the longest day ride

I'd been thinking about it for a few years.

I'd been talking about it on and off during that time. And last weekend, riding up Seymour and Cypress on my birthday, I made the fatal mistake of mentioning it to someone who cared.

Someone who was motivated. Someone who was up for a challenge. Someone with a physics degree. Someone who liked maps. Someone who by the time I got home from that 150km ride up our two glorious local mountains in the fog and rain, had gone online and done some preliminary planning.

That man was Jason.



Oh sure. He looks nice enough. But once you plant a dangerous idea in a physicists head... well... you never know what will happen.

And to be sure, there were atomic undertones or overtones about the whole day. Nuclear was an apt word to use. At least for some of us.

So my bright idea went something like this: not satisfied with the fact that I'd conjured up a 210km long "circumnavigation of the Lower Mainland ride" that I've done the past 2 summers (Vancouver to the edges of Abbotsford and back, via the Albion Ferry to Ft Langley with White Rock and North Delta on the way home), I had often contemplated whether or not it would be possible to do a circumnavigation of the Sunshine Coast / Vancouver Island.

Or at least a large chunk of it.

In one day.

And preferably that day being Summer Solstice, where you had lots of daylight hours to attempt the journey and a day that seemed symbolically fitting for something so epic in nature.

And that's where things got out of hand. Eyeing the distances on a map was one thing, but being able to ride from Vancouver to Powell River, then from Comox back down the other coast to Nanaimo, then back to Vancouver... well... it just seemed a bit too ambitious. Average speeds of 40kmh were required to cover vast distances. Ferry connections were tenuous at best on the coast, even by car, let alone by bicycle.

But this is why it tweaked Jason's attention. And why that Sunday night he'd sent out an email with a preliminary itinerary to the Escape Velocity Cat 1/2 Men's team.

He informed us that in order to make it happen, we had a 5:45 AM departure from Bean Around the World on Cornwall in Kits. The first ferry departed at 7:20 AM from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, followed by a 10:20 AM departure from Earls Cove at the northern tip of the Sunshine Coast over to Saltery Bay. Then the 12:00 PM ferry to Comox. Once in Comox, the near 120km trip back down to Nanaimo could be done at a leisurely pace, as the BC Ferries schedule was more forgiving - a 5:00 and 7:00 crossing were both available, bringing us back to Vancouver in time to ride back home from Horseshoe Bay in the daylight.

But it was all contingent upon those first 2 legs. Langdale to Earls Cove was estimated at 80 to 84km in distance. The ferry dropped us off at 8:00 AM. We had 2hrs 20 min to cover it, needing to average above 35kmh on a winding, hilly coastal road.

That wasn't the worst part. The second leg, Saltery Bay to Powell River had to be accomplished in 50 minutes. It was roughly 30km in length, needing an average speed of over 41kmh on a winding, hilly coastal road in order to make the 12:00 noon ferry that would take us across. The next sailing at the top of the Island is at 5:00 PM, meaning a 6:30 PM start time in Comox to attempt to ride down to Nanaimo before dark (9:30 PM or thereabouts) would have us doing 40kmh for 3 hrs. And of course it would be pitch black in Vancouver and 10:30 at night when we'd get off the last ferry (if we'd made it) to get back home.

So it was Powell River for high noon. Or bust.

Bust wasn't a totally bad option. We'd have to return back down the Sunshine Coast, with a couple of ferry options and some sympathetic scheduling. But still, that was Plan B. And we didn't really care for Plan B.

It took about 2 days of intensive emailing to get the crew together. Stepping up to the challenge were Jason and myself, Tim, Mike, Paul, and Damien. It would be the 6 of us attempting the challenge on Saturday, June 23rd.

--

We met at the Bean early. Earlier than need be. You could tell we were keen. And nervous. Rolling out at 5:40 something, we kept a brisk pace through a deserted downtown. No-one had had a coffee yet and it was go-time. Over the Lions Gate, through an empty Ambleside and Dundrave, we cruised onto the rolling hills of the low road to Horseshoe Bay. By 6:30 we were in Horseshoe Bay, completing our first 30km warmup in about 50 minutes. No messing about here. We weren't about to miss our first ferry.



After a quick trip to Blenz, where we bumped into Robin, another EV member who happened to be heading over to the Sunshine Coast on the early ferry, we bought our "round trip ticket" of the coast. Then it was onto the boat for our first sea leg of the day.



That ferry was on time. To the second. We left at 7:20 AM and by 8:00 AM, we pulled up and the gate went down in Langdale.



