Hot Sand On Toes

Marathon to Wawa - 189 km

Basically there is not much between Marathon and Wawa so I decided to try and make the long jump to Wawa in one shot.  The road mellowed out a lot after Marathon so I was able to make good time.  The wind however was confused.  One moment it was in my face and the next it was pushing me along at a solid pace.  There was not much as I was told other than some huge mines.  It was forest, forest, forest...GIANT MINE...forest, forest. Some of the mines were gold mines I think, as one of the roads to a mine was called the Yellow Brick Road...Maybe I could have gotten a brain there.

About 120 km in I was sitting at a random gas station having a water and  cooling off in the shade.  I was feeling really run down from battling the wind and needed to recharge a bit.  I couple of kids rolled up on a dirt bike and a quad.  We ended up chatting for about a half an hour about the area.  Nick's (left) family has a cabin in the area but lives in Subury and Brenden (right) was from Wawa.  They were on their first day off since school ended and I think they were at the point where they had no clue what to do first. Naturally when talking to 14 year old boys the conversation turned to hockey and Nick is a goalie and Brenden's favorite player is Makin.  These kids were awesome and I totally wanted to bomb around on dirt bikes with them just like when I was a kid growing up on the farm.

After leaving them my mood and energy was a lot better so I tackled the last 70 k.  The wind turned on me however with 40 k to go making a very painful day in the end. I rolled into a camp ground right outside of town.  Finally met some other cyclist while camping! Three dudes coming from Hamilton heading to Vancouver and eventually San Francisco.  They had just graduated from Waterloo with software engineering degrees and decided to ride to their first jobs in San Fran. Made some dinner with them and chatted about the road coming up then passed out in my tent.

What I learned yesterday:
- The start of summer vacation is a great feeling.
- I think every restaurant along the #1 has roughly the same menu
- Mines destroy a lot more than I thought they did

Wawa to Sault Ste Marie - 227 km

So I got up this morning really early because I was not sure where to stop along the way to the Sault. The first part of the ride after is actually very hilly but once into Lake Superior Provincial Park I was very much distracted by the incredible views.  I am going to say that this section of road has been the most stunning part of my trip.  Part of this was the weather today with clear skies and the sun shinning off the lake everything seen to pop out at you. I found myself climbing harder to get to the next scenic view of a beach or the lake as a whole.

About 70 k in I stop for a snack at Katherine Cove.  I sat at a bench with the inscription "Tom Gillespie Boy Explorer for 85 Years"  The bench looked over this beautiful beach under the shade of some trees.  It was a perfect spot and as I ate my bagel I wished I could have met Tom.  With a little more mental fuel I headed back on the road.



I have only ridden over 200 km a few times. One was last week with Bill and the others were all in races which is a very different thing because you have people to draft and things are happening all around you. When racing you are not so much concentrating on how far you have to go but more on the race itself, who is attacking and how far the break is etc.  When you set out to ride 200+ km on your own its a bit of a mental battle in the beginning.  Today after riding for an hour and half and seeing a sign that says 180 km to your destination is really a slap in the face. My first thought was 'but I have done almost 50 k already?!?' So from there I tried to break up the day in 20 k chunks because it made the day more manageable.  I have aim for something smaller first, like just get to the 100 k point and see how you feel.  Ok once there get to the 150 mark and see how you are doing. At about the 160 mark the wind picked up behind me today and pushed me along at about 35 km/h WHICH WAS AWESOME!  Really made making it all the way possible as I thought I had to use the wind as much as possible because tomorrow it might be in my face.  That and breaking the day up with a couple of swims helped too. I got to the Old Mill Bay Campsite at 175 k and thought whats 50 more k.  Finished at about 7 pm. I will admit that I am more than a little destroyed right now and doing over 400 k in two days might be a bit of a mistake.  I will have to see how tomorrow goes.

Here is what I learned today:
- If you spend 12 hours in the sun you are going to burn some things no matter how careful you are
- I am very good at sweating
- No matter how old you get, you can still be a boy at heart

Beard Report:
Still itchy and I have noticed some things that are not fun.  Walking to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night means that you are going to walk through the odd spider web. Spiderwebs do not get out of beards easily and then it feels like there is spider on my face for the rest of the night.  I also think that when I do shave this thing off I am going to have one wicked beard tan line. This will be in addition to the t-shirt with nipples, watch tan, multi level sock tan and sunglass/helmet tan lines. Weeeeeeee.

