The rest of my training was dismal and better not mentioned, I was going to have to get fit on route.
Landing to a rainy Vancouver after 30 hours in airports and flying a shower, dinner and bed.
Aided by jetlag I woke early and tackled the first task of putting my bike back together, Linden cycles had boxed the bike and let down the tyres, with a sinking feeling in my stomach I realised, damn I had forgotten to pack a pump.... I googled the closest bike shop couple of hundred metres away but they only opened at 11.
I pushed my bike laden with panniers towards the main road in search of a pump. Couple of hundred metres and I was in luck, a bike rental shop came to the rescue. A cappuccino and then on my way. My first destination was the ferry at horseshoe bay about 18 km’s away. My ride took me through Stanley park and then across to Vancouver West. Riding through Stanley park with hundreds of other cyclists one particular cyclist passed me with a comment "seriously large arse" I am not sure whether he was being rude about my arse or making a joke about my bikes rather large rear end, I presumed the latter.
My bike with 2 rear and 2 front panniers plus a handlebar box weighed about 45 Kgs. Add to that my rather embarrassing 115 Kgs makes for a rather slow ungainly 160 Kgs with a wicked downhill acceleration, but dismally slow uphill.
Cycling through West Vancouver along Marine Drive the rain had disappeared and the sun was shining and there were thousands of other cyclists out. After about 5 km’s a bus labelled Horseshoe bay seemed a very appealing option. At about 10 with about 2 km’s to go I stopped for breakfast then proceeded to get lost, having asked directions I headed back on the left hand side of the road speeding down the hill and around a corner I was met by a driver with eyes the size of saucers slamming on breaks with my large rear end sliding out I somehow pulled on to the verge. Luckily he didn’t have time to tell me what he thought of me, disaster averted I meekly pulled across to the right hand side and continued. Truth being told my underpants had changed colour I don't think I'll be making that
After my morning cycle of now 22 km’s at a rather dismal average of 14 km per hour I caught the ferry from horseshoe bay to Langdale or Gibsons. I left the ferry to be met by a horrible climb of about 200 metres accent, luckily my cell was running flat so I couldn’t run Strava and get my average speed, huffing and puffing I cycled about half the way and was forced by exhaustion to walk the other half. taking regular breaks whenever I found a shady spot.
Having
showered I stiffly walked across the road to a pub for an early dinner and
to update my blog. I was really glad
that I had limited my distance to between 30 and 40 km’s per day for the first
few days. To make the 3200 I needed to average approximately 70km’s per day
which seemed like a daunting task seeing as I battled to do 30km’s.
Day
2 I woke at 4.45, breakfast only opened at 7, so I took the time to try and get
my bags organised in a more logical order, wishing my daughter Max was around
her organisational skills would have come in handy.
I
was a bit stiff, but felt great and ready for the day ahead. The day’s ride was
30 km’s from Gibsons to half moon bay, I averaged just over 17 km’s per hour.
My accommodation was a stunning little B&B. My energy levels felt sapped
after 30 km’s I knew the next day which was 44km’s was going to be very tough.
