Silly Solstice Ride

[mfarnham]

Just a note that the annual Silly Solstice Ride--Winter Edition (100km worth of laps of Beacon Hill Park) is scheduled for December 24, with a 5:30am meetup for coffee at Cook Street Starbucks and a 6am-sharp commencement of laps near the petting zoo.

For all the astronomical pedants, the reason we're not doing this ride on the *actual* solstice is that if we do it on Dec 24 it counts towards one's Festive 500 mileage (a similarly stupid idea/challenge to ride 500km between Xmas Eve and New Year's Eve).

For more insight into the insanity (including cross alternatives to the regular road event), see last year's discussion: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8034

Martin

[Rolf]

Yes, the cross version this year has a few blanks to fill! Particularly Mayor's Grove, the waterfront, the southeast forest, and Goodacre Lake:



Last year four of us played follow-the-leader, with 5-10 minute turns up front; it was pretty fun. We may not quite meet the mileage of the roadies, but our brains enjoy about 500% more stimulation. And despite the lower speed, it's just as (if not more) physically taxing given the full-body engagement over varying terrain.

[Claire]

And herein we witness the birth of Rolf's aspiration to paint the entire city block of BHP in solid red.

[LouiseF]

I can't wait. Was so much fun last year. I'll bring Bailey's again

[myboys]

How have I missed this thread? Cross silly solstice? Bailey's?

Can't wait.

Mary

[barton bourassa]

There is a small group of us that propose to see if we can do this with a 25 or 26 km/hr average as opposed to 30 plus (avg sp last year was 30.8 k/hr). So, if you are inclined to give this a go but aren't sure if the quicker pace is for you, we'll be keeping it kind of gentle. Starting at the same time, finishing a bit later!

Or should we start earlier and finish at the same time? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Barton.

[Stéphane Tran]

A few folks will still be doing the regular Tuesday ride but we join in for some BHP laps afterwards.

Stéphane

[mfarnham]

With one group doing 30 and one doing 25 the faster group would pass the slower group about 10 times over the course of the ride. Could get a bit hairy, especially with peacocks, pedestrians, and narrow sections. Would it be possible for a group wanting a less strenuous ride to sit on the back and skip pulls?

Martin

[Gerry L]

Perhaps the less fast riders could do shorter pulls avoiding being on the front going up the "little" hill (that seems to get larger) on Douglas St. leading to the park entrance. 30- 32 the rest of the time shouldn't be a problem.

Gerry

[John D]

>With one group doing 30 and one doing 25 the faster group would pass
>the slower group about 10 times over the course of the ride.

That's about once every 20 minutes, so I don't see the problem. We do this sort of thing all the time on Tuesdays and Fridays (i.e. multiple groups safely passing each other) in Beacon Hill, on the Tuesday box, etc. If it isn't safe to pass (i.e. peacocks, pedestrians, problem children - oops - cyclocrossers), then the faster group simply backs off until it is safe to do so.

>Would it be possible for a group wanting a less strenuous ride to sit on the back and skip pulls?

It's not the pulling that's the problem, per se. It's the riding at a sustained pace of 30 km/h for three hours (as opposed to 25 km/h).

JD

[Rolf]

A 2019 Winter Solstice Century event gallery is now up on the TS Photos site and waiting for your additions. [Viewing password is in your latest The Rivet email newsletter.]

Here's the link directly to the upload page.

It felt good to get out there as a Club and get silly once again (in our own special ways!) Hopefully we don't have to wait a full year again to the next one...

[barton bourassa]

NICE!!

Merry Christams Happy Holidays Peace!

Barton.

[John D]

I know it's a bit early to be collecting nominees for next year's Post of the Year, but this photo is just begging for a caption competition.

[Rolf]

I actually submitted a caption in real time while taking these shots. ...

It seemed to strike a chord.

[Rolf]

Here's a raw, largely unedited three minute video of group pans from when the cross crew briefly joined the road train on Tuesday. (Because you know it's fun to pick yourself out of the line!)

Still working on the off-road edit...

[Greg F]

I know it's a bit early to be collecting nominees for next year's Post of the Year, but this photo is just begging for a caption competition.

“Mid-ride, Mary paused to ponder that age-old question: Had she had too much Baileys, or was she really seeing twinkling cross bikes in a conga-line??”

[Rolf]

Here's an edit of our 2019 Winter silly solstice cross ride (with lots and lots of roadie cameos.)