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These Legs Are For Climbing

Thunder Bay to Gravel River Provincial Park - 164 kms

The morning out of Thunder Bay was grey skies and a slight breeze in my face.  Apparently Bill Hunt brings the good weather and when he leaves the weather leaves too.  I rolled along the lake for about thirty kilometers and then hit Highway 1.  All along the way people had been telling me that the road gets hilly out of T-Bay and I was kind of brushing it off as talk.  The road however looks like a roller coaster. Constant ups and downs.  This lasted for about 40 km and then things mellowed out a lot and the sun came out.  This area of the world is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It is absolutely stunning with large cliff faces and mountain like plateaus covering the landscape all with the giant lake looming in the background. At the some time its also a very harsh area to bike though.  The short steep hills are murder on the legs and every time you stop you are immediately covered in black flies and mosquitoes.  My friend Alex who I was riding with at the start of the trip would hate it here.

I made it to Nipigon and stopped at the local information booth.  The kid there did not know a thing about a place to camp between there and Rossport.  I wanted to do about 160 so I grabbed some food and water and decided to risk it.  About 45 k after that I found a place hidden from the highway in Gravel River provincial park.  I learned something huge that night stealth camping....you alway have to pay attention to where the train track are.  I was a lot closer than I thought and wow do they make a lot of noise when they roll by and they roll by often late into the night.  That coupled with getting eaten alive while cooking meant that I did not get a good sleep.

Here is what I learned yesterday:
- The sunshine apparently shines around Bill
- The locals were not lying to me about how hilly it is
- Bears stair at you the same way cows do as you ride by them.  Not sure if they are thinking the same thing though. I think cows are thinking "Is that thing going to eat me?" and bears are thinking "Can I eat that thing?"

Gravel River to Marathon - 148 km

I got up early because, well I was up...and after a bagel and some pop tarts I packed up my gear and got back on the road.  About 5 k down the road I was confronted with the first of three 4 km climbs that were at about 8% grade.  There was no wind however and the sun was out so the kilometers were tipping by.  I was not expecting the road to get more challenging after yesterday but it is on this stretch. You are either climbing or hauling ass downhill leaving very little time for recovery.  I made good time though and a few interesting things happened along the road.  First I came close to wiping out today for the first time on this trip.  I was flying downhill at about 50 km/h when a wasp smoked me in the neck stinging me in the process.  To make it worse it fell into my jersey and stung me on the chest.  My initial reaction was to try to squish it but that just made it sting me again so then I tried to rip off my jersey...all this while still bombing downhill. Luckily I had a full zip jersey on and I was able to unzip it enough that the little bastard could fly out.  If I had hit a bump or the shoulder changed I would have ate it for sure.  Three stings...not cool but everything is good.

Second was I finally caught up to another cyclist.  His name is Alex and he is from France.  He is riding a crazy recumbent bike from Vancouver to Niagara Falls.  His pace is slightly different from mine and the shoulder is small here so we agreed to meet up for dinner in Marathon.  Alex is super cool! He lives on boat in the south of France and has crossed the Atlantic on various occasions. I asked him why he was doing this trip and he told be he had no clue because its kinda crazy. His wife passed away years ago and he says that he is going on trips to show her the world because he knows she is with him.  Reminded me of the movie 'Up'.  His English was a bit broken but we chatted for a while about other trips he has been on as we ate our weight in pasta.  He is 60 and very much someone to look up to.

Here is what I learned today:

- Don't think that it can't get any more hilly because it can
- Recumbents are meant to ride by yourself and not with other people.
- I am 850 km into Ontario which is basically Manitoba and Saskatchewan combined and it still feels like I just started...this is a huge province.

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Half Way...

Ignace to Savanne River - 127 kms

We had plans to start out early on this morning but a flat on Bill's bike held us up after breakfast and we rolled out of Ignace at about 9:30 am.  Almost right away we were held up by some construction and then a lovely 4 km section of gravel...the day was starting off slow.  Soon after that though we ran into a Google Maps car on the highway and I promptly stuck my tongue out at it.  Anytime you get to make a face at a Google camera car I count that as a solid accomplishment so the day had suddenly taken a turn for the better.  We also got a exuberant honk and wave from a car which turned out to be my friend Mark Dewar who was heading to Winnipeg. Crazy that he saw us!

