Hi OBC Members James planned to ride from home to complete the Montebello Sunday tour 14 Th.. July 2002, 187 Km's round trip. James also knew he would be pushing his limit to complete the ride. (much more than he expected) So he said right of at Billings Bridge that he was going to do his own thing.
James left with ten cyclist from Brillings Bridge, surprised mostly Tuesday Night riders and not Sportif type. The group turned left to Smyth Rd. from Riverside and I knew right off that they were going to take a longer route to Cumberland, so I remained on Riverside after waving goodbye and turned onto Industrial Rd. Which becomes Innes Rd. and Innes Rd. (paved) ends at Dunning Rd. in Cumberland. Which allowed me to arrive first and just before the 9:15 departure. I left Cumberland with a group one pack but as usual I had trouble keeping up on the hill out of Mason. I do not like riding in a group at Maximum effort. I feel that it is not doing me any good and I could be a danger to the group, So again I said my goodbye and dropped back, informing the group that I would go it alone at my pace. As it turned out the group took the shorter route to Montebello by turning right at highway 317 for Thurso where I expect they had lunch and I took the long route. Must have been a good decision by the group leader as unknown to me at the time I was to suffer greatly on the return leg. On reaching the Bristol Restaurant in Montebello I was informed that the group passed though about ten minutes ahead of my arrival. As I was carrying food (trail mix) and carbo drink I decided to press on. and crossed at the Fassett Ferry no problem and continued to Lefaivre were I stopped at the General Store and purchased three medium size bottles of Gatorade. I drank the remaining drink in my two large bottles and filled them up with 2 1/2 of the three bottles and drank the rest, eat a bit of food and headed out. I'm not quite sure when I started to have trouble but it was before Wendover maybe around Treadwell. Yes the wind did shift from North - West to West and the road surface was no pleasure. However, That was not my problem, as I started to have cramps in my left thigh. I kept cycling and dropped my heel as much as I could to stretch out the leg. this worked for awhile then I started to have two cramps in the thigh one at the knee and the first along the inside of the thigh. This put me in the spot that to stretch one caused the other to cramp and I didn't have much choice but to stop cycling and walk the pain away. This carried on all the way home, with a few time having both legs cramp at the same time, which made it interesting to watch me try to get off the bike. I either had three or four cramps that I never allowed to lock up but never got rid of them either or I had about 100 separate cramps. I suspect that if a thigh lock up completely that I would have been rolling on the ground in agony, so although it was a very painful event I wonder just what was happening. I also wonder if any other cyclist have gone though this type of event? My mind tells me that the cramps were caused by lack of fluids and heat. Yet I consumed over 6 large water bottles of fluid. I also wonder if by drinking a very cold drink at Lefavre may have caused or started the problem? This is a first for me and I hope a last. I did the RLT the year it was very hot and other than being slowed somewhat by the heat. I made the round trip no worse for wear. One last though is that I may not have drank enough leading up to the ride. The cramps lasted into the night but I managed 45 Km's of cramp free cycling on Monday. James wishes to continue doing the Tour of Quinte, OK Tour, RLT and the End of Summer Century which he enjoys very much (at least when I have finished) cyclist have a strange way of calling hard work fun. In order to do this he must continue to get those long ride in without spoiling the fun of the pack. I also wonder on the Montebello Tour if it would not be wiser on the return trip to ride through Plantagenet and take a more Southerly route back to Cumberland to avoid all those terrible road surfaces between Lefavre and Rockland, the trip would be further but a whole lot smoother. I thank you for reading this whole E-mail. Your either my only fan club member. or read on to see if Sir James was ready to pack it in. Not likely, However, next year I may be looking for other tour leaders to help with the slow group on Tuesday nights so that James can ride more Wednesday morning Gat's with Manny and company. Cheers :-) Sir James E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.ckap.ca Mailing Information page : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home Page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/c-kap/members Unsubscribe-Send E-mail to : [EMAIL PROTECTED] You must be a C-KAP member to subscribe as this is a closed mailing page. 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