It was almost too easy...

Getting ready to go out and ride is now pretty much part of my everyday routine (well 6/7 days) but today I felt like I cheated Mother Nature when I went out for this one. Just over 5hrs ride time, it was.

I had initially planned to hit up the circle route and have fun trying to find a way home from Fort Erie, but I felt like climbing. I started off by going South to the river then North to Rockway, put the hammer down to chase down a cyclist just up the road. His name was Greg, good guy. He went right and I made a left to do a loop along some golf course, on the other side the road comes to a dead end, this time I dismounted and crossed the train tracks to finish up the loop. The climb that starts/finishes the loop is pretty sick.

Then I backtracked and went further West to Jordan, took a few roads out as far North as I can go. It's a service road along Lake Ontario. The view was amazing; not a cloud in the sky and not a ripple on the lake. The sound barrier between me and the highway made for a pretty peaceful stretch. I took that as far as it goes and ended up on Lakeshore. That took me through downtown Port Dalhousie where I got lost for a bit. The bars were jam-packed and it was a pretty sweet ride through the town, minus some douchebags at the bar that were slurrin some comments my way. Not too sure what they said, I think I heard "I love men" or something like that.

I followed that to the Parkway and climbed up to the Brock Monument. It wasn't part of the route, but why would you ride out to the bottom of the climb and not do it ? It just doesn't make sense, the descent makes the pain worth while. I went through downtown NOTL for some motor pacing and felt really good after the first stretch that I pulled a U-Turn and drafted a car back towards the lake then another car on the way back. This sure got the blood pumpin and I had to ease off for a bit and get a some fuel in me.

The stretch coming in to St. Catharines was pretty peaceful until some guy decided to try and run me over. There was nobody but me on the road coming his way, my white socks, baby blue helmet and bright yellow freakin jersey make me pretty visible... Especially in the day time! He still manages to pull out of a driveway and I had to ride into a ditch to avoid it. I'm very surprised about how much grip I got from the road tires when I was on some loose dirt/grass.

After 4.5hrs I started the climb up the locks and had one gulp of water left. I told myself I would take it when I get to Cataract. I was pretty pooched fighting the headwind on the way home, but still kept a good pace. I took all the climbs at a pretty good clip and stayed in the big ring for most of the ride. I felt good today, probably the best I've felt this year.

Tomorow is going to be mountain biking fo sho. Somewhere in the 3-4h range.