The road between Ignace and Upsala is rather boring with rolling hills and swamps all around.  We did stop for a break at a place with an amazing echo which we played with while eating a snack and dancing around to fend off the bugs.  The weather was cool though but sunny and clear making it easy riding.  We did run into a small bear on the side of the road and as we circled back to get a picture he/she had taken off. I was a bit low on energy today but Bill basically dragged me to our end spot.  Our accommodations that evening on the Savanne River were very much of the hunting/fishing camp variety.  We were greeted as we pulled in by a gentleman with no shirt and jeans who had more tattoos than teeth (he only had 3 tattoos that I could see).  He did have an awesome howling wolf on his back which both Bill and I failed to get a picture of. Very weak cell signal and a wifi that we had to walk to meant that we were just chilling in the cabin for most of the night eating pasta and re-hydrating. It was a beautiful spot however even though our cabin floor was on about a 12 degree slant and there were spiders everywhere.

Yesterday I learned:
- Google is everywhere...beware the floating head
- Howling wolf tattoos with the words 'Live Free' are coming back in style
- We discovered a new game called 'Wheel Of PopTart'.  I had put all the packages in my bag without the boxes meaning that we don't know what type of poptart.  First game I have invented that I win no matter the outcome.

Savanne River to Thunder Bay - 130ish kms

Today we got a early start as we had to get Bill's bike boxed up to ship back and it was supposed to be a very hot day so the we wanted to get some distance in the cool morning air.  The terrain was challenging rolling hills but we made good time. We were told in Upsala by the owner of the general store that it was all downhill to Thunder Bay after Raith but that dude totally lied to us. There was lots of climbing today and we cursed the Upsala General store all the way. We even lost an hour today as we passed into the eastern time zone.

We decided to take the longer route into Thunder bay to avoid some construction and check out Kakabeka Falls.  The water level all around was very high and the falls were raging!  So after a quick picture taking session and a lunch we rolled into Thunder Bay.

After cleaning up and getting Bill's bike to the bus station to get shipped back we headed to check out the Terry Fox Memorial. I did not expect that I would get as choked up as I did here.  Not only is the story inspiring but so very sad...the incomplete dream after so much suffering really got to me.  The timing was perfect though because with Bill leaving I was feeling the daunting task of heading over Lake Superior and was a little low on the amount of riding I still have to do to complete this. Getting to Thunder Bay was a triumph because I am now officially half way but holy crap....I am only half way. Being at the spot where Terry Fox had to suspend his dream was just the kick in the ass I needed to keep going.  He was an amazing inspiration and its an amazing story.

Today I learned:
- There is motivation everywhere. I have many heroes and Terry Fox is one of them.
-  There was a older dude that passed Bill and I with a hard hat and a bike that looked like something you would find a Shriner on.  It was humbling...
- Passed some cyclists going the other way today.  The conversation went like this: "Halifax?" "Yup! Vancouver?" "Yup!"  It was awesome to finally see some other people on tour.  Everywhere we have gone people tell us they have seen tons of people travelling on their bikes but I have not run into any of them.  Hopefully in the coming weeks I can run into some people going the same direction as me.

So with this post I bid good bye to Bill Hunt and me sucking his wheel for the last 700 kms.  Thank-you very much from coming out and keeping me out of my tent for a while.  Thanks to his wife Eryn Paterson for being our personal concierge! And thanks to Evans-Hunt for loaning him to me for the last few days.  Bill you are a very strong cyclist and I look forward to riding with you again. And for all of you here is a picture of Bill watering the forest to say good bye.

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Lakes and Trees

Kenora to Dryden - 138 kms

Bill and I headed out on our second day with the sun in our faces. The plan today was to make it to Dryden and the word on the street is that this was a tough section of road because of the short steep climbs. It was tough to leave the cabin and I really wanted to just hang out for a week.  But after two days rest in Winnipeg I am a bit behind my goal and really need to get some km under my belt.  The next sections of road are tough because there are few places in between towns and we have to make sure that we have enough water and food to make it through the day.  Our ride worked out well though and we were able to grab some lunch at a random motel about half way to Dryden.



You see some crazy things made by random people in this area.  Art it seems is very subjective here.  We rolled into Dryden with no issues and set up at a hotel on the edge of town before a huge thunder storm rolled through the area.

