Day 1 and 2

Looking back on our Day 1 trek from Sevenoaks to Dover, I might have underestimated the topography of the Kent countryside. Of course, Ryan, my traveling partner, had known about this all along, but only mentioned his confusion about my route selection after we had stopped for the day. Even if we'd completely rerouted our intro day, I don't think the hills would have been any more avoidable or forgiving.

In the last 15 km, we faced a beast of a climb to the north of Folkstone. Two kilometres in length (roughly), with sections of over 15% grade. I hit my limit. With thighs and hip flexors cramping up on my granniest of gears, I had to resort to hopping off the bike, having a quick 30-second recovery, then walking up to the next flat section to grind out the rest of the ascent --my life flashing before my eyes.

Despite the difficulty of the day, the country lanes were a wonderful addition to the trip. Breathing in the fresh air, watching the rolling hills of Kent roll by. The peculiar houses and small manors. Even crossing over to some of the main highways wasn't too stressful, however navigating through the roundabouts --sometimes crossing two or three in immediate succession-- was a little hairy. Having put in a solid effort on Day 1, and after a very large Cesar salad with ample amounts of lardon, Monday night ended in a solid sleep.

 

    

 

We slept in the next day. Surprisingly, Ryan wasn't up with the rising sun --I was so stoked! Although my legs were a bit tired, they didn't feel crampy at all. Taking advantage of the breakfast buffet, we took off from Hôtel Metrpole at around 10:45. The open road over the first 40 km was panflat, and the quality was smooth. We made great time... until we crossed over to the canal trails.

If yesterday's bit of frustrating had to do with hills, today's major annoyance factor was way-finding. Although I had tried to scout out the canal track that we were supposed to take using Google Maps, sometimes each track would turn to gravel. Othertimes, business that used the canals for shipping would buy the trails themselves and lock them off to the public. Other times, the trails that were supposed to be there just weren't. When we did find a good track again, the pavement was awful. So bumpy, we might as well have been riding old 'bone shakers'. 

I'll probably be favouring a saddle sore for the next few days...

Trying to navigate the canals had added a solid two hours on our ride. With 40 km left in the day, we abandoned the canal trails completely, and booked it to Lens. Our average speed from there on shot up from less than 20 to about 30km/h. It was awesome!

Here in Lens, we've just devoured some Mexican food  gotten some more food for the morning, and are just chilling out for the rest of the night. Tomorrow is a recovery ride of about 30 km, through Vimy Ridge where we'll have ample time to stop and really take that site in. Our next afternoon/evening will be in Arras, where my bike trip actually started 10 years ago. Solo. As a 23 year old kid with virtually no money.

Sounds crazy to say that out loud.

 

   

Tour Prep

With only about four hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday, and having some fun --and a couple drinks-- at a small shin-dig last night, I was elated when I got back to Ryan's place to flop down and sleep the night away. Compared to ten years ago, I'm better handling the jet-lag of the transatlantic trip. For example, in my twenties I remember laying down shortly after arriving, thinking I was going to puke and pass out, thus creating a disgusting scene that would be surprisingly suitable as an intro clip of Law and Order.

This morning I was raring to get the bike assembled and get the general feel of how it would look and handle all loaded up. Although noticeably heavier with a set and a half of casual clothes, two extra sets of cycling kit, tools, toiletries, and treats, I can still accelerate well from standstill. Riding out of the saddle, even with weighted front panniers, was more comfortable than I thought it'd be. The Axiom front racks proved to be a bit of a problem with my front disk brake (clearance problems) but this was easily managed. And finally, after about a month-long wait, I was finally able to set up my ride with the Apidura saddle-pack, top tube pack and treat bag I ordered a month ago. 

 

Although there's some issues with the panniers (again, disk-break clearance problems), I'm overall happy with this setup. Moreso, I'm itching to start our ride tomorrow, despite what is slated to be a humid, and possibly rainy day.

What will be the first piece of equipment that I'll despise having taken? What will I forget to bring? What will be the first mechanical failure? Will the weather cooperate? All questions I hope I won't have to deal with.

