RonW87
07-04-2007, 04:13 PM
On June 24 the Toronto Bicycling Network held the Toronto-Niagara-Toronto Hairshirt Double Century. The ride goes southwest past Hamilton, makes a left through the center of the Niagara peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, turns north at the Niagara River, then heads up through Niagara Falls and Niagara on the Lake. It then mostly hugs the shore of Lake Ontario all the way back to Mississauga, with a brief detour into the Niagara Escarpment at the wine country near St. Catharines.
As per the TBN site: "It's been twenty years since TBN assumed sponsorship of the Hairshirt, a personal cycling challenge whose name comes from a medieval form of monasterial punishment and penance, in which monks wore shirts woven of very coarse horse hair, causing them to experience extreme discomfort. Founded in 1978 the Hairshirt pits the lonely rider and his/her bicycle against the road and the elements, and for this reason the organizers provide no support other than a map and encouragement."
This was my eighth Hairshirt. My personal best was just over 11 hours, but some years I had come in at 15 hours.
This year I had put way more miles in my legs than in previous years, so I was hoping it would pay off in an improved personal best. But, there are so many variables with this kind of ride that one never knows.
Also, in other Hairshirts, I had always finished in a state of total bonk. So this year I made sure to eat more for breakfast, have way more food along the ride, and use E-load to keep up the electrolytes. I left my retro lugged steel at home for this one. Equipment was a Trek 2200 alu frame with carbon rear stays and carbon fork, Campagnolo Record components and Zipp 303 wheels with tubulars. Two large water bottles plus camelback meant that I wouldn't need many water stops. Food was Gu, Harvest Crunch granola bars, power bars and Clif bars.
43 riders left Square One in Mississauga (a suburb of Toronto) at 6am. It started out fast, as I knew it would. Temperature was comfortable, in the teens, and forecast high was 28 degrees celsius (not too bad, when it's over 30, I get worried). Between the adrenaline and the testosterone, the big boys always want to go to the front and push. It was tongue-in-the-spokes for me the first 80k or so. That was fine because I knew it would eventually settle down and I would have time to recover. Even so, on the lead in to the climb up the escarpment on Dundas/Hwy. 5, I fell off the back of the large front group. This was probably because breakfast was still a large lump in my stomach.
Luckily, the group hit a stoplight a third of the way up the climb and I caught up. After the climb, I seemed to settle in. A few guys, including Peter Murk and David Hamilton, did much of the pulling to the 120k mark at Wellandport, which was our first stop. The group, numbering a dozen or so, cruised in the high 30s (all speeds in km) and I took very short turns. A guy built like a fire hydrant would push it up to mid 40s when he hit the front, eliciting some complaints in the pack. I was hanging with the group and feeling OK.
We left Wellandport and for some reason the front group was down to eight or so. Mr. Fire Hydrant was gone. Again, I tried to hide in the group, taking short turns and conserving energy. We hit the 162k (100 mile) mark at 4:45, so I knew we were on a good ride. I also knew that after 200k it's a knife edge from feeling great to having nothing in the tank, so I wasn't counting any chickens.
We cruised through the Falls and stopped for food and water just after Niagara-on-the-Lake. We were down to six riders. I was still feeling good but knew that we were going to be climbing the escarpment at Jordan. This is where the real Hairshirt starts (and where I've started crawling in past years). After a couple of climbs we lost another rider and were down to five. We stopped at a store in Campden (near Balls Falls) and I started going for the Coke.
As we cruised up the escarpment and then down into Stoney Creek, this Romanian guy, Rares, did the lion's share of the work, along with Peter. David Hamilton fell off the back once. He worked his way back to the group and we put him on our right, protecting him from the side wind from the southwest. I felt OK and started doing my share when I got to the front. Katherine Sodek (holder of the women's Hairshirt record), as always, was the energizer bunny, and she just hung in like a trooper.
We got through Stoney Creek, across the bridge to Burlington, and made the turn to the east. This put the wind at our back and all of a sudden it was only 50k to Square One and we were flying along Lakeshore. The group wanted one more stop, so we paused at a Tim Horton's in Oakville.
