The day started out in Bayview Park in Whiterock overlooking the Georgia Strait, emphasising the Westerly nature of our start point. Today there were 21 riders for the whole ride plus three others joining us for the first day. Myself, I was half asleep – well it was Saturday morning and I had been up since 6am, but it was great to see everyone there and there was definitely a good sense of anticipation in the air.
I was absolutely delighted to meet for the first time Clare, the mother of Alex, for whom I am riding this journey. She’d made it all the way down to Whiterock in the early morning to see us all off on our journey. We were also joined by various other family members and the guys from the CCFF Vancouver office who have done a great job organising this ride.
Me and Clare:
As would have to be the case, the start was rain soaked and it rained fairly hard for the first quarter of the day, leading to wet feet for the rest of the day. Just about 3 km out of Whiterock, Rebecca clocked up the first puncture (flat for N.American’s). It pretty much stopped raining as soon as we reached the Albion ferry and crossed to the lower mainland. From there it was a relatively fast run to Mission and a very welcome lunch consisting of sandwiches and cookies. There is always a slight dilemma at lunchtimes – one can eat too much and make the next leg very difficult, I think this time I got it pretty much right but it will be interesting to see how that changes over the ride.
The next leg was also the last, fully half the day non-stop – something I probably should have done in training. But nonetheless this was a fast section for me, only slightly bothered by some hills about 2/3rds of the way in, which also had the benefit of me recording my fastest downhill time yet – 41.2mph.
On the way into Harrison I was very pleased to be greeted from the side of the road by Maureen, our lab manager, who has a place out in Harrison Hot Springs for the weekend and was waiting to offer a beer, which was gratefully accepted!
So day 1 was without problem for me at least. Completed at an average speed of 18 mph in around 3.5 hours. The next few days will not be so fast – tomorrow apparently involves a lot of climbing, I think very few people actually like that, although I could be wrong. Harrison:
Raising money for cystic fibrosis by cycling 