A Great Day on the Big Loop

[FairweatherMike]

Thanks to Marcus, his wife Nancy and their Westfalia camper (with their 2 Daschunds aboard as food inspectors), Sunday's Big Loop through Jordan River, Port Renfrew, Lake Cowichan, Duncan and Mill Bay felt a lot like one of those fancy European escorted bike tours. Snacks on the beach at Jordan River and homemade chili at a park in Lake Cowichan made a gruelling ride more than bearable. Thanks also to Mark and Paul who not only organized the ride but wisely made a reservation for us at the Coastal Kitchen in Port Renfrew. Superb food (somehow that emerges as a theme on super-long rides!) and a verandah table added to the Euro-Gran Fondo feel.

New sections of road to Port Renfrew were impressive; I think we got a bit spoiled with the smooth new blacktop. Gone are some of the hairy switchbacks and wild hors categorie pitch-ups of past years - that may be why we arrived at the restaurant for brunch, not lunch. The weather theme for the day was sun, interspersed with coastal mist and a surprise thunderstorm south of Lake Cowichan, that with the sun-baked asphalt produced the curious but pleasant sensation of being in a sauna while sprayed with ice water.

All in all, a great day and great fun (ok, my butt's a bit sore - I do have the Endurance Chamois shorts on order). Looking forward to Nancy's action pictures taken from the door of a speeding VW...

Once the Malahat is "finished", who's in for the loop in the other direction?

[FairweatherMike]

And a supplementary shout-out to two Tripleshotters for fantastic rides:

- The "Beware of Older Guys with Tri-Bars" award to Barton for totally kickin it throughout the ride, and especially on the long grind to Cowichan in the mid-day heat (when I watched him disappear). I learned that his association with the weekday C rides, apart from being a mild-mannered Clark Kent kind of cover, is what he does to recover from the other days when he brutalizes the hills of Victoria; and,

- The "It's not the Bike, it's the Rider" award to Steve (stevierooks) who, when he wasn't totally off the front, was leading the pack on exceptionally long and fast pulls. All this was accomplished on an old $300 Trek ($150 for the bike and $150 for parts and a generous supply of elbow grease) with fenders and rack. Oh, and TOE STRAPS with brightly colored sneakers.

Hmmm, I've got an old Trek with toe straps...oh, right, it's not about the bike.

[gab]

+1 on all Mike's comments, including the reverse loop.

Big thanks to Marcus and Nancy for the support, couldn't imagine the ride without it. And to Mark, Paul and John D for all the planning and coordination, and also to the TSC Club, for supporting the ride. And of course to all the other riders coming out and suffering together!

Gabriel

[John D]

+1 to Marcus, Nancy, Guinness, and Izzy for the road support (victual, transportational and psychological), and to Mark and Paul for organizing the first annual TSC Big Loop Ride. We started with 15 riders. Two had to turn back after a few hours to meet other commitments, a third left us as Jordan River. Two of us bailed out with injuries, leaving 10 brave souls arriving at the Mill Bay ferry.

I finished the ride in fine style in M&N's Westie, as my lower back totally gave out about half-way through the ride. A special shout-out to Ritchie....we must have made quite a pair as the smallest guy in the group physically pushed the largest guy in the group up the switchback climb between Renfrew and Cowichan!

J.

[stevierooks]

Firstly, yeah, totally "Good on You" Marcus and Nancy (mostly Nancy:) You were our ray of hope in a difficult endeavour. And the chilli was supercalifragilisticexpealodoshus. That's my highest rating BTW.

Really though, what a great ride! Met some new peeps, bonded with my other bike buds and conquered some personal goals. I saw some great riding! My three shout outs,in no particular order:

Buddy, you can pump a hill into submission. Lead out pretty much every hill (in the first half:).

Ritchie, you can blast a downhill - even with his gravity challenged body He can corner like he's on rails. I also saw Ritchie working some serious bridging skills. Twice he bridged the back group to the front group on long empty stretches, by himself. Freaked me out twice. "WTF Ritchie!? Where did you come from?"

Barton is a rock. He has an unstoppable ability to keep moving - mostly at full speed.

Cool! I'd do that again. Thanks to everyone!

Rooks