Two laps of the Water Valley Loop, 424km !
As usual, thanks to Craig Stappler who manages to suck people into these great bike adventures we were able to ride one more time the Water Valley loop in 2013, only difference (at least for Kate and Me) is that we rode it twice in three days OUCHHH! Yeap, when Craig said in his email that he was going to ride it on Thursday I sent him an email asking about his plans, it turned out that he was riding it with Kate so I decided on a suicide mission to join them as well !!@###
We left from Kate's place at a nice social pace and 3 hours later we were already having coffee in Water Valley... Until then, I was feeling pretty good and ready to keep going. That is where the gravel roads start and most of the climb too (up to 1,600mts at the top I think, bit higher than Banff). It was a nice climb, then down into some muddy sections where Kate found a nice frozen line to ride, but it wasn't as long. Finally we got to what I call my nemesis (the intersection with hwy40, and a big sign indicating that we are at 59km from Cochrane !) at this point I think anyone is safe to finish this ride, there is some more climbing, but not crazy.. besides, every pedal stroke at this point is taking you home. Craig and I shared some pulls and soon enough we were climbing the WildCat gravel road (of course with some head wind that didn't seem to affect Craig at all to hammer the hill :-)); after that a quick stop in Cochrane to grab a pepsi and finish the last 20k home.. On hwy 1A my shoulders were cramping and my mind was already starting to dream about food ! a lot of food ! I got home and ate almost all of Nick's left overs as he was just finishing dinner..
Friday was a recovery day as I took Nick and Maria to the Zoo, it was packed, but it was warm and sunny, nice day out. Nick enjoyed watching the Elephants and Giraffes.
Saturday, back on the bike again for the second lap of Water Valley. This time with a larger group (Jeff, Trev, Craig, Kate, Devin, Erik and Gary). Devin had some time constraints and headed back solo from Water Valley down the same way to Calgary, the rest of us started the next 120k of the loop. Erik wasn't feeling well, so Craig was pushing him quite a bit. It was a beautiful sunny day and was actually warmer than Thursday. Surprisingly enough I was feeling better than Thursday, I couldn't believe myself, but didn't want to say anything in case I was just about to die and that feeling was just a happy ending for me ::--)) We kept a nice and steady pace, taking pulls and hammering the flats and downs. Erik had a double flat ! and in no time we managed to change both tubes and kept going. Up to WildCat again and Craig, Jeff and Kate just hammer the hill, then it was a nice pace to Cochrane and back to Calgary just before 7pm/./
Wow I couldn't stop telling Maria all the details about the ride, if it wasn't because she would divorce me I would go again this week and repeat the adventure !!
We left from Kate's place at a nice social pace and 3 hours later we were already having coffee in Water Valley... Until then, I was feeling pretty good and ready to keep going. That is where the gravel roads start and most of the climb too (up to 1,600mts at the top I think, bit higher than Banff). It was a nice climb, then down into some muddy sections where Kate found a nice frozen line to ride, but it wasn't as long. Finally we got to what I call my nemesis (the intersection with hwy40, and a big sign indicating that we are at 59km from Cochrane !) at this point I think anyone is safe to finish this ride, there is some more climbing, but not crazy.. besides, every pedal stroke at this point is taking you home. Craig and I shared some pulls and soon enough we were climbing the WildCat gravel road (of course with some head wind that didn't seem to affect Craig at all to hammer the hill :-)); after that a quick stop in Cochrane to grab a pepsi and finish the last 20k home.. On hwy 1A my shoulders were cramping and my mind was already starting to dream about food ! a lot of food ! I got home and ate almost all of Nick's left overs as he was just finishing dinner..
Friday was a recovery day as I took Nick and Maria to the Zoo, it was packed, but it was warm and sunny, nice day out. Nick enjoyed watching the Elephants and Giraffes.
Saturday, back on the bike again for the second lap of Water Valley. This time with a larger group (Jeff, Trev, Craig, Kate, Devin, Erik and Gary). Devin had some time constraints and headed back solo from Water Valley down the same way to Calgary, the rest of us started the next 120k of the loop. Erik wasn't feeling well, so Craig was pushing him quite a bit. It was a beautiful sunny day and was actually warmer than Thursday. Surprisingly enough I was feeling better than Thursday, I couldn't believe myself, but didn't want to say anything in case I was just about to die and that feeling was just a happy ending for me ::--)) We kept a nice and steady pace, taking pulls and hammering the flats and downs. Erik had a double flat ! and in no time we managed to change both tubes and kept going. Up to WildCat again and Craig, Jeff and Kate just hammer the hill, then it was a nice pace to Cochrane and back to Calgary just before 7pm/./
Wow I couldn't stop telling Maria all the details about the ride, if it wasn't because she would divorce me I would go again this week and repeat the adventure !!
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