Packing the essentials

Leading up to Friday, I'm starting to feel as though I may have left packing and planning a little bit to the last minute. But better late than never, right? 

Although I'm still a little undecided on some of my warm-kit, or if I should bring as many kits as I've laid out, I think overall this is what I'm packing during the ride. Take it all in!

I have problems with overheating during long rides, so I'm going with some of my whiter, blander kits. I also have my white sleeves in the top left there. I do find they help during that initial hour of a long ride, but as you warm up they switch from being sunlight deflectors to heat-trappers. I'm also hoping to take my Giant kit, as it's been a staple of many of my touring trips. 

Here's my warm-up and rain gear. I'm a little on the fence about bringing the vest, but the MEC Drench Jacket has been a solid addition to my commuter gear. After looking into the weather recently in the Southeast UK and Northern France, it looks like I may need it! In the top right are some shoe-covers (MEC Cloudburst covers) --also rain proof. We've got the Shimano SH-XC31 cycling shoes. We've also got some MEC Logic sunglasses with clear lenses and and MEC Lift glasses with dark lenses. 

Some additional deluxe items I'm bringing: a simple Giro helmet that I got from Cyclesmith, my super-cool bandana, a couple pairs of gloves, a notebook and some bike lights. I'll also be bringing my iPad (it's really getting old at this point), a portable charger and a crib set. I'm using a simple Specialized speedometer as well. A couple special items will be my Wahoo TICKR heart rate monitor and a silly amount of Gummiland Gummy Bears!

After listening to the Velonews podcast about post-ride binging, watching Peter Sagan devour a bag full of bears after a classics-series race this spring and giving it a try myself (albeit mid-ride), I'm really starting to take a shine to these guys!

No pictures is my iPhone 5S. Although I used to be into Map My Ride for a long time, I've made the conversion and switched to Strava. 

My bike is all packed up. I'm bringing my MEC Cote as a touring bike. It may be a bit hard to see, but I also have a couple front-racks by Axiom (Journey DLX-Lowrider) and a couple small MEC World Tour pannier bags. I'll also be bringing two Camelback 750ml bottles. 

As you can see, I'll be using the biknd Jetpack bike bag that I got from Cyclesmith. It looks good now, and I feel like it'll do well in the hands of some surley baggage handlers, but time will tell. I'll be sure to make a review post about both this bag and the MEC Cote after this trip is over. 

Just a little personal touch from my super-cute girlfriend, a little name tag for my bike bag! It has my contact deets on the back. This was a really cool Birthday present!

Will have another update closer to my departure date. Take care out there!!

Leading up to a new Frank Trek

Looks like it's been a couple years since I've posted to this blog. The past few years have been tumultuous at times. I dropped out of distance cycling for a couple years, only to realize that I was getting fat and depressed and decided to hop back in the saddle for daylong rides of 50, 100 or the rare 150km ride. I'm not going to make a pledge to you that I'm restarting the blog, or make a commitment to post once a week --because frankly, I'll end up breaking those commitments and promises. But at the moment, I'm gearing up for something that I think is special. 

Ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a little bit of money in the bank, and a little bit of time on my calendar to travel. After consulting with a couple friends from high school, I decided to visit Europe, and to tour France. Not having a tremendous amount of cash, my friends and I brainstormed cheap and immersive ways to see France. Hiking was always mentioned, but to be honest, I absolutely despise walking! Hitchhiking was the next idea. Again, however, too much walking for my likes. Trains, car rentals, or tour groups seemed really expensive for all of us. Eventually, we settled on cycling. It was certainly faster then walking, and after watching a couple Tour de France videos on YouTube, we figured the French countryside would have better attitudes than Canada or the UK for cycle-touring. 

