The day dawned overcast and cool, and the wind was stirring the branches ominously. Even at 6 it was still almost dark enough to use a flashlight. The sleep was healing and I felt good and ready for the headwind which I knew would cause agony for lots of us, and a great long workout at best. Tried to encourage as many of the new riders as possible, and hope they had followed advice to get going asap. Cheryl still had lots of pain in her knee and we only got out the gate around 8am. The wind was strong from the outset, and her knee became very painful right away. Facing a day of struggling with the relentless wind for 154km, I advised her to take the day off, elevate and rest the knee so it could be OK for the rest of the 2 weeks. She did, and it was the right dicision, as it turned out to be a brutal struggle with the wind for many. I rode on my own for 3/4 of the day, and got a thorough workout in the process. The solo riding was good and enjoyable, as I had time to think about many things. Selecting a sustainable lower gear/higher cadence, I "kept on keeping on churning away" the miles at an average of 25.1 km/h, which is OK for such a windy day, solo. The environment and landscapes became all the more familiar, resembling southern Ontario's. Very rural and we went through a few small towns. I stopped at a saddlery shop to look at their beautifully engraved Western saddles, and enjoyed the few minutes there. I got stopped 3 times today by people who wanted to know what these 200 cyclists populating the road is all about. I gladly told them and handed them our info business cards. In most towns some of us get interviewed by journalists and the local papers run the story. Great that the tour and the poverty issue get so much media exposure! At dinner tonight we invited all the football players of the high school where we are camping to join us, since we can not take leftover food into Canada tomorrow and it would be so wasteful to throw good stuff away. Earlier in the afternoon, a friend of Rick Ritters came by on his space age carbon fibre recumbent made in Poland, with which he rode with us today. Fast thing on 2 wheels for sure, as he reached 44 miles per hour today on the undulating route and none of us on bikes could catch him!
At tonight's peloton meeting, Marcia Van Hof, wife of the late Mark, addressed us and shared in a very touching way about her husband's passion for reaching out to people so they can meet Christ. He wanted to participate in a section of the tour on his recumbent, but suffered a fatal heart attack in February '08. His recumbent did participate though, ridden by his namesake Mark in the central leg in honor of Mark Van Hof. I did post a photo of Mark Deckinga on this recumbent a while ago on my blog. Marcia read Isiah 58 to us and we sang "Father/Jesus/Spirit we love you", which was her husband's favorite song.
Singing all together, I realized that I really miss singing much. Unfortunately we never get to sing at peloton meetings, just on the weekends at the celebration services.
An interesting impromptu rescue mission presented itself today, as a turtle found itself trapped on the busy road while trying to cross to greener pastures. Every time something roared by, it would retract into its shell in fear, but I knew sooner rather than later it may be squished by the big rigs thundering by often. So I picked it up, dodged the traffic and released it safely in the grass on the other side. Felt good about that!
Tonight it is really cold here, 8C, in contrast with the unbearable heat of 3 weeks ago!
Tomorrow and Thursday will be exciting days! We cross into Canada by ferry as a group, and plan to descend on the nearest Tim Hortons in mass! On Thursday 20 of us are going to have a "formal" 40km time trial on quiet roads with traffic control at intersections. The afternoon a dozen of us will have the privilege to go ride on the velodrome in London on their gearless bikes. Great stuff! Comments welcomed to my e-mail at mdp@rogers.com. Thank you for responding!
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