Bank holiday Monday and a very quick trip south of London to try out the two main hills on the London 100 ride.
First we arrive at the bottom of Box Hill and decide to do this part of the ride straight away.
Piece of cake, very similar to Olmstead road up Mont Royal in Montreal.
Pretty nice view at the top too.
Next we have a route planned to get us between Box Hill and Leith Hill, but due to a combination of bad route planning, bad London traffic and Garmin being set on track up instead of north up ( I hate that, why, why use that view) this idea is abandoned and we fetch the car and drive straight to the bottom of Leith Hill.
Leith Hill was awful, nasty sharp climbs and pretty unrelenting, but at least I have tried it. Although I can think of better ways to have spent a bank holiday Monday.
It's been 6 weeks since we have been out with the club and it seems like the (slightly) warmer weather is bringing all the true fair weather cyclists back onto the roads.
Today we are heading to Tring, and I'm surprised to find that I'm not the slowest in the group. Possibly not a reflection on my cycling, more on the latest addition to the group.
It's a large group today and we seem to split into two groups. Stuart naturally staying with the slowest rider (because he just does that). I'm interested to see if I will keep up with the first group, so I stay with them for a while. Unfortunately, at a junction point, the second group is nowhere in sight and the first group whizzes off ahead. I cannot in good conscience ride off with the first group, even though I really want to try keeping up. I stop at the junction to mark the turn for the second group.
There are now 5 of us at the back and I really enjoy being part of a group and not feeling under pressure. A lovely coffee spot is found (Akeman's?), but all too soon everyone is ready to ride again.
Stuart and I decide to make our own way back. We had been shown an amazing bluebell wood on the way out, which was worth further investigation.
The photos below cannot do justice to the amazing sea of bluebells. There are bluebells as far as the eye can see. They were an absolute delight!
When we lived in Montreal, Stuart completed a very special ride on the anniversary of his cancer diagnosis, to celebrate surviving an incredibly tough year. He circumnavigated the whole of Montreal Island on his bicycle.
I never dreamt that I would contemplate joining him on this same ride, as it is 130 km. However, despite an incredibly intense week at work, it seemed like a good idea to make the attempt.
We began the ride at Place Jacques Cartier and Stuart said it was really easy to navigate, just keep the water on our right. This plan was good for a whole 200 yards until we hit a cul de sac and had to do a 180 degree turn and then found the water on our left!
We eventually got onto Notre Dame and headed to the east of the island, a place the west islanders call the badlands (allegedly). I stop and take a very unfair picture of the industrial part, the east is actually very pleasant in most places.
Some of our friends have also said that they will join us, but only John is brave enough to aim for the whole ride. He met us at Place Jacques Cartier at 7am. We make excellent progress and in no time at all find ourselves at the pointy end of the island.
If you have ever read my blogposts before, you might have noticed that I like to bring colours up using the super viv function on my camera. However, this option should actually be called the Oompa Loompa function as you will see from the picture below. (Thanks Ti for this suggestion!)
When we get to the top of the island we are joined by more friends (Stephen, Cecile and Nobuko). We stop in one of the parks to make some bike adjustments. Well, actually, the guys work on the bike adjustments....
... whilst the girls figure out how to take selfies, by balancing a camera on a bicycle.
In this park we also get to meet the cutest of puppies, called a Corkie (yorkie/cocker spaniel cross)
Last week, on our ride around Montreal we noticed how few leaves there were on the trees (none), this week the place is now completely green! We have had a glorious week of blue skies, sunshine and around 25 deg days, and Montreal has raced through its Springtime in 7 days and we are now in Summer. I think they call this greening week.
Last week I was also reminded about the potholes in Quebec, but this week I am reminded about the incredible politeness of Montreal drivers. At every junction and stop sign the drivers just wave us through, whether it is our turn or not. This would not happen in the UK!
The inevitable lunch at Herbs!
We are also delighted that Stuart's good friend (and my adopted Uncle) Keith rides out to join us at Pointe Claire for a coffee in the afternoon. (Note, the Oompa Loompa function is off in this photo, but the sun is now starting to set, casting some beautiful light on the pictures).
The forecast today was for 30 deg and thunderstorms,and the storms finally hit when we are just a few hundred yards short of our goal, St Ambroise terrace and its marvellous apricot beer. We have no choice but to shelter under the bridges until the torrential downpour ceases. Sadly, this rain also thwartes Gavin from joining us, but he did nearly make it!
When we finally made it to the terrace there was much discussion as to whether John would complete the final part of the journey back to downtown, or head straight home on the metro with Nobuko. Despite the threat of being named half-assed John or halfway Johnny, he opts for the metro home. To be fair, Demi-John did in fact complete 96.15% of the journey!
We sit so long on the terrace, we find that it is nearly nightfall when we leave!
For me cycling is about fun times with good friends (not distances, speeds and watts) and this day was exactly that. Thanks to John, Nobuko, Stephen, Cecile and Keith for joining us and making this a fantastic day!
Back in Montreal for a week - Hurrah! Me for a seminar and Stuart for a week of catching up with friends.
We fly Friday night, no sleep on plane and then for me only 2 hours when we get to the hotel, so Satuday morning I'm feeling a little weary. Soon sort that out....
Our favourite cycle ride when we lived in Montreal was the Hudson/Oka ride. This involves catching the train from Gare Centrale to Deux Montagnes, then cycling through Oka national park to Oka. We then take the ferry from Oka to Hudson, cycle from Hudson to Saint Anne de Bellevue for lunch at Herbs and then cycle back through Pointe Claire and along the lakeshore and then Lachine canal back to the old town.
I have very fond memories of this ride, so this time I took my head cam and took some footage as I rode along as a reminder what a great ride it was. I was really surprised how far behind Montreal is in the season. UK has been enjoying a fantastically colourful spring for nearly two months and here in Montreal there isn't even any green on the trees yet!
Video to follow (when I get around to editing it!)
Finally - it's here!
One person I spoke to along the way, when I told them the route, expressed surprise that the ferry was running. It didn't cross our minds that it might not be (have we forgotton so soon what an impact winter has on this island?) I have just checked and found out that the ferry started running 5 days ago, so we were pretty lucky that we didn't get very stuck!
We were also lucky with the weather, perfect riding conditions, no wind, blue skies and sunshine. Although I think perhaps Stuart got a little too much sun today. At lunchtime we were discussing the recently announced arrival of the new Princess. (Stuart's participation in this conversation was with much reluctance). We were trying to guess what name she might be given, perhaps Elizabeth or Diana, then Stuart, trying to come up with another suggestion asked what was Queen Victoria's first name!
Today's ride was a good as it could possibly have been, but there was one thing I had forgotton - Quebec roads. They are absolutely shocking. Maybe the bad winter has made them even worse, or maybe my memory had blocked out the horror, but the potholes are truly dreadful. They are so bad they detract from some of the pleasure of the ride, because you cannot ever afford to take your attention away from the road surface. This is a real pity, and part of me wishes I hadn't reminded myself of this aspect of riding in Montreal.
I had also rented a very unforgiving aluminum frame road bike, which came with a rock hard gent's saddle. Combining this with the roads means another part of me wishes I hadn't done the ride at all, my bits are in bits!
55 mile ride today, with only 2 hours sleep in 46 hours, I am very pleased that I found the ride quite easy, although I suspect I will sleep like a log tonight.