So cycling it was! The experience was so immersive, so thrilling, that I still define this trip as a turning point in my life. I turned away from the idea that I needed a car when I 'grew up,' to embracing --whole hog-- the bicycle as my main mode of transportation. Although I ain't no supermodel now, I lost a lot of weight, but more importantly lost many inches around my waistline. When I got back to Canada, after having my touring bike nicked in Paris, I bought an ungodly looking commuter (a KHS Westwood with an ape-bar) and started biking to school, to the store, to friend's parties, for small day trips. You get the idea. In time, I salvaged a medium sized frame from the garbage at the apartment building I lived in. I had it looked-over for safety reasons, and was told it was probably hit or run over by a car, but the chain- and seat-stays were pried back into place. I breathed new life into it: a new paint job, new drivetrain and groupset, wheels, cables, seat, grips --all the bells and whistles. Despite being a plain old frame with a straight-bar, it was super responsive and fast! Years later, I would buy a road bike --a Giant OCR3-- and a new commuter --a Jamis Coda. I gave the Frankensteinian bike away to a friend in hopes that she would find that special excitement and freedom that I had discovered in France years before. 

I'm not sure if she ever did or not. 

I got into the cycling advocacy racket and learned a lot about municipal and city planning. I still lend a hand every now and then when I have the time energy. I've also been dabbling in bicycle racing, having completed a couple biathlons in the early 2010s and recently, my first criterium (Cat D). 

Great kit! Great crit! Mediocre performance...

It's been 10 years since my foray into cycling started --all from one trip. At the end of the month, having grown as a cyclist and an adult, I plan to revisit many of those same roads in Northern France with one of those high school friends in tow. With our route planned from Sevenoaks, UK to Paris, France, we'll be staying in many of the same towns and suffering over the same hills and trials from 2007. 

I can't wait. 

Will post again about the bike I'm taking, the gear I've settled on and what little tech I'll be bringing along with me.

This might be a flash in the pan for this blog. I might return to years of silence, but I hope you'll join me for this reunion ride, 10 years in the making!

Join me for France Trek +10!

A busy summer and a NB-NS tour

It's been a pretty wonderful summer this year! Lots of sun, lots of distance logged in on the bike, and --last but not least-- a lot of big wins for cycling in Halifax. 

The Crosstown Connector, Windsor Street's beautiful bike lane, has a bit of an upcoming expansion in the Dalhousie separated bike lane. From there, it's just a hop, skip and jump to the Hollis Street bike lane in downtown Halifax. It's getting to the point that if you live in the North End or West End, you could hop onto a bike lane which will take you all the way to the universities in the South End, or to work Downtown. Hospital workers that live on the peninsula can also crossover from Windsor Street to the bike lane on Bell Road to get to work at both the Halifax Infirmary, Emergency Department or the Victoria General Hospital sites. Though it's true both the Dal bike lane and the Hollis street bike lane have hit last minute speed-bumps, I'm pretty convinced that they'll be started in the spring, at the very latest. 

As for myself, I'll continue biking during the winter in a commuter capacity and will try to keep up with this blog. I'll start likely begin reducing the distance I do per month leading up to November, when I start switching over the the indoor trainer --something that will be a little more tough to do with a smaller apartment. 

But before all this comes to pass, I've been planning a season-topping ride from Sussex, NB back to the shores of Halifax, NS. A ride of nearly 400km over four days. Starting in Sussex early next week, I'll be staying at a friend's place in Moncton after the first day of riding, then switch over to B&B's in Lorneville, NS and Truro on days two and three before grinding the rest of the way home on day four.

Most of my summer feels like it's been leading up to this. After having some vacation-timing troubles this month, I've been lucky to line this up, leaving myself with time to increase the length of my rides. Right now I'm more than comfortable riding a 100km day going between 27-30kph. Helping me get to this point was my season opener tour of Chester-Windsor-Halifax (about 200km). Then a couple weeks ago I busted out another 180km trek to Middle Musquodoboit and back (out through Lawrencetown and back through Enfeild --See pics below). This Sussex-Halifax trip will be the largest I've done in such a short amount of time, so it's going to be a real challenge for me. 

One of the largest challenges of the trip isn't really the distance at all, but controlling my pace. I'm usually a big fan of putting my head down and really pushing those pedals in order to go as fast as I can. On rural roads, I can reach and hold over 30kph. Hills are usually a pain, especially being a stately 200lbs, but I'm starting to tackle them with more gusto. The route I've mapped has a great amount of flat road, with a couple larger climbs sprinkled in each day --especially on the approach to Truro. Most of the time I'm following the shoreline along the Northumberland Straight, so the scenic aspect of this route should be super-enjoyable. I'll keep you guys posted and try to put up pictures as I go along. 

