Day 2 had been dreaded by some, following last year when it was generally regarded as one of the hardest days. This year I was feeling fairly sanguine about it as I felt fairly sure that one of the problems the previous year had been that we didn’t know what was coming, whereas this time we did. The day started slightly ominously for me when I was woken in the middle of the night by driving rain (I was fortunately too tired to pay too much attention or really worry that I didn’t have much in the way of waterporoofing with me – the cycling wardrobe is already rather large and costly!!).
Perhaps I should mention, that this year there are in fact 2 rides. Last years ride was so successful that so many people wanted to do it this year it was decided to have 2 rides. Mine is obviously going to Jasper, whilst the other ride is taking exactly the same route we took last year to Banff. To make it more fun the first two and half days are overlapping with us going our separate ways once we reach Keremeos in the Okanagan valley. The only real downsides of this for me were that there would be many riders we would not see again after the 3rd day, but for the first 3 days it made for a tremendous sight as we all headed on our way.
By the time breakfast came around the rain had mercifully stopped, so the day could begin without too many problems, although full legings and arm warmers were definitely the order of the day.
Leona and Su-Ning ready to go in Harrison:
I knew from last year that the first part of this days ride is a long flat blast up to Hope, so I set off early leaving behind some of the faster riders and was soon at the head of the pack heading towards Hope. After a very enjoyable long ride down the valley we all convened for a bit of refuelling in preparation for the climb up to the Hope slide where lunch was scheduled.
I then headed out with Jen, Simon, John Sullivan and a few others for the journey through Hope and then up to the Hope slide. On our way through Hope John in parted the first of many interesting bits of information – the movie Rambo First Blood had been filmed in Hope and the strip we were just cycling through was where they shot the scene where he trashes the town.
The climb to the Hope slide was not too difficult, although I sometimes wonder if one just blocks the difficulty out in hindsight as I met someone later who expressed amazement that I had cycled up there (yeah, well that was relatively easy!!). Whilst one of the support vans was at the top, it was so cold up there that most of us didn’t hang round long. Hilda and I headed out and then she had the great idea of stopping at a real estate agents office at the bottom of the descent – this provided us with warm and clean restrooms and a nice hot cup of coffee – thanks guys.
The remainder of the day consisted of a nice run to the bottom of the final climb up to Manning Park. The clim up to Manning Park being made much easier by the memory of last year, the only thing missing from my memory was just how steep it got towards the end. A rest stop was awaiting at the top and I stopped briefly there before heading out on the descent into the Lodge. Here, just when I thought everything was behind me, my chain jumped off the front cogs and got wrapped around the crank. With perfect timing one of the support vans was behind me and in it was Danny, our mechanic – he had it back on in no time. I had not been over concerned by this event, but Danny informed me that you have to be careful the chain isn’t bent – sure enough since this event even though it looks ok it keeps jumping on the front cogs every now and again. Road bikes, despite their considerable price, it would seem are really quite sensitive!
Some vital stats:
Trip distance: 108.77km
Time: 4 hrs 17 mins 24 secs
Average speed: 23.71 km/hr