Yesterday I learned:
- I have to spend more time at the cabin (anyone want to come?)
- Seeing a moose is more difficult than you think it would be (they are huge).
- Dryden smells funny.
- All you can eat Indian buffet seems like a good idea after a long ride....it is not.







Dryden to Ignace - 107 kms

We had to do a shorter day because we want to end this portion of the trip in Thunder Bay and the kms distance is a bit awkward for the time we have. Bill doesn't have camping gear so we are needing to end the day in places that have hotels.  Today the wind was odd and constantly changing.  One second it was in your face and the next we were humming along at 35 km/h.  That with the number of hills made for a challenging ride even with the shorter distance.  There is basically nothing between Dryden and Ignace so right at the end we ran out of water and were very hungry because of skipping lunch to make it here early.

The traffic here is mostly trucks and RVs. The trucks should be more scary but most of the trucks are awesome and pull over as much as they can while the RVs buzz you.  There is not much shoulder here and Bill and I had to ride single file making for a boring day.  The terrain has change a lot as well and there is less lakes and you mostly ride through a column of trees all day. There are occasionally fields of flowers.  The only really exciting thing that happened is the first flat of the trip and it was Bill...quickly fixed and we were on our way.

By the last twenty km we just wanted to be done.  We had ridden 350 kms in the two day leading up to today so getting off our bikes early was welcome. We even made it in time to check out the overtime and penalty kicks for the England, Italy game today.

Today I learned:
- The last 20 km of any ride is the longest part of the day.
- There is no place to get water between Dryden and Ignace. Must pack more water!
- THERE ARE SMORE POP TARTS!!!!!! They make me happy.

Still have not ran into any other cyclists.  We have been told over and over that there are a lot of other riders out there and many of them are doing cross Canada tours but we have seen none.  I have not passed or have been passed by anyone. Maybe tomorrow?

If you have been enjoying what you are reading feel free to make a donation to Peloton65.com and the James Fund. Thanks for reading and the support!

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Ontario Greets You With Flies

Winnipeg to Kenora - 210 km

I had an awesome two days of rest where I saw friends and family and gave my legs some time to recover.  Thursday I picked up my friend Bill Hunt, who is going to be joining me from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay and I am very grateful to have him along for the next 700 km.  After some running around getting some food and picking up my super clean bike from the guys at Alter Ego we headed back to my parents place where tons of family and friends came over to see me off.  It was so good to see everyone and amazing for the support that they have given me.  My family and friends are incredible and I am very lucky to have all of them in my life.

Bill and I saddled up early Friday morning for the long haul to Kenora.  My mother was driving to the cabin this weekend so she was able to take our gear for us.  So light on weight and with a sunny day that had virtually no wind we rolled out for one of the first dry days I have had for awhile.  The first point of interest was hitting the longitudinal centre of Canada.  Kind of a moral victory here because in actual distance I had about 600 to go before I am half way through my trip but it was still fun to take some pictures by the sign on the highway.

From there we rolled along the flat straight road that are typical around here.  About 50 km into the ride we started to notice a few horse flies buzzing around us.  A few became many, and soon we were basically in a swarm of horse flies.  It was absolutely insane!  I have never seen so many flies on a bike ride.  There was no way to out run them and for the most part they were not landing on us or biting us so it was more annoying.  It was odd because the cloud of flies only occurred when we were on our bikes and the sun was out.  When we stopped we would only notice 2 or 3 flying around us.  If the sun would go behind a cloud all the flies would disappear.  It was just spooky.  We will see if this continues as we get deeper into the Canadian Shield.

After a stop for lunch at a small town called Prawda we hit the Ontario boarder. Four provinces down and three to go.  The size of Ontario however is bananas... and I am going to spend a third of my time in this juggernaut.  I have 1500 kms of Canadian shield to get through before I start hitting the dense population of the south east of Ontario.  I am going to be in this bad boy for awhile!

210 km is the biggest day so far and there is a solid feeling of accomplishment after taking two days off.  Bill and I dominated today with just under 7 hours of riding time.  No gear and sunny skies are awesome! Hopefully we can get more days like this but its going to be hilly from here on out and we will be under full weight.




Today I learned:

- You cannot out run horse flies....we tried.
- Bill is a strong rider
- Manitoba, east of Winnipeg has crappy roads and no shoulder to ride on.
- Even after 2400 km through rain, snow and wind I still really like cycling!

