First rides of the season

Certainly was more summer than spring out there this weekend. I got the bike out a few times stretching the legs and getting the bike tuned up for the season ahead. First ride of the season is becoming a bit of a rite of spring… and we usually don’t have such warm weather to enjoy it on! Usual suspects showed up very early on Friday morning for a 42.192 km ride around the city. Police escorts (so we can flaunt the rules of the road), cans of spray paint at the ready and a Googled plan and we headed off for the first of probably several of these rides. In truth it did seem a little shorter than in past years (about 3m short in fact) but I’m sure we’ll get that corrected before it becomes a critical issue. You want to get it right before 40,000 friends come to visit at the end of May.


Setting a control point

P.S. NO, I can't get you an entry into the Half!!!


The geese were trying out the bench but decided to return to the lake as I arrived

Saturday I went up to Lac Phillippe to ride in a slightly more tranquil environment. Of course the mountainbike trails don’t open for a few more weeks (May 5th I’ve heard) but I figured the campground roads around Lac Phillippe would be reasonably dry and make for some nice riding. Quite a number of walkers out and about heading in to the beach to get an early start on the tan. It was 28C on Saturday but there was still ice in the lake so I don’t imagine there was a lot of swimming going on. Enjoyed a pretty casual ride – testing the bike out and making some adjustments as I went. In fact the gravel campground roads still had a little snow on them in spots and were a bit soft in others so I ended up returning out to Ste. Cecile to do a little longer road ride. Things should dry up pretty quickly if it stays this hot.