Warburg 200 Ride Report attached
Willi Fast
Hello All:
Below is the Ride Report for this weekend’s Warburg 200.
As always occurs in the spring in Alberta, the randonneurs were keeping their eyes on the weather forecasts for the week of April 20th...... the date of our first brevet of 2013, the Warburg 200. New policies in the Alberta Randonneurs Club for 2013 will insist on riders completing brevets on the scheduled date, extenuating circumstances notwithstanding. As a result, the Warburg 200 would proceed, despite deteriorating forecasts as the weekend approached.
My friend Wim Kok (from Fort St John, BC) and I were committed to the ride, with soft commitments also received from other Edmonton riders.
Since the Warburg 200 was the only 200 km brevet scheduled in the north for 2013, it was important for me to complete this ride, since I’m planning to ride the Big Wild Ride 1200 km brevet in Alaska in July, and require a complete series of 200 - 300 - 400 - 600 km brevets to qualify for that event.
On Friday evening, the weather forecast still called for a Saturday maximum temp of only +1 C, with winds in the 20 - 40 km/hr range, along with 60% probability of snow. Yeah! Might be tough?
At 04:00 on Saturday morning, the weather forecast had changed yet again, now projecting winds of 40 - 60 km/hr from the North - Northwest, with gusts up to 80 km/hr in the afternoon! Yikes! Still 60% POP for snow......
I picked up Wim at 06:10, and we drove to the start in west Edmonton, wondering who else might show up for the ride. We got ourselves ready, with no one else there, prepared to challenge the ride as a duo. At 06:55, Joel Paschke came riding up, turning our little group into a trio. Others who had made soft commitments to participate had obviously decided the weather forecast was unconducive to riding.
The three of us set off right on 07:00, heading west on Highway 16, and we found ourselves pushing a head wind right off the bat. Not bad yet though, maybe 10 - 15 km/hr from the northwest. We rode at a comfortable pace of 25 km/hr, conserving energy for the long day ahead.
After some 9 km, we reached Highway 60 and turned south towards Devon, now pedaling with the wind. Too soon we had covered the 11 km to Highway 627, where we turned west again - into the wind. Wim and I decided to ride a pace line to share the work into the wind. The pace we rode was a little too fast for Joel, who fell off the back. Wim and I traded leads every km, and were able to maintain a pace of 25 km/hr. At km 37 into the ride, we hit our first squall of snow, but it was a minor event, in the end amounting to nothing, with the western horizon, however, growing darker and increasingly threatening.
This west bound portion took us in a straight leg for 30 km, and when we reached highway 770, we had earned a reprieve because we would be turning south again, away from the wind. We took a well deserved break, and in a few minutes Joel turned up too. He had done well working into the wind on his own.
By now, it felt like the wind was picking up, and during the break I had gotten quite cold, so we began our south bound leg on Highway 770 towards Warburg. Enroute was a descent into, and climb back out of, the North Saskatchewan River Valley. The descent, which under normal conditions would be a 60 km/hr scream, felt like a stand still in a swirling wind-fest. Gaining little respite from the disappointing downhill, we now faced the inevitable climb back out of the valley, into a head wind. We climbed some 80 vertical meters straight on into the wind, and when we got to the top, the wind was still not favourable. Eventually, we got back onto a straight road due south, and wind was from the side, better than up the nose, but still a cross wind grunt requiring some work.
After 35 km since the last break, we reached Highway 39, turned east, and got a teaser of what waited for us after the Warburg control 1.5 km down the road - wind at our BACKS!
We reached the Warburg Control (88 km, 10:42) and stopped at the Fas Gas. After getting brevet cards signed, we bought supplies and headed back outside for a break. It was cold out, and the wind had picked up yet again so we retreated around the side of the Fas Gas, out of the wind, nestled between fuel tanks and the back door. There was a stack of plastic Dairyland milk crates, and we helped ourselves to makeshift seats so as to get off our feet. Joel discovered he still did not have cell phone coverage. I got cold again during the break and suggested we push on.
The last time I did this brevet route, the next stretch was the low point of my ride - difficult pedaling into the wind as Joel left me in the dust with his strong riding. This time, however, would be different - the wind, now a favourable trailing wind, pushed us down the road, and we were flying at 39, 40, 41, 42 km/hr. And I was thinking: "Don't worry about this afternoon, with a required turn back into this very same wind - be the Buddha, live for the moment, enjoy the gift you've been given!" And, so we did. We blew through the 18 km to Highway 778, turned north for a short stretch through Thorsby, where we got a taste of what would await us later in the day, before gratefully turning east again for another fun 19 km blast into Calmar.
