than I do - I do not have a granny gear - so Art told me to just head out on my own.

And that was really the way we needed to ride today. It is just 'one person and the hills'. Early on I noted that my average was about 22.4. By the end of the day I finished at 24.9. This includes grinding up hills at 12 k per hour and flying down at my top speed of the day (and my top speed ever) at 77.6 k per hour.

You've got to understand this is great fun - the flying part I mean - but of course to fly you need to climb.

I did three things today to get me through the most grueling day of my part of the tour BY FAR!!

1. I sang How Great Thou Art a lot; so much that at times I didn't even realize I was. At times I didn't have the breath to sing out loud, so I sang inside.

2. I prayed - particularly on the downhills. I prayed very directly and immediately, in the moment, that God would protect me, because I was certainly out there with all caution thrown to the wind. Flying down a hill at 60 - 70 k per hour, there is nothing you can do if you go down. I hear that 2 people went down today and both are OK by God's grace, but it's crazy. At one point I was flying down a hill into Milford PA, coming down from the Poconos to the Delaware River. And this guy in an old crate stopped at the stop sign on a sideroad starts to pull right out in front of me. As he does this wave of sheer anger washes over me like a tidal wave and I just yelled: "HEY!" "HEY!" "HO!!! as loud as I could. He had his window open so he must have heard me because he got this confused look on his face - he hadn't even LOOKED to see if anything was coming from uphill - I know because you always check the eyes of drivers on the side! - and he lurches to a stop half way on the road. I had a couple of cyclists behind me also cruising along at 60, and that's what made me extra angry. We all swerved around him, and I thought about a lot of bad words I would say to him. I was just livid. Because if he had pulled on the road completely chances are that we would have hit him. Apparently this is exactly the way one of the falls happened today. That rider is also apparently OK but just furious. Only a instant of carelessness and they have a bit of a dent in the car and you're toast.

Let me explain for a minute why you need to go so fast. You COULD probably have done the ride today braking on every one of the 600 down slopes (estimate-- I did not count), keeping entirely safe - but you also would be climbing every fabulous inch of every fabulous hill. The other way to ride is to maintain momentum. Very frequently God has arranged the hills so that you can carry momentum from one downhill to the next up hill. So the technique is this: you actually pedal as hard as you can down the hill until you spin out, and then you tuck in and coast until you slow enough on the uphill so that you can pedal again. This is the best, if not the safest way to ride. But you never know if there is that next hill ahead, or an intersection, or a town, or a stop sign, or a tight curve. You just fly. I will definitely need to replace my brake pads when I get home, let me tell you.

OH, #3 thing I did for to keep me going was repeat to myself, "EFI, EFI EFI". Every Fabulous Inch. I was not going to walk an inch of this day, or of the tour. They would have to pry my feet off the pedals to get me off that bike. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done I think. I am just coming down off the high.

By the end of the day about 100 kilometers in I arrived at the Delaware River and we cycled along the river for about 10 k before the 7 k climb. I had coffee, and chocolate milk and a bagel with Hans Doef, Aaron Carpenter, George VanderKuur in a tony little cafe in Millford. Then we headed for the bottom of the hill. At the bottom we found a bunch of young riders Josh, Josh, Ryan, Eritia, Christeena, Nathan and they threw out the challenge to me to go hill climbing with them. So I started up with them, but for me the "each person and the hill" principle kicked in and I just did it at my own 50 year old pace. If you don't do this you will die on those hills, you simply need to ride within yourself, at you own pace just at the edge of not getting enough oxygen to the muscles, but not beyond or you will burn. I learned this yesterday actually when we had some tough hills I was was trying to keep up with Josh N, Nathan and Eritia. It just doesn't work. I didn't get to the top too much later than the rest and they were all up there waiting for me and there was also this providential SAG stop from the Sussex CRC - Sandy's husband and kids. There was this darling little girl named Anneke who asked everyone politely what they would like, cookies, or watermelon, or lemonade, or water. A wonderful moment when she caught George who is absolutely all business and had to ask him 3 or 4 times before she got his attention. George is about 6'6" so he has to bend down just to hear her. But she got through and they had a good time together.