We turned left on Third Line, climbed up to Burnhamthorpe and made the right turn to put the wind at our back again. We flew down Burnhamthorpe in the mid-30s. Every other Hairshirt I've ever done, I've crawled down the home stretch, but today was different. We blasted into Square One with a time of 10:46 and it was congratulations and celebratory photos all around. This was well off the 10:06 record, but for me it was easily my new personal best. :banana:
Ron
More details: http://www.tbn.ca/cycling/hairshirt.htm
Pics (thanks to P. Murk): http://torontocyclist.com/hs2007/pages/DSC09263.html
As per the TBN site: "It's been twenty years since TBN assumed sponsorship of the Hairshirt, a personal cycling challenge whose name comes from a medieval form of monasterial punishment and penance, in which monks wore shirts woven of very coarse horse hair, causing them to experience extreme discomfort. Founded in 1978 the Hairshirt pits the lonely rider and his/her bicycle against the road and the elements, and for this reason the organizers provide no support other than a map and encouragement."
This was my eighth Hairshirt. My personal best was just over 11 hours, but some years I had come in at 15 hours.
This year I had put way more miles in my legs than in previous years, so I was hoping it would pay off in an improved personal best. But, there are so many variables with this kind of ride that one never knows.
Also, in other Hairshirts, I had always finished in a state of total bonk. So this year I made sure to eat more for breakfast, have way more food along the ride, and use E-load to keep up the electrolytes. I left my retro lugged steel at home for this one. Equipment was a Trek 2200 alu frame with carbon rear stays and carbon fork, Campagnolo Record components and Zipp 303 wheels with tubulars. Two large water bottles plus camelback meant that I wouldn't need many water stops. Food was Gu, Harvest Crunch granola bars, power bars and Clif bars.
43 riders left Square One in Mississauga (a suburb of Toronto) at 6am. It started out fast, as I knew it would. Temperature was comfortable, in the teens, and forecast high was 28 degrees celsius (not too bad, when it's over 30, I get worried). Between the adrenaline and the testosterone, the big boys always want to go to the front and push. It was tongue-in-the-spokes for me the first 80k or so. That was fine because I knew it would eventually settle down and I would have time to recover. Even so, on the lead in to the climb up the escarpment on Dundas/Hwy. 5, I fell off the back of the large front group. This was probably because breakfast was still a large lump in my stomach.
Luckily, the group hit a stoplight a third of the way up the climb and I caught up. After the climb, I seemed to settle in. A few guys, including Peter Murk and David Hamilton, did much of the pulling to the 120k mark at Wellandport, which was our first stop. The group, numbering a dozen or so, cruised in the high 30s (all speeds in km) and I took very short turns. A guy built like a fire hydrant would push it up to mid 40s when he hit the front, eliciting some complaints in the pack. I was hanging with the group and feeling OK.
We left Wellandport and for some reason the front group was down to eight or so. Mr. Fire Hydrant was gone. Again, I tried to hide in the group, taking short turns and conserving energy. We hit the 162k (100 mile) mark at 4:45, so I knew we were on a good ride. I also knew that after 200k it's a knife edge from feeling great to having nothing in the tank, so I wasn't counting any chickens.
We cruised through the Falls and stopped for food and water just after Niagara-on-the-Lake. We were down to six riders. I was still feeling good but knew that we were going to be climbing the escarpment at Jordan. This is where the real Hairshirt starts (and where I've started crawling in past years). After a couple of climbs we lost another rider and were down to five. We stopped at a store in Campden (near Balls Falls) and I started going for the Coke.
As we cruised up the escarpment and then down into Stoney Creek, this Romanian guy, Rares, did the lion's share of the work, along with Peter. David Hamilton fell off the back once. He worked his way back to the group and we put him on our right, protecting him from the side wind from the southwest. I felt OK and started doing my share when I got to the front. Katherine Sodek (holder of the women's Hairshirt record), as always, was the energizer bunny, and she just hung in like a trooper.
We got through Stoney Creek, across the bridge to Burlington, and made the turn to the east. This put the wind at our back and all of a sudden it was only 50k to Square One and we were flying along Lakeshore. The group wanted one more stop, so we paused at a Tim Horton's in Oakville.
We turned left on Third Line, climbed up to Burnhamthorpe and made the right turn to put the wind at our back again. We flew down Burnhamthorpe in the mid-30s. Every other Hairshirt I've ever done, I've crawled down the home stretch, but today was different. We blasted into Square One with a time of 10:46 and it was congratulations and celebratory photos all around. This was well off the 10:06 record, but for me it was easily my new personal best. :banana:
Ron
More details: http://www.tbn.ca/cycling/hairshirt.htm
Pics (thanks to P. Murk): http://torontocyclist.com/hs2007/pages/DSC09263.html