On The Ride for Heart

On June 7 was the Bacel Ride For Heart, the proceeds go to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Now this ride is different in many respects from the Ride to Conquer Cancer. For one thing it is a lot shorter, options to do 25, 50 or 75km, all in one day. Another difference, two major highways are shutdown to cars and become bike trails - which is, to my way of thinking, about the best thing you can do with a highway. A final big difference, the entry fee and fundraising requirements are a great deal more modest. I raised $200 and paid a $30 entry fee, and when you factor in the cost to shutdown a couple multilane limited access freeways for a Sunday morning, the fees do not seem so prohibitive.

Anyway I tried to ride with Peter and Steve from the BCC who had made a goal of riding with the fastest people in the 75km group. (The fastest people get a police escort pace car which is great when you want to lap the casual riders.) None of us achieved our goals. I understand Peter and Steve just could not catch up with the fast guys and as I already said in a previous post I needed 2 hours, 11 minutes, thus exceeding my target time by eleven minutes.

I was riding with the guys (Peter and Steve), for about 10km, I even did some pulling, in general I was very happy with my performance for that first bit, then a guy a silver Cervelo tri bike started passing us and Steve and Peter dropped the hammer, no way anybody was passing those two speed demons. I tried to hang on, but that hill climb on The Gardiner Eastbound between Jameson and Spadina at what must have been about a million miles an hour, was just too much for me and I dropped off. A second pack came a long a little later, perhaps 200 meters after I fell off the back of the Steve and Peter speed machine and I was able to stick it out with the second pack the rest of the ride.

We rode North and somewhere between Bayview/Bloor and Don Mills the road went from bone dry to shallow ocean. Rooster Tails with engine oil, gasoline and metal flakes from crank cases became a my nutritional "supplement", not of my choosing. I decided to pull more to at least get off the damn rooster tails and for much of the next 50 or so km I would pull for a long stretch, fall back and recover two or three people from the front and then I would get fed up with the water in my face so I would leap ahead again.

As we came South at the end of the first loop we could see the casual riders doing the 25 and 50km routes. I feared they would prevent the hammer feast from continuing, to my pleasant surprise they mostly stayed out of the left lane giving our pack a chance to big ring hammer almost all the way, besides a few frustrated calls of "on your left".

At the end of the second loop who would I find but the same silver Cervelo that caused me to fall off of the Steve and Peter pack. I passed that guy with contempt. When I finally finished and got through the crowd at the finish line I found Peter and Steve, only three or four minutes faster. It turned out the Cervelo would attack, create a gap, the guys would race to close the gap, the Cervelo would recover in back then attack again. Eventually I guess the guys got fed up with the Cervelo's silliness and on some attack they let him go, he got tired all alone and when they caught up he could not hang on to their draft and ended up getting clobbered, serves him right!

Actually let me be honest, nothing the guy on the Cervelo did was unethical or morally wrong, it was stupid, but not against any rules that I know of. It made my life harder but hey in a real race stuff like that happens all the time so I should stop ragging on that guy. His strategy clearly sucked but in the end the problem I really have with his tactics is that his plans caused me to fall of the back of my preferred pack.

Anyway in other unrelated news the following letter to the editor appeared in the Tuesday June 9 Globe and Mail.

Last winter, I drove 2,100 miles in 12 days through Arizona from the Mexican
border to Utah. The only practical way to explore North America in a reasonably
short time is by driving a powered vehicle. When the condo generation has one or
two children, they'll find cars a necessity to carry all the accompanying
paraphernalia and, later, to transport them to friends and extra-curricular
activities. Meantime, many of us do really enjoy driving.

- Richard Holland, Grafton, Ontario

Here is the response I should have sent:

Last winter Richard Holland of Grafton ON drove 2100 miles in 12 days.
Which apparently justifies driving? Mr. Holland on May 15 I rode my bike 200
miles, (Toronto to Rochester), on May 17 I rode an additional 200 miles when I
returned home. Does this permit me to tell you that distance does not justify
consuming non renewable, poisonous, green house gas emitting,
resources?

Holland then goes on to say that "when the condo generation has one or two
children, they'll find cars a necessity". My wife and I used to live in a condo,
we live in a semi now and I often wonder what my great grandparents did. But
funny thing that, if Jeff Rubin is right and a litre of gas costs more than a
weeks pay I guess I'm going to find out exactly what life without gasoline is
all about. I'm ready for life without a car, Mr. Holland are you?

You know I have noticed an attitude among baby boomers, the World is theirs to fuck up as they please and to hell with everyone else. Maybe this explains the popularity of the oversized SUV? But go for a car drive on a city street with a boomer behind the wheel their attitude is the worst I have ever seen, bar none, save the taxi drivers in Toronto.

The cover of the most recent Scientific American describes how "grassoline" might save the United States from her oil addiction, roughly 50% of America's oil needs could be satisfied by using grass and plant waste that is already out there and simply being thrown out. I have to admit, I hope it turns out to be false promise, I am really looking forward to riding around empty suburban cul-de-sacs.