Sorry, no pictures today. After I left Art, I dumped my pannier with my camera in it at the next SAG stop and rode light from there on. Losing those 7-10 pounds makes a huge difference when you are riding on the edge as we were today. I came in to the gear truck, something like 12th at 5 hours and 17 minutes saddle time at about 2 o'clock.

A great exhilarating day. God is good and I feel as if I, with God help and abundant grace, did something special today.

The Niagara Penninsula

Here are Betty, Dini, LaVonne and Erna, most of our wonderful cooking crew, stopping by the view from Ridge Road atop the Niagara Escarpment. You can see Stoney Creek below.


Art Mulder (on the bike) and Jo Tipple (beside hers) at the top of Wolverton hill.
The story is that some riders got their fastest speeds on the tour on this 12% grade.


Here are Gayle, Eric and Larry Stehouwer in the midst of a photo op
on the carousel in Port Dalhousie.


My son Jonathan.

A Ride in the Park

Art Mulder with family freinds at Shalom Manor.

Cyclists visiting Shalom manor.

Today's leg of the tour felt like a ride in the park. It started on the streets of Hamilton whose stop lights seemed perfectly synced to frustrate cyclists. Then we made our way toward the escarpment on the East side of town to Ridge Road which runs along the top of the Niagara escarpment for 14 k or so. My guess is that there were more pictures taken of the that view of Lake Ontario, Stoney Creek, and the far shore, than any other single spot in the whole tour - considering the fact that we have 50 more cyclists than at any other time. We'll see what all the blogs look like. We then followed Ridge Road with its vistas for 10 k till we got to our second Church Stop Fruitland CRC. Hope CRC in Oshawa had actually preceded them by locating at the beginning of the Ridge Road but they were mostly there to see Grandpa Ralph Fledderus. What followed then was a stop every 5 to 7 Kilometres - The Dutch Bakery in Grimsby where Eritia works had mocha cake again (1 piece this time), then Holland Homes had a reception, Grimsby CRC, Beamsville CRC, Then the Perebooms had a spot with Bill and Wilma VanHeusen and Marg and Jonathan as support staff, then Jubillee CRC in St. Catharines. In addition to this there were lots of people in lawn chairs on the side of the road cheering us on. At Holland Home one of the folks said too loudly in an aside to her neighbour: "Are these the famous Sea to Sea riders?" It certainly feels a bit weird to be a celebrity wearing the insignia of spandex and the Sea to Sea jersey.

When we got to Mom and Dad's, Jonathan was all ready with his bike and helmet to ride the last 18k into St. Catharines with me. Gayle happened to pull up just then and Jonathan really wanted to bike with his friend Gayle, so there we were with the three of us Gayle on her comfort bike in front carefully leading the way and signaling back to us, then Jonathan on his mountain bike and me out back on my racer - it must have been quite a sight - pictures to follow. Jonathan did very very well. He had no trouble with the pace and no trouble with the hills on number 4, the Middle Road. We stopped at the carousel at Port Dalhousie and a bunch of bikers followed us and we have a great time going around a couple of times. Then the short hop to Beacon and there we were. More food, a foot massage, clean the bike and then home to Mom and Dad's with Margaret.

What strikes me about these days is that they are so full. There is swirl of activity surrounding you and you need to keep focused on the task of getting on the road cycling and doing all the little things that need to be done to make that happen. Get up, roll up sleeping mattress and sleeping bag, get dressed in bike gear in the tent, pack up the tent, go to bathroom, get sunscreen on for the day, eat breakfast, make a lunch and stow it on your pannier on your bike, clean dishes, put all the stuff that belongs in the gear truck (night cloths, etc) in it, pack up your hockey bag with your sleeping stuff, tent and chair and lug it to the pile at the gear truck, check your air, brakes and chain on your bike - unless you did some of those the night before, put on your gloves, sunglasses and helmet, get on your bike and ride. Reverse the order of most of those things when you get back. There is a routine to this you just need to learn. You have something like 30 objects that you need to use and keep track of every day and store each of them where it belongs. And you essentially have three places to put those at any one time: your shelf in the dear truck, your hockey bag, and your bike. And those shift because the gear truck is inaccessible during the day (it is traveling and so are you) and during the night (it is locked while we sleep). You can't just set something down and leave it the way you might at home, or you wind up losing it (most often you can retrieve it from the bulging lost and found bin a couple of days later). Everybody loses something sometime to paraphrase Dean Martin - or is it Dean Maarten (inside joke). It is a mental puzzle that you need to keep on top of.