Currently Bill and I have been feed to near bursting by my AWESOME mother and now were are lounging around the cabin. My parents cabin is just north of Kenora on a lake called Black Sturgeon and it is one of my favourite places on the planet.  So I am going to leave you with the more than pleasant view we have to end our day.  I love this place and wish I could spend more time here...

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The Peg...And Some Rest

Virden to MacGregor - 165 kms

Got up and immediately noticed that the wind was at my back today.  Stoked, I got my gear on and had a quick breakfast and hit the road as fast as I could.  It was raining but it was a good opportunity to cruz at 40 km/h for awhile and make up some ground.  The wind however decided to change direction about 30 minutes in and I was left again to slog it out in the rain. This day was relatively boring and I played 'Rise Against' in my head phones most of the day to keep my legs moving (you would not like it mom, lots of loud noises). Usually I have my iPod going on shuffle but for some reason it likes to land on Paul Simon every second song so lately I have been just playing albums and trying to theme it to where I am.   For example the day before when I was riding across the boarder I played some Weakerthans and then some Neal Young to 'Manitoba' the ride a little more. 

Days like this where the road is straight and flat and the weather is dark and wet, not letting you see the terrain I find myself inside my head a lot.  Cycling has always been a source of meditation for me.  A place where I can think through my problems or focus on my body and control things like motivation, fatigue and pain.  This day was very much a suffering day.  I was cold, tired from the effort the day before and boring road made it so I had to push out thoughts of quitting. Jens Voigt, who is one of my favorite professional cyclists, has a famous line where he tells his legs to 'shut up' when they start hurting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2GXeHbsG40).  I love that and that popped into my head on more than one occasion for this ride.  The other thing that happens to me is I start making deals with myself.  Its almost like I am tricking myself into riding further.  I will think "just to those bushes and you can take a break" or "just 10 more hard minutes and you can take a break." I always get to those spots like the bushes or the 10 minutes and think "well if you made it this far you can go a bit more." Its like I am tricking my own brain....stupid brain...so gullible!  For the most part though I ride for about an hour and then take a short stretch and eating break then get back on.  On days like this you just want to get your kms done and then get off the bike.

Things I learned yesterday:
- I clench my toes when I am working really hard pedaling.  How I have never noticed this I don’t know.  Maybe its my touring shoes flex more than my other shoes or that the fit on my touring bike is causing this some how.  It a mystery but I now notice it and try to relax my feet. 
- Music tends to keep me sane on long, boring, raining rides.
- The Trans Canada highway is responsible for a lot of animal deaths…

MacGregor to Winnipeg - 125 kms

Just a light wind in my face today and even though the clouds were threating I managed to stay dry the whole day.  I made it in a reasonable time and only got bit by one mosquito. I love Winnipeg.  You get a lot of slack being from here from most everyone in Canada (other than Regina…people from there are cool).  Most of those people have never spent much time here.  There is something of a shared experience and a community that you don’t get in other cities. Most people here have deep roots with the city and a pride that a lot of other cities are missing.  I always get a good feeling when I come here and it was good to be rolling through the streets again.

First mission upon getting to Winnipeg was dropping off my bike at Alter Ego Sports.  I have been on the road for 17 riding days and out of those 17 days I have had about 14 wet days so my bike is in dire need of some attention.  Alter Ego is an awesome shop in Winnipeg and James Dyker, Dave Chennell and Jeff Martin are some of the greatest guys in the bike industry.  Its always good to come back to see how the shop has grown and what they have planned.  After a bit of reminiscing it was off to home for food and family.

Things I learned today:

- I still think of Winnipeg as home even after 12+ years of not living here

- My face is tanned really funny from helmet straps, cycling cap and sunglasses.

So I have broken this trip into 4 phases in my head even before I started.  Phase one was Vancouver to Calgary.  Getting though the mountain and seeing friends in Calgary was what I was looking to get to when I started this trip. Phase two was Calgary to Winnipeg. Rolling thought the prairies and seeing family at the end were the two things I was looking to get out of this part.  The next phase is a little more daunting than all the other phases, Winnipeg to Montreal or Onterrible as my friend Jackie calls it. 2,397 kms which is basically phase one and two combined.  For the first 700 kms though I have my friend Bill Hunt coming out to ride with me and he should get here on the 21^st.  Then I am solo again over the lake for 1000 kms to Sudbury.  I will start that battle though on Friday.  For now its two days of napping and eating!