So do you all have season-ending rides you'd like to share? Leave your notes in the comments below!

Behind St. Pats

Just a quick update: The throughway behind St. Pats former high school that connects Vernon St to Windsor St via St Vincent's Nursing Home is paved and coming together pretty well. The next step in that area is to pave the route from the end of Quingate Pl. all the way behind St. Pats and to Windsor St. 

Pretty good work by Halifax construction workers. Despite the signage, I've been able to cut through St Vincent's this whole time, as have hundreds of other bikers and walkers. I've never had any of the workers get in a tiff about it either. I can't wait to use the finished product!

In slightly more disheartening news, the MacDonald bridge bike lane officially closed on June 29th, and taxiing bikes across the bridge has hit an impasse already. According to CBC Reporter Brett Ruskin, a bike fell off the shuttle trailer while proceeding across the bridge. That really sucks, and I hope the owner gets some sort of help from HHB to restore his ride. With that said, it's pretty mind-boggling that the Halifax-Dartmouth Ferry Service hasn't capitalized on this by offering a reduced-fee or free tolls for cyclists that use said ferries! I personally would love a free-return ticket program for cyclists. It might be an avenue for the ferry service to pick up new recreational riders! I never used to use the ferry at the end of my rides when I first started cycling in Halifax, but having given it a try last year, I look forward to it at the end of each of my rides. It makes for a good cool-down period before making it back home.

So to Halifax Transit: Give 'em a taste, and they'll come back! Just make sure to get better bike racks on the ferries, or allow people to sit and hold onto their bikes while crossing. 

In any case, I'm sure we're going to be hearing of more growing pains with this whole bridge-crossing issue for cyclists over the next year and a half. 

It's looking like an exceptional week for cycling! Be sure to get out there and have some long rides you guys!

Halifax Bike Week and Chester-Windsor-Halifax mini-tour

Another Bike Week has come and gone, and with it, summer has officially started --in my mind at least. Actually over the past three years or so, I've noticed that Halifax's official week dedicated to the bicycle has been the harbinger of warmer weather and sunny skies in Nova Scotia. With another bike lane being established in a high-use area --our new protected bike lane along University Blvd.-- and our existing lane along Windsor St. seeing sustained and growing usage, I'm feeling a surge in bicycle use by people looking to transit into the peninsula without relying on the automobile.

But if you stopped to ask me how my bike week turned out, sadly with moving to a new apartment and unpacking and trying to organize my life from a series of 40 boxes, I was unable to attend any events. To make up for this, I took three days to grind out a ride from Halifax to Chester, then Windsor, then back to Halifax, making a mini-tour of about 200km.

Roughly the Halifax-Chester-Windsor-Halifax Route

Overall this was an awesome idea, and was probably the best road trip I've done in the past several years! Not only did the distance feel perfect, I performed a lot better than I thought I would! Though a lot of this could be attributed to using the indomitable Defy 2 with an Axiom Flip-Flop seatpost rack on the back and Axiom's Paddywagon trunk-bag to haul a couple changes of clothes, ratty shoes, snacks and a good book. 

In any case, with that 200km under my belt, I find I'm looking for a slightly longer route to try later this summer! With a couple friends around Moncton and Truro, I was thinking that linking up a route from Moncton-Amherst-Truro-Halifax would be a great challenge! Until then, I hope you guys enjoy some photos of my trip and the inns I stayed at during my ride!

Ready for Rain on Wednesday, June 10

Checking out the bar, Fo'c'sle at my first stop in Chester, NS

Staying at the Mecklenburg Inn in Chester, NS

My suite in the Mecklenburg Inn (I was upgraded to a larger room)

Waterfront shot in Chester, NS

Just chillin' by the Docks

Suiting up for Day 2: Chester to Windsor

Clockmaker's Inn in Windsor, NS

Clockmaker's Inn in Windsor, NS

Winding road leading back home to Halifax, NS

Tunnel of trees while climbing Mt Uniacke

Total trip distance!