On accidents: The other day coming across the border John DePooter of Wallaceburg was riding for the day. We'd talked a few months before when I had preached in Wallaceburg and he'd told me how excited he was to ride and how he was going to organize a real reception at the border for the ride. I saw him at the reception - which was amazing - and he was keen to ride. Ride he did for about 5 5 when hos carbon fiber front fork snapped and he went over the handlebars and face first into the pavement. Absolutely crazy. He broke his nose, split his lower lip to the gum, suffered scrapes and bruises all over and generally wrenched his body. Here is what his daughter Jody, member of my church wrote: "... my Dad is OK. His face is very scratched up, he had to have his lip sewn back together, along with his nose. His nose is also broken, but he is waiting for an appointment to get that fixed. We are thankful it wasn't worse. Jody Andody. I guess these things happen and you are at your peril when they do. The next day a rider went down on a railroad track - separated shoulder, the next day after a rider touched a back wheel and his bike slid out from under him. (I wrote about that yesterday). I remember the Shifting Gears book telling us that it is inevitable - you will fall. I guess the hope is that it is not bad when it does. Makes you recalculate the percentages though.

A little note: a month ago I rode from home from London 200 k and took shelter from a thunderstorm at a fruit stand. I chatted then with Rachel the proprietress and explained to her that on a Saturday a month from then 200 cyclists would come by her stand. Today I stopped back in at the stand and Rachel was not there. The proprietors were all curiosity though, about who all these riders were, so I explained it to them and handed them a card. They promised to check out the website: cool.

Pictures later.

Here is a picture Art took of Eritia at Redeemer.

Up and Down and Up and Down

Today seemed to be a lot of that - drumlins I think they call them. These are glacial deposits that pile up in ridge after ridge after ridge and today we needed to cycle over all of them between London and Hamilton. I started out with Ralph, Scott and Art at about 7. On the way out to Dorchester, Ralph, Scott and I stopped at Ray Sipken's house and woke him up. At least Ralph did. We said hello to this poor groggy sleeper and then pedaled on. Apparently a whole slew of people decided to leave at about the same time we did and we found ourselves in the midst of several groups of riders. At the Dorchester bridge Eritia Smit from Hamilton zooms by. This had happened once before and that time I hung back with those I had been riding with. But today I felt strong and up to the challenge. I announced to the group that I was off and away I went. Eritia has been awarded the title of fastest woman cyclist on the tour and can she ever go. I caught her a little way out and we chatted and agreed to go together for the rest of the day spelling each other up front. It was a great ride! We wound up making camp first - but I have to say we were 'helped' out by a fall in the lead group 7 k from Redeemer. The falled resulted from a touch on the back wheel of the front cyclist and then boom, you are on your side sliding on the pavement. The result, some fairly nasty road rash and a banged up bike, but the pride takes the worst beating - Ouch! I think the heatand humidity may have payed a bit of role. It really piled in the last hour of the ride before we got in at 1.

Along the way the Canadian and Ontario hospitality was in out in full force once again: CRC's in Ingersoll, Woodstock, Brantford (2 stops) and then finally Fellowship CRC here in Ancaster. Josh Krabbe mentioned to me that if you wanted you could have stopped 22 times to chat with groups of cheerleaders along the way. I am now limiting myself to one item of baking per stop, but unlimited watermelon, water and gator aid. Cold water is just great at these stops. I will admit I cheated in Woodstock where they had mocca cake from Vanstratten's Bakery in Norwich (if I am not mistaken).

I will post pictures of some of these stops soon, so that those of you who are interested people can see who people these spots. It is especially wonderful to see the old and the young at these stops. I'd jhave to see the old are the most pumped. They love their church and love the excitement and energy that this ride and what it represents is generating in it. But here in Ontario we see a lot of young people as well and that is great.

