The first official Speed Theory Bike Tour came to a close on Saturday with a stellar ride into and out of the US and a scoot up and down Green Mountain Road. After 220kms on the last day, Mike Healy commented, “I am now officially $**#@*!!’ed”. Ryan M, Mike H, Mike G., Trev, Carson, Mark, Natalie, Marylin, Harley, Simon F, Paul A, Krista, Bob, Frank, Jared, Lachlan, Diana, and Karalee from Speed Theory participated in rides throughout the week. We also had a few special guests from Calgary Cycle (Kobe and Dan) on the Mount Baldy day (most awesomest ride ever!). Don “locomotive” King and his traveling cycle maniac friend Ryan also braved the winds with us through the US. This kind of participation and the feedback I received from the group tells me if you weren’t one of those names listed above, you simply missed out.
According to Mike H’s bike computer, most folks hit between 900-1000kms over the seven days with more than 34,000ft of climbing. There were two days where we climbed more than 8,000ft per day. Other highlights of the week include Paul A soloing the Mt. Baldy-Osoyoos loop while fighting off lightning bolts from Zeus. Natalie leg-dropped Apex from the top ropes. Before the week began, Mark’s longest ride was 120km. He hit 170, 190 and 220km days over the week, which is more than Carson did. Marylin didn’t bonk. Unbeknownst to her, there was a handful of us calling for her to bonk at least three out of the seven days. Frank’s nose didn’t bleed while he was riding, which means he was holding back (that’s scary given what efforts he put in on the last day). Everyone attempted the Awesome-Rad category rides each day, which makes everyone awesome-rad. Finally, my wife grocery shopped and prepared all the food for the team BBQ, not to mention all the other meals that week for Carson, Mark and I. She is also awesome-rad.
A shout goes out to fellow Speed Theorist Sandra Yaworski, who led a group of 15 Krono’s triathletes on a cycling camp over the same week. With the extra day of cycling in Revelstoke before the week began and a few people staying for two more days of riding over the long weekend, Speed Theory hit it pretty hard over the past ten days. Until next May...
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Here is a little story from Sunday.
Preface: Frank, Mike G, and I had been at the bottom of the 11km Apex climb to the ski hill on two occasions in the past 4 days. Both days the elevation up Green Mountain Road to the climb's base had been sufficient to place us already in bad weather and a look up the valley where the climb meanders was foreboding. So we nixed the ascent on each occasion.
Sunday morning: Mike Godfrey states he is going to the top of Apex today. Frank, Marilyn, and I are pumped and agree to the ride. We start the long > 20km climb up Green Mountain Road to the base of the 11km crazy ascent of Apex. While snaking through the forest we catch glimpses of dark snow clouds in the Apex valley and joke how stupid it would be to actually ascend in the snow. On the way up, Mike slowly drops off the pace of Frank's high rpm relentless spin. Marilyn, Frank, and I reach the base and all agree only a fool would continue since it is raining where we are standing and it is a obvious is turns to snow only a few hundred meters up the road.
Crazy Mike: While the three of us are standing there ready to make the descent back to town, Mike rolls up. He unclips one foot, and without hesitation states, "Well gents, looks like we pull out our rain capes now instead of at the top" ... then puts on his jacket and disappears up the climb. The 3 of us are left speechless at the bottom staring at each other and then up the climb. I hear Frank whisper to himself "I don't want to die like this".
Monkey see, monkey do: ummmm.... I guess we're going up? About 5min after Mike disappeared we come to grips that we can't leave him alone up there and we reluctantly start the climb. I turn on my HERO cam to record my last moments and start singing songs from 'Into the Wild'.
One smart mind out of four: We got about 1km up the ascent when we hit heavy hail. It wasn't quite accumulating on the road surface, but it made the cattle guards fun and made us appreciate how many holes a modern helmet has. About 30seconds after the hail hit, I look up and Frank is turning around shaking his head. I immediately hit the brakes and turn around with him. We travel down about 100m where Marilyn looks up at us and ...
...
... wags her finger at us like we are being naughty turning around?!?! Frank is unphased and I hear him whisper "Crazy bitch, you can die if you want" and he is gone. My front tire is caught on video looking down the road at where Frank used to be, then up at Marilyn making her way up the mountain... back and forth a few times.
Being a sucker for punishment and liking a good story, I started up the mountain knowing I was breaking one of the first 'common sense' rules of cycling.
We summited in a full snow storm and managed some high fives after wiping the snow off our glasses and shoulders. The descent was terrible but buoyed by the fact we had tamed the climb in those conditions!
I will try to get some of the video up. It was a great day and a great finish to a great camp. Thanks again to Ryan,
Trev
Just one clarifying point. We did make Frank's nose bleed on Saturday.
Kudos to Kyla for keeping the us going and putting up with three smelly boys for a week!!!
For some reason we did not want to stay in the States very long on Saturday as the pace seemed to indicate an urgency to get back to Canada.
Already looking forward to completing the Baldy loop next year. We need more Cat 5s next year so I can have time to eat my sandwich (thanks Jared). Sunscreen will definitely be applied liberally on the first ride so I don't have to deal with the issues I had on days 2 and 3.
Pictures from the trip can be found
HERE
Awesome pictures Carson!
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