Ride Report: St. Thomas 2022 Trilogy - Episode 1: Railway City 70

 Route / Event: Railway City 70 / 70km Populaire [ Ride Log ] 

Spring has spring in Southwestern Ontario. Though old man winter's last exhale threatened us with freezing rain, the early morning forecast reported above freezing temperatures -- that's all I needed to see. 

The ride today is a populaire -- a sub-200km route with no required control points to pass through. Early in the riding season these shorter rides serve as great conditioning to the longer brevets which start in May, though I've noticed that some club chapters will run populaires throughout the entire season as they make great entry points for new riders all year round. 

This is the first populaire I've participated in with the Randonneurs Ontario club because the spring lockdowns of last year saw them all cancelled. Despite the shorter distance, I've approached preparing my bike and myself the same way as though it was a full brevet event. I could have gone without the food or extra battery I packed, but my view was that this is all just practice, so I'm all in. 

Michel pulled up to my driveway at 6:30am. Though it was he who, through water cooler conversations at the office, introduced me to the club back in 2019, this was the first time we'd actually be riding together. As I was loading my bike onto Michel's rear rack I recognized the ride he'd already mounted. 

"Isn't this your fixie?" I asked. 

"Yeah, slight change of plans" he replied. Michel explained that he'd had an irreparable flat the night before while preparing his road bike and so had brought his fixed gear as a backup. We hit up a Tim Horton's on the way out of town, each grabbing a coffee and a farmer's wrap (I've accepted that this has essentially become my staple breakfast before any endurance ride). 

We pulled into the St. Thomas where the ride would depart around 7:30am (another Tim Horton's of course). We were expecting Tim and Brenda, who were driving in from Amherstburg, but soon after we arrived another gentleman pulled a gravel bike out of back of his SUV looking ready for a morning of riding. The man came over to introduce himself. John, who had come in from the Toronto area, had recently joined Randonneurs Ontario, after having been referred by a couple of other club members he met while navigating the BT700 bikepacking route last year. It's always great to have new members to welcome in an event. Tim and Brenda arrived as expected shortly thereafter, and after a the obligatory departure photo, we set off. 

Left to right: Brenda, John, Tim, Michel, Fred

As if by design, the very moment we started pedaling, passing by the Jumbo the Elephant monument, the snow started to fly -- the big chunky snowflake variety, the very kind that children often catch on their tongues. So of course I did the same, because catching snowflakes while pedaling is new ground for me. #achievementunlocked. 

At this point the battery on top-box mounted Garmin 200 (a hand-me-down from Michel for which I am eternally grateful) alerted that it was low. The warning, which remained inconveniently on-screen, overlaid the breadcrumb trail on the display hampering my ability to follow the route visually. I didn't bother packing a charge cable for this device, assuming it would survive the short route, but I guess the cold weather had other plans. Thankfully I still had audio cues from the RideWithGPS app on my phone, and we were committed to staying as a group, so navigation was not a concern. Duly noted for longer events however! 

The snow squall was a distant memory by the time we were descending into Port Stanley. Thomas Rd. is a lovely stretch of sweeping hilly turns, which while being a little gravely along the edges this time of year, was a very pleasing way to enter this beach town. Down by the lake, with the smell of french fries from Mackie's hanging in the air, we took a group-selfie, and continued on. 

Village Square Coffee House (Nov 2016)
Photo credit: Tripadvisor.com

As we passed through the downtown core of this beach town my attention was drawn to the Village Square Coffee House -- a cafe that was the destination of my first ever memorably long ride from London. The cafe was shuttered in last fall, another victim of the pandemic. The iconic signage removed, leaving only sun-bleached stains on the yellow brick as a reminder of what once was. I didn't bother taking a picture -- I'd rather remember it in its prime and hope that someday soon, something equally attractive establishes it's business there. 

Leaving Port Stanley via Bridge St. involved cranking up an 11% gradient. We were met at the top by Michelle, a friend of Brenda and Tim's. Michelle's company provided a welcome respite for the group after that climb. 

Soon after bidding Michelle adieu, we found ourselves cruising along Dexter Line. With the sun out and a tail wind pushing us along at over 30kph, Tim and Brenda recounted their many recent escapades, having just returned from a vacation that involved a lot of cycling along the Pacific coast of Mexico. I couldn't possibly do the stories justice here, but Tim's 'Cobblestones Eat Tubes for Breakfast', and Brenda's 'Montezuma's Revenge QOM' are the kind of stories that are great to hear when you need to take your mind off the ride log.

Turning onto Old Dexter Line was a reminder that these routes are planned and designed by experienced riders -- ones that appreciate a great lake horizon. What a view! With Lake Erie on our right, we let the tailwind carry us into Port Bruce. 

Leaving Port Bruce involved two steep climbs, the second of which I'll conceded to walking up. As this was the first long ride I'd ridden in clipless shoes, I didn't trust that I wouldn't keel over on a 15% gradient. Michel, on his direct drive, was pushing as well (he's only human!) so our misery had company. 

The push up these hills put the two of us slightly behind the rest of the group. While we still had visual on Tim and Brenda, we could hear John.  I loved our new companion's passion throughout the entire ride, but was now marveling at the fact that, 50 clicks in, John was showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, he seemed to be gaining in energy the more he pedaled. The man is basically a human dynamo! As we zig-zagged back to St. Thomas, Michel and I caught up to the team as John was sharing his regard for the randonneur's 'just-get-there' approach to endurance riding which, as an experienced tourer in his own right, he felt was in stark contrast to a traditional tourer, who is content to stop whenever they feel ready to lay their head down. 

The last leg of the ride consisted of navigating the cycling parkways of St. Thomas. Michel pointed out that routes that end on this type of infrastructure have a discreet way of slowing down the mental pace of the ride as the end approaches. I agreed -- it certainly beat ending the ride on busy roads in town.

Along the paths Brenda dropped her chain - truly the only mechanical issue of the day! As I stopped to wait, I noticed my right foot wouldn't unclip, so I compensated on the other side. Brenda was quick to resolve this issue leaving me no time to figure out what was up with my shoe. It wasn't until we arrived back at the Tim Horton's that I confirmed that, indeed, my right foot was stuck firmly in my pedal. Thankfully Tim had a pedal wrench in his truck. Once off, I could see that I'd lost a bolt in my cleat, causing it to rotate with the shoe, preventing it from unclipping (an issue that would later require the aid of an ingenious neighbour to solve). 

While I would have loved to hang out in Tim Horton's and debrief the ride with my companions, I was looking at either doing that with a pedal stuck to my foot, or walking shoeless -- neither were optimal. We were set to be back to the same starting point in two weeks for the Railway City 100 populaire, so could resolve to be a bit more social on that ride.