And here at Redeemer I ran into 15 people I knew with 20 minutes of arriving. Absolutely wild. We unloaded the gear truck, I set up my tent, took a shower and then headed to the library to hide and blog. Yes even extroverted me needs downtime I am discovering. Later.

HOME! ... but not for long....

Here I sit at home at my familiar computer. It's 5 in the morning and my Sea to Sea pattern just kicks in. I am awake and ready to go. Marg and Jonathan will be up in a few minutes and we will get back to LDCSS, hop on the bike and ride.

I have had a hard time blogging lately because it has been very difficult to do so. For starters there was no internet on Monday at Sleepy Hollow State Park. Tuesday I was on sweep on the longest day of this leg of the tour and with all the 'newbies' riding. (Newby is a mildly disdainful tour term for a new rider joining in on the ride. I was a newby all last week and the young folks (and especially Brian) take great delight in labeling me as such even though I'm now now into my second week.) Tuesday was a 157 k ride with a headwind on all the east bound stretches with lots of hills. We waited back for a long time, but managed to hit the first riders at 11 am just 40 k in. These were young folks for the most part, indulging in a second breakfast. We shooed them off, telling them we didn't want to see them again and they sheepishly zoomed off and we, in fact, did not see them again. We hit the first exhausted riders about noon at 75 k in - they were more than willing to get sagged in. We tossed their bikes up on the wagon and off they rode. They were the first of at least a dozen riders who just could not manage the stiff headwind and the hills. We palyed a cat and mouse gamer with the slowest riders all day, staying back far enough to give them space to ride freely, but keeping within close enough distance to give them help as needed. We finally got into camp at 6:30. Having stated at 9 that meant we were on the road for 9 1/2 hours. Pretty wearying all in all. But not as wearying as it must have been for some of the riders we swept in. Some had been on the road for 11 or 12 hours! And they had to get up the next morning and do it all over again.

Wednesday we crossed the border - Hello Canada - and made our way against headwinds into Chatham. When fighting headwinds it is best to push hard and to ride with others. After the ferry I rode with Art Mulder from London for a good while. Then we got caught by several pace lines, moving pretty fast. We hopped ion to one. Then another faster one came by and I hopped on. Then another faster yet. By now Art was back and I assumed cruising along in a pace line in the back - correctly as I later found out. Finally I caught on with a breakaway group consisting of Bill Wybenga and Marti DuPlessis. Bill is a hugely relentless rider and Marti a former top athlete in South Africa. They were booking and I hammered to catch they're draft. We simply sailed into Chatham and upon arrival as I looked around I discovered we were the first ones there. Fun.

Yesterday I rode with the London Express so named because John VanderSteen from London is its leader, I guess you'd say. They ride very steadily and powerfully into the once again, seemingly inevitable headwind.

We reached Mt. Brydges at 10:15, the first group to do so, when we were supposed to not arrive there till 10:30. Whoops! But, what a spread they laid out! Amazing. it was very cool for me to be there because the lunch was sponsored by three church Met. Brydges and the two Strathroy churches who are sponsoring me. From there it was a short hop into London and the biggest reception we've received so far. Wow! TV, newspaper, watermelon stand, ice cream booths lined the whole route in through London and the bike path. Marg and Jonathan first met me at Springbank Park with a big welcome and then again at the forks of the Thames and then again at the Christian Highschool. The scene at the Christian high looked a lot like a carnival (in a good way) with crowds and booths and all kinds of things. Among the press of folks and activities, groups headed off to work sites at missions in town, or off to the velodrome. Gil Clelland came out with a group of street kids to interact with the riders about the issues of poverty in a Canadian city. John and Robin Wotherspoon, Jay and Alistair (friends from Ilderton) came out to take in the scene which was so cool. Jonathan and I really wanted to tour them around the camp, so I left Gil and the group, trusting that he'd be OK. The scene was very full, let me say, and very satisfying for me to see because I had so little to do with creating it. Marg and I will get some pictures up ASAP to let you see.

And this morning it is on to Hamilton. Gotta go. Get on my bike ad ride! Love it!