On Saturday a bunch of us (eight in total) from the BCC rode 100.5km to Stouffville and back, the wind was just brutal, coming from the North West. Mind you the trip home was nice, we flew south. Then on Sunday Thi and I went for a little ride, 136.1km of pretty intense rollers. Thi let me do most of the pulling (nice guy) on the way into the wind and then he got the chance to stop and wait for me at the hill tops on the first leg south (now that I was spent from breaking the wind).
When we got to the coffee shop in Stouffville we found a bunch of BCC'rs out for the 85km Stouffville ride, so we rode home with them. I thought I was spent when Thi and I got to the coffee shop, but maybe it was the tailwind or maybe it was steady downhill I felt a lot stronger coming home and was able to roll from the front to the back and back to the front of the paceline a bunch of times to ensure no one was getting dropped. Of course now my legs are sore, but its the good pain.
Here is a way to identify true roadies, if a person walks down the stairs without issue they are not a true road cyclist, but if walking down the stairs, even a day or two after a ride is agonizingly painful and difficult, you may have a roadie on your hands. Yes walking downstairs today has been a study in pain. I think I might buy myself a toboggan, just to get from the bedroom to the kitchen. (Good thing there is broadloom on all the stairs!)
Anyway quick thoughts on the up coming municipal election here in Toronto, yes I think Robert Ford is a fat serial exaggerator (he claims the bike lane on Jarvis cost the city $6 million when the actual cost turned out to be $59 thousand). Ford has the support of big Jimbo the first minister of Finance in Canada to run a deficit in more than ten years and a member of the Ontario cabinet when the province was $5.7 billion in the hole yet according to official statements, still in the black. Ford also believes that the signed on transit city plan (a $7.2 billion expansion of light rail and bus lines for Toronto) should be canned and the money saved be used for building a new subway. (Apparently somehow enough money will be saved by backing out of signed contracts to build underground subways instead of grade level light rail?)
Well at least Sarah Thomson has a really interesting proposal. I am not sure it is a solution to all the city's traffic... issues, but it is a definite step in the right direction. I'm still unsure if I like Thomson or Joe Pantalone more but one of those two will definitely be getting my vote come November, unless some sort of "Anybody but Ford" coalition gets it's act together and someone else steps up to the plate.
Finally, last night some idiot cyclist tried to cross Lakeshore Blvd. at Colborne Lodge against a red light. The first car to hit him, flung him into a second car. A 40 year-old on a red mountain bike without identification was pronounced dead on the scene. Now as a cyclist I have to admit, I've run red lights from time-to-time, I'm not proud of it, but then I only run reds when it's a side street and I'm on a major street and, critically, there are no cars. Or if it's a 'T' intersection and I am not impeding auto traffic. But crossing Lakeshore at Colborne Lodge, that is just insane, worse it gives the rest of us a bad name.
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2 comments:
Thanks Michael for pulling most of
the times into the wind on the way
to Mussleman's lake. Remember what I said about a v8 and a four cylinders engine? The v8 got more pulling power! And besides you were doing such a good job pulling that I didn't want to interrupt! That was a good route with lots of rollers with nice sceneries to boot. Thanks again for a good ride Michael, I definitely enjoyed it.
It was fun. But my legs still hurt! =)
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