Tripleshot Cycling

It is that time of year again - The Winter Solstice Beacon Hill 100km Ride

I will post "The Rules" soon, but I would like to reiterate that you do not have to do all 63 loops. Come out for a couple, come out for 10, 25, 50. Ride with the group, with a buddy, or ride solo. Start early or late; the choice is yours. From my experience last year, getting there too early is a terrible idea as the temperature before 6am can be drastically lower than later in the day. Even in thermals, it was cold enough that it wrecked any chance of me finishing.

Major details:
Time: 6am at Cook st. Starbucks; 6:30 at Beacon Hill
Distance: 100km (100 laps gets a hero gingerbread cookie and deep respect)
Brunch: 10am-ish at Bubby's Kitchen

Crazy idea time. 4am start to wrap up 37 laps (59.2km) by the scheduled group coffee meet at 6am. Leave again at 6:30am and ride the remaining 63 laps to complete 100 laps or roughly 100 miles. I'm already working a night shift a day prior so sleepiness shouldn't be an issue. Any takers?


ps: Weather should be quite pleasant, 10c through the night with light rain and a bit of wind.

Dear arfenarf (a thinly-veiled open-letter-turned-ride-report),

Today was the first day it really hit home that you moved back east. I know there was your garage sale with a lifetime of odds and ends off your different bikes, I attended the farewell BBQ one warm evening this fall, and your absenteeism from the AGM should have prepared me for the fact that you wouldn't be coming to the Solstice ride. Fact is, I wasn't ready.

I wasn't ready for the relative tranquility that descended on the group. Not once did someone ride up beside me and remind me that (1) this whole thing is stupid, (2) a bag of hammers originally thought of this ride but were smart enough to keep it to themselves, (3) the only thing crazier than this idea are all the other riders who showed up.

The ride this year was amazing. I would imagine we had close to 20 that completed the whole thing and another 10 or so that came out for some laps and encouragement before disappearing again into the inky darkness. There were so many riders that at one point the peloton actually fractured. OK I'll own it, I drove the pace too hard down by the petting zoo and fractured the group. No this is not my amazing winter fitness showing through, but rather my lack of group rides and overzealous enthusiasm. I paid for it at about lap 45. Instead of dissolving into chaos, the fractured riders formed a second group which meant that, for a while at least, there were two packs riding around Beacon Hill. The weather was perfect, mild and dry. At least it was till about 9am, then it looked like something from a Belgian classic. Hammering rain and crosswinds off the water that almost stopped the bike dead. Had it been like that from the start, I would have abandoned, but it did remind everyone present that this was the Winter Solstice and though the laps are fewer, the ride presents its own challenges.

As always, Barton was the ringmaster, cutting down the pull length when the speed started to drop, and answering a constant barrage of "Are we there yet?" questions from the group. Like in previous years, Dave showed up a few hours early to stop anyone from complaining about soreness or tiredness. Paul C. again demonstrated to newbies that it is OK to not complete the whole ride, and that 100 laps goes by a lot easier when combined with a dozen or so coffees. Paula again smashed any idea of a gender barrier, showing that there is nothing more feminine than hard riding. Al, Ritchie, and a few others reminded us all that this is essentially a pagan celebration to the end of darkness and rode around with wheels, frames, and even sunglasses covered in Christmas lights. Mark was a metronome, allowing gaps to open when people surged, refusing to be broken from his veteran hardened rhythm. Brad showed up on his road bike in the darkness for some laps, only to return on a commuter with his family later on to wave and cheer. John came for his workout, then made sure everyone got past the dangerous teen laps where focus starts to waver. Jack was there to show that even in winter there are new shoots getting ready to bloom, and Calgary Steve was there to put in a monster pull with 8 laps to go to launch himself and that new shoot free and clear and so far out of sight that the peloton could do nothing but race for third. Peter was also there to light up a couple of matches with 1.5 to go which saw the whole thing unravel into a bloody fist fight for that coveted third place. I never saw who crossed in third as I had blown up completely and soft pedaled my final lap.

My "This is why I ride bikes" moment came at about lap 40, when a couple of kids were hopping out of a parked car along Dallas Rd and mistook us for the Tour de France. They waved at us for 3 laps before their mother could finally drag them away from the curb. I will never be pushed up Dutch corner, but that gave me wings up by Terry Fox for a few, much needed, laps.

The Solstice rides seem nicely entrenched now and are taking on a life of their own. One half-assed post, a bit of chatter amongst ourselves, me not even remembering to post "The Rules", and yet the ride went like clockwork. Kate, it is time for an east-coast version of the Stupid Summer Solstice Century. My guess is that you won't be in town on June 21, 2015. This gives you 6 months to scope out a ring, figure out how many laps it would take to reach 100 miles, then infiltrate a club as stupid as Tripleshot and convince others to join you. Regardless, we all have Strava and will be watching you closely.

Now stop reading the chatline and go for a ride with Michigan Dave.

S

PS - Thanks again to everyone who came out. Apologies to all whom I snubbed and whose names do not appear above. Blame it on the darkness and my own delirium riding nearly 3x longer than my average ride these days. Please feel free to add your own ride report below.

Good action. I hope y'all up there in Canada have a merry Christmas or happy other thing you might be into. Glad the ride was good, even though whoever thought that up must be dumb as a box of rocks. We did our own 100 km solstice-ish ride today: me, Lisa, Kim, Joe, Derek, Duane. I played tour guide on my preferred route to Mt. Palomar, but was too fat and weak to complete the climb. Everybody else did 2000+ metres climbing including one of the more epic climbs in North America. It was a bit tough as the temperature got close to 80 at its peak. It's pretty rough down here. Have a great holiday season and we'll see y'all for some morning rides at the end of January.

<3 <3 <3

The closest I got to ridiculously epic this solstice was 108 sun salutations at the Y. Still can't walk right, so that must count for something.

Will see what I can do for June.

K