Eastern Canada - Becel Ride for Heart BF Roster

I'm starting this thread for those of us who are planning to participate in the 2009 Becel Ride for Heart.
http://www.rideforheart.ca/

Is anyone interested in having a Bikeforums "meet and greet" at the ride?

sounds interesting, are we all participating as a group / corporation, or just as individuals?

I will be there in the 75K ride.
My day will be very hectic but maybe there is a way to meet after the ride.

Drive 140K to the ride.
Find a way to get to the EX park.
Drop off my forms and sponsor money.
Find my way to the start.
Etc.


I think you get the point.
I will be out of bed at nearly 3am.

I do have a travel trailer. Maybe I could sleep in the parking lot.

Will be attempting to pull a 2 year old 50km in a chariot.

At least he's a skinny kid.

I'm doing the 75km too!
Can't wait. Nothing quite like riding up the DVP. Just about the only kind of traffic I can handle! :)

I'll be doing the 75 km as well. Hope the weather's nice!

This is the first year for ages that I have no plans to ride, focusing on the Ride to Conquer Cancer the week after that.

Anyone out here doing that one?

This is the first year for ages that I have no plans to ride, focusing on the Ride to Conquer Cancer the week after that.

Anyone out here doing that one?

its my first year doing the ride to conquer cancer. And the weather has been crappy lately, so I haven't been able to ride as much as I hoped to!

Speaking of the week after: is anyone doing the Tour de Grand in Cambridge? I will be doing the 160km again.

I'll be in the 50km.

I'll be doing the 75km, I'm signed up as an individual rider... It's my first time...

Any advice as to: when to try to get to the CNE? Anything else?

I'll probably be wearing my TBN jersey, fyi...

Someone at my office who had done the ride before warned me about the Gardiner-DVP transition ramp. According to him, a large number of people crash at this downhill every year.

So watchout for inexperienced riders before you go flying down.

the gardiner-dvp transition is where those 15~20 wide groups need to squeeze, so it gets a bit jammed and easy to go down if you don't guard your wheel.

I'll be in a BF jersey, it's yellow and blue, might be able to spot me :p


usually the close off time gets extended because there's just so many riders.

So watchout for inexperienced riders before you go flying down.

Don't just watch out for the noobs. There was somehow a crash in the lead group last year, just behind the police pace car.

Was a bit of a WTF moment for me, since I'm usually pretty relaxed riding in a group that can maintain that kind of speed... they almost all know what they're doing from a collision-avoidance standpoint. Maybe I shouldn't be.

I do the early bird start because it's not as crowded and has more experienced riders. Having said that I saw a bad face plant last year - keep lots of space around you. 50k is fine for me - I don't need to loop around again.

How many riders go in the first (75km) batch, roughly? What time should I be parking? 6:15ish?

(For the record I do the Donut Ride from time to time so I'm not a complete peloton noob, but this'll be my first time with a group over 150 riders)

if you get in late, you're going to have to hug or ride the left hand solid line, that's for sure.
many many levels of riders and bikes, plenty of groups, some solo.
treat it like a traffic jam as if you were driving car on 400 or 401.

treat it like a traffic jam as if you were driving car on 400 or 401.

You want me to start honking, swerving, and screaming profanity?

Hardly seems appropriate at a charity ride.

it gets better once you go past the gardiner to DVP offramp :p

I decided to do the upper loop an extra time to make it a metric century. Had a personal best average speed of 28.58, despite the areas with heavy traffic/congestion. I would definitely do it again, despite the congestion issues. The rain was, mercifully, light.

I found that with the 75km group it thinned-out pretty fast, so the DVP onramp wasn't overly clogged.

I didn't get out onto the road until 9:00, and it was pretty heavy. Luckily I was able to stick to the edge of the road and pass everyone quite easily. I had one incident on the way back: I was cut off by an erratic teenager, but managed to slow down enough to not hit him. I heard from another rider that he'd seen someone crash badly after hitting a kid. I lent my pump to a lady who had a flat near the end of the ride. I found that the DVP is quite a bit hillier overall than the parallel route through the trails and then Don Mills Rd. I averaged 26.5km/h on my fixed gear.

I enjoyed the ride.

I also enjoyed the ride. Too bad about the weather though - I didn't dress warmly enough. Seemed like a good turnout for a rainy day.

I whimp out last minute as I was preparing to leave this morning for the ride. It was drizzling and I wasn't prepared to cycle in the rain. I wasn't prepared to clean and repack the grease on my bike after the ride.

I also enjoyed the ride. Too bad about the weather though - I didn't dress warmly enough. Seemed like a good turnout for a rainy day.

It was raining in TO? It was all clear here in St. Catharines, and when I went down by the lake, I could see TO.


I found it sad when I was watching CP24, they had a poll asking something related to closing major roads/highways for Charity related events (such as this) and around 63% of people said roads/highways should ONLY be closed for construction.

My girlfriend and I entered last minute, as the forecast called for rain we only did the 25k.. With the amount of people I think that was enough for us.

We had a fantastic time!

75K Route 2Hours 20minutes. The ride could have been faster but the temperature and the rain made sure that the muscles stayed cold. I was shivering when talking to Wendel.
Next year I am hoping to catch a pace line. This could be a speedy ride.

I found the drive to the city (140Km) more hectic than the drive in the city.
I left for home close to 10:30a.m. Drove right straight up Young Street there was hardly any traffic. The people complaining about traffic during the ride need to get a life or at least get out and see what they are whining about. Toronto didn't miss the DVP on Sunday at all.
Don't forget that most of the people riding bikes on the DVP also paid for the DVP.

Pretty steady rain when I left the house in Willowdale, but I rode out of it by Lawrence and by the time I was downtown I had pretty much dried off.

No rain, overcast skies, moderate temps, light winds, about the best I can ask for.

it was only a light drizzle, then humid and cold, followed by a short shower at the northern loop.
didn't really pour.

I was there at around 8:30 because of the lineup. equiped with arm warmers, leg warmers and hat, it was perfect.