We reached Calmar (130 km, 12:31), and again used the Fas Gas as the check point. Wim had earlier asked me if I had again ordered up the Ukrainian farmer in Calmar who last time had told me to shave my moustache. I told Wim: "No, that was Warburg, not Calmar." However, upon reaching the Fas Gas in Calmar, I told him: "You're right, it was Calmar, and not Thorsby, where the farmer had accosted me."
We retreated out of the wind to the east side of the Fas Gas, where again, we found milk crates for improvised seating. This time, instead of the Ukrainian farmer, a friendly older lady came driving up, and greeted us with: "Not a very nice day for a bike ride!" I responded: "But it's a great day to take pictures of bike riders." I gave her my camera, and she obliged us with a picture. Nice to learn that Calmar has welcoming folks as well as eccentric ones!
Getting cold, we pushed on again, for another enjoyable stretch with the wind, riding east to Leduc. This was another of the high points of the ride, flying with the wind, revelling in the difference from two years ago on this stretch where I struggled. In Leduc, we said goodbye to easy riding, and headed north to Nisku. The 8.5 northbound km to Nisku were a shock to our system, and really made us hunker down to reach the next control. The wind blew apart our little group, and we each worked on our own to reach the MacDonald's in Nisku (155 km, 13:54).
Wim and I were inside when Joel arrived, and wondered why he was standing outside talking on his cell phone in the cold rather than coming in. When he finally did come in, he confessed: "I've given up and made the call of shame to home, to come pick me up. I'm done." No confession required. An honest 155 km for the first ride of the season on the road, in tough conditions is nothing to be ashamed of! Good work Joel!
At MacDonald's, Wim learned how good a hot apple pie can taste, and returned for seconds. After a short reset and mental bolstering, we prepared to leave, on what would be the most difficult portion of the day's ride.
We would be west bound for 12.6 km on highway 625, directly into the heart of the monster that was the wind that day. Wim and I agreed to stick together, and to share the work again in 1 km stretches. And so we did. Each of us would take our place in the front, lean our bikes to the right, into the gale blasting us from the northwest, and taking heart only in the thought that we were providing some small degree of reprieve to our riding partner who had slipped up against our left hip in the lee of our own bodies. All too soon (for the rear rider), the period of 'rest' was over, and it would be our turn to take up the battle at the head of our two-man echelon. 12.6 km, switching every km, meant each of us would do 6 pieces of work before reaching Devon. And, it took every one of those alternations to reach Highway 60.
As we turned north again for the short push into Devon, we now had to lean our bikes to the left to prevent the northwest gale from blowing us into the ditch, now on our right. In Devon (170 km, 15:14), we again stopped at the Fas Gas (where else?), got cards signed, bought refreshments, sought shelter on the lee side of the Fas Gas, and found the obligatory milk crates for seating ............. hmmmm ............ a trend?
We now faced a 20 km stretch on Highway 60, straight to the north, where the wind would be pushing at us from the front left-quarter. But first, we descended back in the North Saskatchewan River Valley (another disappointment !), and grunted our way back up the other side. After cresting the top, the wind blasted us, and continued as our constant pesty companion for the next 20 km. Again Wim and I worked together, but after a while, Wim was uncomfortable even with my pathetically slow pace, and we became separated. Now each of us was left to toil in his own windy pergatory, with a goal of reaching Highway16 again, where we would have a final stretch with the wind for 9 km back to the finish.
This stretch was interminable for me, every rise in the landscape surely being the final approach to the Highway 16 clover leaf, yet time and time again yielding nothing but disappointment - still not there!
Finally, I gained the Highway 16 goal, and wondered how long I would wait there for Wim. I had decided to wait for him at Highway 16, so we could finish the ride together. As I waited, with no where to hide from the elements, I got very, very cold, the wind whipping my sweat-soaked clothes and quickly cooling me as a result.
Some time later, Wim finally arrived, sharing that he had stopped for a quick bite, fearing that eating on the bike in this wind would have been dangerous. We pointed our bikes to the east, and could see only a faint Edmonton city skyline through the swirling snow and howling wind. The last 9 km went quickly, and coldly (!), and we got back to the finish at 17:10 (200 km).
Shivering, we packed our bikers into my van, turned on the heater, and shared a celebratory Big Rock Ale. Good to be finished!
The first brevet of 2013 was not an easy one (10 hours, 10 minutes) – among my slowest of 200’s ever. Surely it will stand me in good stead as a training ride for the longer brevets to follow ......
Next up - the Blue Ridge 300 on May 4th ......
Thanks to Peter for his report of the Calgary ride this weekend – Strathmore 200 – a tough ride according to his account – and, for Peter to say that, you better believe it!
--
Willi Fast, MSc RPF
Senior Partner
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