Waiting for the gate to come down, with Soames Hill looming in the background, I felt like it was the start of a crit. 35kmh or more. Is this for real? Who are we kidding? Do I have enough fitness to do this? What the hell was I thinking?

Before I knew it, we were charging off the ferry, and the climbing started as we took the road out of Langdale up towards Sechelt. Our warm-up ride had long since worn off and my legs and lungs felt immediately rough. I struggled to get a good pace going and the guys were motoring.

It wasn't long before we started onto some flat and then rolling roads. We had a favourable tailwind that was pushing us up the coast. The pace fluctuated between 40 and 55kmh as we sped through the first 20 minutes. The group got into a single paceline and pulled nicely. It felt like the start of Gary Lund, the early break trying to get away on the road out of Sooke, hell-bent for Port Renfrew.

Within 35 minutes we were in Sechelt.

"Average speed check!?!"

"37.3!"

"Okay, let's keep it going."

We were doing well. Our initial climbing efforts at 20kmh and less were evened out by the 45kmh and above steady pulls.

Then a momentary setback. Paul's derailleur went into his spokes, taking one of them clean out of the nipple. Stopping on a hill out of Sechelt, the guys fiddled for a bit as they got the wheel in shape to ride. Then we were back on, missing a few minutes, but anxious to get back to speed.

At the one hour mark, I felt like I was coming apart at the seams. I hadn't ridden that hard at that pace for a long time. And all of the guys were flying. I shuttled my way to the back, where I'd stay for most of the ride, taking the occasional guest pull, but mostly hanging on for dear life as the red, white, and black freight train ripped its way up the road. We came around a corner and a black bear high-tailed it into the bushes in front of us. Nothing was stopping this paceline...

Red Roofs Road hill sucked. As did every other hill of substance along the way. I passed familiar sights, having spent summer and easter vacations in Garden Bay for a few years during elementary and high school. We got to the Petro Can at the Garden Bay Road turnoff, saw the "25km to go" sign just around the corner and noted we had 50 minutes left to make it. We'd averaged over 37kmh so far. We eased off a bit, knowing that we could handle a 30kmh pace no problems for the remaining distance.

We pulled into Earls Cove in 2 hrs 9 minutes of riding time. We had 11 minutes to spare. We'd averaged 36kmh for the first major leg.



I pulled out my phone to take a picture of the proud group, when I heard a voice behind me.

"Who the f*ck are you guys?!?"

A man was walking towards us, camera in hand, with a big smile on his face.

"I've never seen anything like that! I stopped twice in my car on the way and passed you guys both times. You only got here 5 minutes after I did!"

A few other walk-on types greeted us, having seen us riding up the coast. We were pretty happy and amused by the reception.

Our amusement would wear off as the Queen of Tsawassen was 5 minutes late in loading and, by our guesses, 7 minutes late in leaving. We pulled away at 10:17 AM, eating into our precious minutes on the other side.

As Jason and Mike ate eggs and ham, we contemplated what we'd do.



We had a few options:

1. go for it - try our best to ride 30km in sub 45 minutes
2. ask the ferry to wait - call in a favour with the Chief Steward, get them to hold the noon ferry at Comox
3. find a friendly driver to motorpace us - we all agreed that the speed we were doing through the corners and down the hills, it would make much difference. And the uphills, we couldn't go much faster anyhow.
4. hitchhike. if getting to Comox was the goal, we could always cheat.

Tim tried to find the Chief Steward. "Sorry guys, the public gets upset if we don't sail on time. I'm afraid I can't do that. It's gonna be tough to make, especially with Heartbreak Hill..." (us: Heartbreak Hill!?! WTF?) "Good luck."

Hmmm. Hitchhiking defeated the purpose too. Well, we just had one option. Go hard.

We came off the ferry like the start of a BMX race. The first climb was rough. And Heartbreak Hill (our stewards nickname for the grinder just out of Saltery Bay) was long. And pitched a few times as our lungs and legs seared.

We put our heads down and hammered. I definitely slowed the group down on the uphills - my climbing just wasn't up to par with the 1/2 guys. I was costing us valuable seconds, if not minutes. We hammered the downhills and tried to make up for any lost time. I don't remember much of this 30kmh, other than 10 speed cassettes and quick glimpses as to what short roller was next. I was at my limit and I wasn't even pulling. It was, as cycling types like to call it, a proverbial death march.

We shot over a small bridge. Snow littered both sides of the road. What? Did I see that? We kept hammering.

