Ride Report: St. Thomas Trilogy 2022: All Aboard the Huron Express!

Route / Event: Railway City 200 / 200km Brevet [ Ride Log ]

"You hear that?" I asked Michel. 

"What?" he replied. The strong headwind was in both of our ears so of course he couldn't hear me. I hammered the pedals to close the gap between us. 

"Did you hear anything behind us? I think I heard voices." I yelled. We were climbing into the wind on a road with no shoulder so I hadn't had the chance to safely check behind me. For all I knew, 140kms into this ride I was hearing voices in my head. When it was finally safe to do so, I peered over my shoulder. Six smiling faces, riding two abreast, were right on my wheel.  

"They're here!" I confirmed. "The Huron Express has caught up to us."

"Hop on!" Brenda yelled in confirmation. 

=- earlier that day -=

I was up at 5:30a.m, a full thirty minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Today's brevet was set to launch from St. Thomas, only a short drive from my place in London, but in spite of the fact that I could afford to sleep in a bit, my mind was too excited. And besides, with summer solstice just around the corner, the sun was already up, so what was my excuse? 

Michel picked me up, and on the way in we hit up a Tim Horton's. Not only because I needed breakfast (farmer's wrap of course), but also to buy today's lunch and stow it in a cooler I'd brought along.  Today's route offered a a figure-eight pattern where the second of four checkpoints was right back at the departure point. This provided participants the opportunity to self-support, which was something we fully intended to optimize. Michel and I wanted to be able to socialize with our peers after the ride, but knowing that we didn't typically ride as fast as many of them our strategy was to reduce our control stop time. We assumed most would stop for an extended sit-down lunch at the brewpub before picking up the back half of the route so we intended to touch-and-go here to make up the time.   

RANDO-RAMBLE: Before setting off there was an interesting public service announcement regarding self-support rules. This brevet was actually billed as a double-feature, hosting both a 100km 'populaire' route, as well as the full 200km brevet route. Populaires are typically used early in the season typically for conditioning. However, when used throughout the season they can provide an on-ramp for new club prospects. Coupling a populaire with the group depart of a brevet creates a richer experience to these newcomers. Still, it presents an interesting wrinkle in the rules governing brevets; specifically article 7.  In the spirit of self-sufficiency, while ride-groups are permitted to form naturally for like-paced riders, participants of a brevet cannot draft riders that are not part of their event. As populaires are not sanctioned rides this restriction is not enforced on them. And so, long-course riders were cautioned not to draft off short-course riders. 

All aboard to the Great Western Railway Station! (0 - 50km)

13 passengers aboard the Huron Express

With all thirteen riders on-board, the Huron Express was leaving the station! The course start is actually a bit of a nightmare for digital navigators such as RideWithGPS or Garmin. These modern navs are intended to prompt you along any portion of a given route no matter where you pick it up, so they don't always assume you're starting at the start point. And because the start point of this route is also its midpoint, the opening cues can be a bit random. Thankfully I knew this route well, having ridden the 100km populaire, and having designed it's extension. I ignored nav prompts I was getting to proceed along the second half of the course, and advised others to do the same. Ain't no robots replacing this brain!

Taking the lead on navigation put me at the front of the large pack as we left St. Thomas. I was riding next to Vince to my right, who I knew from previous finishing times could likely wrap this entire course in as little as six hours, and it wasn't long before I felt the pace we were pulling wasn't going to remain conversational for me. I couldn't drop off the pack to the left due to traffic so I asked Vince if I could pull in front of him and force a clockwise rotation in our pack. Not sure our pack of normally self-supported cyclists was ready for a regimented rotation but they fell in line. I was just trying to stay alive. 

Eventually, we'd rotated to the point where Michel and I were at the back of the pack. There, we virtually decoupled our train car and let the Huron Express take off while we settled into our own zone 2 pace. We had a third rider with us -- I looked quickly to see if I recognized him. "Hey cool, Ben's still with us!" I said to Michel. 

Brenda and Tim

"Ben" confirmed we weren't part of the populaire to ensure he was compliant. I asked him why he was on a Trek instead of the Mariposa I thought he had, and he said confirmed he always had this bike. Michel asked him about riding in Florida over the winter, and he responded by saying he doesn't ride there. Case of mistaken identity -- our companion was not, in fact, not Ben Merrit -- it was Ken Jobba. (Whatever -- all cyclists look the same to me!)

Michel and Fred

The ride into Tillsonburgh had been modified since we rode this route as a populaire two months back. It now short-turned a busy, loud county road, favouring quiet backroads into the town -- much nicer! The control was marked by an appropriately themed Great Western Railway Station farm stand, and we arrived, minutes behind the rest of the group, right smack in the middle of a active farmer's market. Ken shared some butter tarts he picked up. Taking one, I said "You're the best Ben!".  (I didn't sort out his identity until way later in the afternoon. So embarrassing).

The train heads back to the Railway City! (50 - 100km)

We departed Tillsonburgh as a group of eight and endured a bit of a headwind coming back west. About halfway back, just outside the village of Springfield we hit a road closure. I'm not sure it was a group decision to persist through the torn up gravel. It was more a combination of momentum, indecision, and unwillingness to stop and figure out a safe route around it. My bike, a Trek Checkpoint, is equipped with wider 32c tires and was marketed as a light gravel bike. Though far from being a proper gravel rig, I wasn't too worried. I looked over at Michel riding on a pair of 25c pizza cutters. 

"You gonna be okay on this?" I asked. 

"Can't talk. Concentrating." was all he could muster in reply. 

