Tripleshot Cycling

From home and back to home: 75K, avg. 20, max 73, 3:44 rolling time (which coincidentally is how much sleep I got last night - ahhh, children).

Rita recorded 1:43 from the tollbooth to the top. We both took it easy in parts and had many micro-rests as we were nursing thighs worked over in the last few days (me from hiking and Rita from insane squats sessions). Despite not riding against the clock, it still hurt a lot and I was very smiley when the climbing finished.

A pretty small turnout overall, only about 11 or 12 TripleShotters, mostly some of the newer folks. Only about 30 riders on the boat all told. We dumped bags on the way by at Joe, Kim, Bill and Sarah's motel (thanks guys!)

A hard climb for out-of-shape legs, but very satisfying in the end. Not much view at the top, but everyone was eager to get down and below the snow line again. The descent was a total blast and I look forward to doing it when it's not like riding through pea soup with 30m visibility. I got a little ahead of our gang and pulled over in a very spooky tunnel dense with fog and darkness. I yodelled a bit and really enjoyed the reverb.

A lot of people suffered from the cold on the way down as we were all pretty much soaked from persistent light rain and the dense clouds and fog. We saw a fellow Victoria rider (Ken?) whizzing past us going down about 7K from the summit (Too cold! - he yelled). We found out later he ended up in a medical facility being treated for hypothermia. Brrrrrrrrr...

Looking forward to doing this again before the end of summer, when we can actually see the bees buzzing bucolically among the wildflowers and the majestic peaks around us!

More photos:

What a fantastic day! Now that I'm all warm and dry again, I feel very pleased that I didn't back down, like some of us did (don't want to mention any names, Allan! And I thought you were tough!). Contrary to Rolf, I counted only 7 Tripleshotters, but given Rolf's condition, it's understandable: May I introduce our newest member who we've picked up in the local coffee shop:

Awesome first time up the ridge for me, spent most of the time on my own but had a good pace and got up the mountain faster then I'd hoped, passing the bottom cloud layer and snow as I went. I was actually quite a nice temperature untill I stopped at the top, after which the temp/energy spent climbing caught up with me a bit, nothing a bit of hot chocolate and fries couldn't fix. Cold descent even with several layers on and a garbage bag stuffed down the front of my shirt but still a blast, too bad fog (which would be more accurately called 'cloud') and an annoying thing called common sense kept the speeds down in the initial section. Overall a lot of fun, good to see tripleshot members dominating a small group of idiots after the main group bailed out; the weather really wasn't that bad (but note the temperature on the thermometer at the summit, 2C colder and it would've been hairy)!

Alec

I got to the Coho terminal at 5:30 thinking that I would meet some riders and we would have the common sense to skip Hurricane Ridge and do a nice spin around the peninsula instead. (Un)fortunately there was quite a bit of enthusiasm for the Ridge so off we went. I would say there were about 25 riders in all, but Tripleshot was very well represented with 7 members. After the ride to the park entrance, Kevin and I were the last 2 from the 1st batch to leave the gatehouse. Our goal was to keep a steady pace and push ourselves without killing ourselves. I am glad I rode with Kevin as I really had to push myself to stick with him. At one point he said "this is a nice comfortable pace", but I was feeling definitely less than comfortable!
The cold wasn't too bad on the way up, but the fog was thick and heavy. We managed to reel in 4 other riders who took off before us, which felt good. Once at the top the cold really hit and I spent about 20 good minutes in front of the hand dryer (aaaahhh...) blasting the chill from my bones (and my clothes). The descent was FREEZING and the fog and wet road forced us to slow down quite a bit. I can see myself enjoying the downhill more on a sunnier, warmer day. But all in all, it was a great ride with great company and I look forward to doing it again. Thanks Dave for the garbage bag. You also get style points for the shower cap. Kudos to Kevin for riding in shorts. Who needs Tripleshot legwarmers when your legs are already blue?

Rita wrote:Contrary to Rolf, I counted only 7 Tripleshotters, but given Rolf's condition, it's understandable:

Yeah, I was using the broad and liberal interpretation of "TripleShotters" and included other folks who have ridden with us, though perhaps not regularly - like Hugh T., Rumon C. etc.

We should really get a crew together and do it again some sunny day in August.

Yeah, sorry I bailed guys. You should get medals for your bravery!
My bailing might have been partly due to the memory of climbing the col de la Ramaz when I was in the French Alps in April. Probably the closest I've been to hypothermia--snow at the top, rained the whole time, not enough clothing, etc.
This col will be one of the climbs on the Tour de France this year--8th stage I think. The Tour starts tomorrow. I don't think there'll be snow at the top still, but anything's possible.