Did two populaires on my 1983 Centurion Pro Tour.
Pacific Populaire in April. Lots of cancellations due to weather forecast. Turns out they were the smart ones as it rained sideways halfway through the ride. They had to bring down the canopy they had set up at the checkpoint because the wind was so strong.
First part was okay. And then I ran out of steam halfway through the ride. This was the first post covid Populaire that was run, and I'd forgotten I was supposed to eat while riding.
Anyway I stopped and ate, then carried on. I was still outdone by a couple of people on vintage mountain bikes with knobby tires leaving me thinking what a horrible engine I've got.
CanPop 100 + 50
The Canada day Populaire started in Langley, which was 40km away from home. So I thought I'd ride to the start, and do the 100km route. If I did well I thought I'd try a brevet the next week. I finished but dead last so no brevet for me.
When the ride started I thought I could use navigation on Ride With GPS. I've never used that before. I hit navigate and to my surprise and horror, nothing. No cues, no nothing. I'm cheap and I don't have data on my phone but I thought, that's fine, I had offline maps of Vancouver on my phone. And then I realized, wait, I'm in Langley going to Abbottsford, so no, I have no offline map.
I had the cuesheet, but then I had no cue sheet holder. So I ended up following another guy. Then I vaguely heard him talking to another guy about the 150km route and I start thinking, is this guy on the 100 or the 150? Luckily he was on the 100 so I stuck with him.
Eventually he dropped me because I was slower and hungry, so I stopped to eat. I followed the cue sheet and it worked quite well, until a few kilometers from the checkpoint where I couldn't quite follow the instructions. It was frustrating but then I saw a bunch of riders coming back so I figured, well, I guess it must be that way so I went that way and luckily picked up the trail.
I got to the checkpoint and since I had started at the back I was a little pleased to see there were still people coming in. I thought maybe I wasn't doing as bad as I thought. Turns out those people coming in were on the longer 150 ride and the routes just happened to meet up at this checkpoint, my first and their 2nd or 3rd. Whoops.
I was tired by then and entertained thoughts of quitting but then I had no clue how to get home. So if I wanted to go home, I had to finish.
I stopped a lot on the way back. Like a lot. And I ran out of water. There was a coop listed on the cue sheet, but the distance didn't quite match. It should have been about .6 km away. But there were a couple of riders eyeing it and I asked them if that was the place and they said yes, so I went in.
I brought my bike inside because I had no lock and wandered around looking for the water. I found it, refilled my bottle and went back out to the road. I checked the distance and what do you know, it now matched with the figure on the cue sheet. So I guess the distance on there included walking into the coop to get water?
I was dead tired and slow by this point, but I figured it was only about 12ish km to go. Then the other riders who stopped at the coop told me it's 20km. What??? I looked at the route sheet and sure enough, the total distance wasn't 100kms like I thought. It was 108kms. So I grumbled and carried on.
I thought I could at least finish with a 15kph average as long as there weren't any more hills. So of course a few minutes later... a huge frigging hill. I was sure the people who designed this route were sadists. Come on, so close and yet... I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. So I walked up. That's when I thought, geez, my legs feel like lead. Why are my feet so heavy?
So out went any more thoughts of finishing with at least a 15kph average. And to make matters worse, about 10kms from the finish, by phone's battery conked out. So I couldn't tell the distance, and couldn't follow the cue sheet very well. I did the rest of the route back by guesstimation and looking at the road signs. Thankfully it was fairly straightforward.
Just a little bit more to the finish, some guy going the other way in a vehicle stopped and yelled "Good ride!" or something like that. He must have been a participant or a volunteer. Either way it was nice of him to shout out an encouragement.
Eventually I got back to the start/finish and it was a relief. Felt good to finish, even if I was very slow. Learned a lot, and came to a definite conclusion my bike needs an engine upgrade before attempting a brevet.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to do the upgrade before the year's end, but I'm hopeful 2023 will be better. I've changed my diet and am hoping to drop a few lbs in time for 2023's lower mainland 200kms, possibly in April, or July. So far my bike and me should be 9lbs lighter since the 2nd week of December. Another month and 8 lbs to go before I exit my mini Clyde-hood, if all goes well.
I regret I didn't take photos. I was fixated on trying to make a minimum 15kph. Next time I'll take some.
Pardon me if this is a long entry. I'm at the airport waiting for my 8:30AM flight. It was delayed due to bird strike and weather. It is now 6:53PM and we don't board till 8:30PM. At least, we hope to board at 8:30. We will see.
Happy Holidays to everybody!