Some of the sections were deep and sandy, and would stop me dead in my tracks. I took the majority of this stretch unclipped, riding on the flat sides of my pedals in the event I needed to put a foot down quickly. Love the versatility of reversable pedals. We collected at the end of that challenging section, and continued on. 

Lunch control selfie

Arriving back in St. Thomas just minutes behind the larger group, Michel and I quickly engaged our lunch strategy. We refilled our bottles using a camping cooler Michel had packed (and I spiked mine with Gruppo Ride), ate the sandwiches we'd bought in the morning along with some fruit, and made use of the washroom. 

We were just about to leave when John and (the real) Ben pulled into the control. This was my first indication that I'd beek mis-identifying Ken all morning. 

With our transition time down to twenty minutes we departed the two of us, waving at the rest of the group as they were settling on the outdoor patio of the brewpub. "See you sometime this afternoon!" I said.

Racing the Express to Coldstream (100 - 150km)

The prevailing westerlies had picked up in the afternoon and we riding right into them for a good part of the next leg. The midday traffic was also a factor that worked against us. Having a lot in common, Though Michel and I never seem to run out of things to talk about on long rides, the wind was loud and the roads were busy, so we spent the next few kilometers quietly riding single file.

Halfway to the next control, in the small town of Delaware, we'd just come screaming down a steep hill (which my wife and I both loathe climbing) when Michel's bike started emitting an unsavoury noise. 

"You got a rub on your brakes?" I asked. 

"Not sure" he responded, looking at his front tire. 
"It might be a loose spoke" I offered. We'd just ridden over a bridge section that was covered in gravel so I surmised that a spoke was loose. So we stopped. 

"It's not a spoke, I'm flat." Michael said, after a quick inspection. 

We headed over to the shade of a large tree to take care of the issue. Michel took note of the time. I guessed correctly that it was his intent to time how long it took him to overcome this mechanical. I asked if he needed any of my tools, knowing full well he had everything he needed -- I just wanted to be helpful. Apart from using my handpump over his own, because it was conveniently strapped to my seat tube, Michel swapped his tube out in no less than fifteen minutes. I had been keeping a lookout for signs of the Huron Express, but once Michel's wheel was back on, we took off. 

Third Control: Mark, Jay, Darcy, Ken, Tim, Fred, Michel
(and Brenda behind the camera)

We were only about five kilometers away from the third control when the larger group, six in all, did catch us as described in the prelude of this entry, so we happily boarded that train and let it carry us into the station. 

Lee's Country Spot is a diner out in the middle of nowheresville. Whatever Lee and his wife must have thought when eight colourful cyclist rolled up in the middle of the afternoon when they had no patrons, they did well to keep to themselves. None of us had any intention of eating, though we bought bottled water (*sigh*) and Powerade from their fridge, and were out of their hair in ten minutes. 

Tailwinds and Turnpikes and Gummy Bears (oh my!) (150- 200km)

"Hey Fred, what are we doing up here?" Michel asked me. 

"If we wanna ride, we gotta pull" I said, between pants. 

We were taking our shift at the head of the Express south down Coldstream Rd, sustaining an even

Darcy (the Gruppo guy),
and Ken (not Ben)

30kph with the tailwind. Once we had enough we both pulled back in unison, let the next pair roll through, and just as we'd done in the morning, we de-coupled ourselves from the group. 

I've heard other endurance athletes describe the dreaded 'bonk', and to this day I can say I've never truly experienced what I've heard described -- I'm pretty good about staying hydrated. But I definitely had a period where my legs suddenly felt like they were made of ice; like the blood within them was cold, and they were heavy and slow. 'This is just the wall' I told myself. I asked Michel if he had any food. We stopped for a minute and polished off what was left of a container of gummies he had. After that, I felt amazing. (Geez Michel, were those edibles? Nah! I heard those take awhile to kick in). 

Moments later I was screaming down a sweeping descent, brake levers pulled right back to the bars, and still my bike was accelerating toward a hairpin to the right. I unclipped, fully expecting to have to Tokyo Drift the corner (this is why I still mountain bike), but I made the turn without incident. Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic! This moment took me back to a similar incident I had on a motorcycle descending the hairpin turn on the Forks of the Credit Rd, except in that case there *was* oncoming traffic. I survived (obviously) but to this day I've never taken that turn on the inside lane. 

For the rest of the afternoon the weather was beautiful -- certainly much nicer than it was the day we scouted this route in advance -- and riding that section again gave us a chance to relive those precarious stormy moments. After that scouting run, I recommended we avoid Longwoods Rd. / Hwy 2, and I adored the quieter roads that we chose as alternates. Hooray for heatmap-based mapping technology. 

We pulled into the station, I mean brewery, at 5:30PM, which meant a finish time of 9:30 -- a personal best for both Michel and I. This was only five minutes shy of my time on the much hillier Queen's Bush 200 -- what the hell was I on that day?  Our plans to debrief the day with our pals were short-lived unfortunately. The brewpub was hosting a comedy event, and closing their patio to patrons. I asked if it was because the smell of cyclists was bad for business, but they assured it me was because it was a ticketed event. 

Reflections and lessons learned from this ride: 

• I have my packing for a 200km brevet down to a precise checklist, and decent control discipline. After 3 200s this season, I'm declaring victory on goal #1 of this year "Normalize a 200". Goal #2 is "complete a 300". That's coming in July. 
• I think I've outgrown this Shimano Sora groupset. Need more climb and brakes that won't kill me. This is an expensive reflection, so I'll get over it. 
• I once listened to a speaker in an RUSA webinar state that in order to participate in PBP, you should know how to fix a flat in under five minutes. Michel and I disagree with this qualifier. You just need to know how to fix a flat.