About 5 minutes before getting into Powell River, the skies opened up. It started raining. Hard. Really, really hard. Like within minutes the roads were soaked, giant puddles appeared, so were we, and the spray off the wheels was making things hard to see. And added to that a max effort, it felt like your worst Enumclaw crit nightmare - when is it going to end?

Just then, we came into a straight stretch of road running into Powell River. I squinted to my left to catch the ocean, the squall, Vancouver Island with the sun shining on it in the distance, and... the ferry.

There it was! Yes! We'd done it! Hammer harder, let's go, it's right there.

Then, looking again, I sensed movement. Wait, is it backing in? Or going out? What's it doing?

No. We hadn't made it. It was leaving. Right on high noon, the ferry had left. And we were roughly 6 or 7 minutes late. We'd covered the leg in 49 minutes. A 38kmh avg, not quite the 41 or 43kmh we'd needed. And we were soaked.

We rolled past the dock and headed into the Rocky Mountain Pizza and Cafe. We sat dripping, soaked, tired, and annoyed. We'd come so close. And that was it. Gone. 145km of balls-out riding and we'd missed it by give or take 5 minutes. Would we have made it if the Saltery Bay ferry had been on time? If I could climb faster? If it hadn't totally poured rain coming into Powell River? So close...



We managed to kill close to an hour and a half in our soggy clothes, eating, and eventually laughing. We rolled out of Powell River at 1:45PM, heading back down to catch the 3:20 ferry back to Earls Cove and the Sunshine Coast. We took it easy this time, taking well over 30 minutes to regain warmth. I had stuffed newspaper down my jersey to keep warm, even though I had a goretex shell on. We faced a stiff headwind, which had been pushing up the coast all this time.

Eventually we rolled back, in 1 hr 6 minutes, hopped on the ferry, which had somehow equipped the top deck with a sauna or redirected the engine room exhaust up there, and stuffed our faces some more with an assortment of fries, cinnamon buns, stale rice krispie treats and other assorted ferry food you shouldn't be eating when doing max efforts on the bike all day long. Chocolate milk: not the best option if you're planning on going hard again in 20 minutes.





And so it was that at 4:15 PM, we started our way back down the Sunshine Coast. 80km of rolling hills awaited us. With 175km already in the bag, our legs were starting to feel it. At least mine were. Not sure Tim or Mike felt anything.

We stopped for a quick picture at a great viewpoint, one of the few times all day we'd taken to really enjoy the scenery.



And then it was back down the Coast towards Sechelt. At this point, Damien's efforts began to catch up with him. There was talk of abandonment, even a mock moment of waiting for the team car to arrive so he could get into it... People's stomachs were not happy, our legs even less so. Dairy Queen cravings, random food urges, sudden dizzy spells. It all started to get a bit weird around the 225km mark. And then, just after Damien stopped in to get some kind of strawberry smoothie at the beach in Sechelt and suffered a brain freeze headache, the rain returned. With a vengeance.

So for the second time that day, we were soaked to the bone. It lasted pretty much until we arrived at 6:55pm at the Waterfront Restaurant in Gibsons, just a half-block from Molly's Reach. There were 5 burgers and a plate of veggie pasta ordered, hot tea, and more soaking of furniture from our soggy chamois.



The 8 minute post-dinner sprint to the Langdale terminal felt pretty awful; an errant coyote eyed me up from a vantage point across the road, as I climbed a final hill or two just before the terminal.



It was getting dark as we boarded the final ferry of the day. The trip went quickly, all of us commenting on how hungry we were again, even though we'd just had a big dinner. Damien hit the M&M's and wine gums. I drank hot tea trying to get warm.



We'd just missed the rain in Horseshoe Bay and at 9:30 PM, 15 hrs after we'd arrived there, we landed. The low road on the way home was quiet and we nursed our legs across the final few rollers of the day. I hung back with Damien and Paul while Jason, Mike and Tim put in a last few hard efforts (just to cool down, I guess).

The lights adorning the Lions Gate never looked better as I headed back into Vancouver. Down Denman, over Burrard Bridge, and back to the Bean. A farewell to the remaining 3 Kits guys, then back home through the Saturday night streets.

I arrived back at my door at 10:15 PM. 290km later, 9 hrs of riding, 17 hrs of travel time, I'd made it back in one piece.



Sunday was a quiet day, as I dealt with the fallout of 290km of riding and 17 hrs of damp chamois time. I chuckled to myself several times throughout the day, wondering how we'd even thought it was possible, how close we'd come, and how I know that it probably won't be the last time that we attempt that ride...