And again if you have been enjoying what you are reading feel free to make a donation to Peloton65.com and the James Fund. Thanks for reading and the support!

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Mom hugs and Vanilla Pudding

Regina to Broadview - 158 kms

Leaving Regina was easy with a south west wind leaving me with an lazy ride for the day. For the most part the ride was uneventful up to Indian Head, Sk.  I stopped there for lunch and asked the tourist   info center where the best place to get some food was.  The gentleman there told me the restaurant at the Esso station was both good and cheap.  I was skeptical but when I walked in the place was full.  I stood there for a few minutes waiting for a place to sit.  The server said that Jim mentioned I could sit with him so I rolled over and met Jim.  Jim Smith is 73 and has lived in Indian head his entire life.  He grew up doing rodeo (calf roping I think) and then owned a farm with his wife for a number of years.  Now his wife runs a bed and breakfast out of his house and he works on a 19,000 acer farm.  Basically he drive tractor all day and then spends 3 months in the winter in Arizona every year.  Jim was awesome and for the whole meal I maybe got 3 words in.  It was nice to have company at lunch and learn about life in the area from an expert.

About 45 minutes down the road I ran into Hirotaka.  No matter what crazy thing you are doing there is somebody out there doing something more hardcore and crazy than what you are doing. Hirotaka is walking from Vancouver to Toronto....yup.....walking.  He had all his gear on a kart and was just strolling down the highway.  His English was not the greatest but he start out 50 days ago from when I met him.  What was crazy I mentioned this to my friend Darcy and he said that he saw him when he was going through Crowsnest Pass.  Darcy's buddy even gave him a jacket.  I tossed him some food and took a few pictures and headed on my way in aww.  Made it to Broadview and didn't see one 'broad' and went to bed after making some poor eating choices.





Things I learned yesterday:
- Sun and a side/tail wind make me a lot more happy than a headwind and rain
- There is a new level to 'going for a walk'
- Apparently 19,000 acre farms are more common than you would think
- After a long day riding one should not eat a whole 13" bacon, mushroom and pepperoni pizza to them self followed by an ice cream cone.  It will be awesome at the time but later you will not feel good. My brother stated that it will turn into rocket fuel when I mentioned it to him but I was more thinking that it was going to turn into a panic poop on the prairie.

Broadview to Virden - 137 kms

One of my favorite things about cycling is the reward for effort you get.  When climbing a mountain you get to bomb down the other side.  This makes the effort measurable and it has an goal or an end point.  Most of the rides I do we assess where the wind is coming from then start off into the wind so when we turn around we get to zoom home and feel like heroes riding with the wind to finish the ride. Effort and reward.  The thing about riding east from point to point means you are stuck with whatever conditions you are dealt.  Today I was dealt some crappy conditions.

My parents were going to meet me at the end of my ride today in Virden so this morning I was pumped to get to Mom and Dad hugs as well as vanilla pudding (I love vanilla pudding and my Mom knows this).  Getting on the highway the wind is directly in my face and blowing hard. Then about 20 minutes later it starts to rain.  The wind was blowing so hard the rain was stinging (my new facial hair did not help...stupid weak beard).  It took me about 4 hours to make it the 74 kms to Moosomin and my legs were spent. I was wet and freezing and just sat at Subway shivering.  My parents were only 20 minutes away so they came to meet me there.  We sat for an hour chatting and me resting. I gave them my bags and head back on the road for the final 65ish k to Virden.  There was no way I would have made it here today without them coming to meet me and would probably have tapped out in Moosomin.  Without the panniers in the wind and less the weight of my gear I was able to pedal the rest of the way. Rolled across the Manitoba boarder and then 20 kms outside of Virden there were lighting strikes all around me and the rain doubled its effort.  In the end I rolled in Virden destroyed.

Still a good Father's Day!

Today I learned:

- My parents are AWESOME! (I already knew this but I thought I would state it again)
- 137 kms of wind is about all I can take
- Remember how I said I was Thor because I can ride though a thunder storm.  Turns out this Thor is a wuss and lighting and thunder makes me pedal harder...scary
- Pizza does not help you ride

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