I have been looking forward to this race since the moment I crossed the finish line last year but I was not looking forward to the weather. I have ridden in colder temperatures and stronger winds but I have never spent 3 hours riding in weather like this - I was expecting this race to hurt. I was worried about my feet at these temperatures, but I stuffed a pair of chemical toe warmers into my shoes and those seemed to make all the difference. The next issue was hydration as water tends to freeze when temperatures are below zero. My thought was to start with boiling water, mix in a pile of Skratch Labs Hydration Mix and hope it lasted for the duration of the ride; turns out that wasn't enough. |
When I left the rail trail I felt as though I needed to pick up the pace in hopes of finding the lead group from wave 2. I would catch up to a rider, slow so they could latch on then start to pull again to catch the next rider only to find out I left them behind. I did this for nearly 10km at which point I noticed a group of riders had formed behind me and since I still couldn't see a group ahead I made a decision to soft pedal and wait for the group behind. We rode together as a "group" for another 10km until we picked up Alain (president of the Waterloo Cycling Club). Alain's camelback spout had frozen up and he really needed some water so I held back a bit from the group and offered him my second bottle which was nearly completely frozen. At this time I also, finally, had my first (...oops) and last drink of Skratch Labs slushy. Myself and another WCC member tried to pull Alain back into the group but that group had essentially broke apart and Alain was not able to tag along.
Three of us from that group worked really well until we made the turn around the halfway point and, unfortunately, into a strong headwind and we dropped one of our riders. From here on in it was a pretty quiet and lonely ride. I pulled along into the wind until we would pickup a rider, take a break with a few rotations and then I would be alone again. That road felt so very very long but i got a nice long break when we turned out of the headwind. I plodded along behind a MTBer who I pulled through the last part of the wind, tried to drink my slushy and managed to eat a frozen banana (mmmm?).
By the time we got back to the rail trail I was cooked. Luckily, this year the trail was still frozen and pack down so it wasn't a difficult to ride like last year but it wouldn't have mattered if it was smooth pavement I would have been moving slow. I managed to finish the race in 3hr10min and I was the 110th rider (20th rider in Wave 2) to cross the line. Regardless of my results, with the number of people that didn't finish this race (or didn't even start) I was just happy that I managed to finish.
Thanks to the organizers at Cycle Waterloo for once again putting on such an incredible event - where can I sign up for next year?