Here is my qualifier, just in time for the Jerseys.
Day 1:
131 rating
It was really exciting waking up knowing that I that I would, in fact, be able to ride the qualifier with Pete Perron’s polished/drilled airfoil. It feels really light compared to my steel rim. I notice that the rim makes me far more inclined to go with shorter cranks as each pedal rotation seems to have more kick now that the wheel is much lighter.
The route that I have planned is sort of two loops per day, the same routes both days. I was planning on seeing which day took me longer considering I was aiming for identical routes, but other factors intervened as I decided to visit a relative on day two. I should also mention that i don’t yet have a cyclometer so have used www.bikely.com (does not work with Safari) to plot my route.
So I set out in mid morning to ride up to near my relative’s house at Bayview and Cummer and back down after a bite at Harvey’s on the Corner. The ride was so fun with the new wheel, but at some points I had to move to the sidewalk for fear of being hit in rush hour traffic. The area nearing the top of the route must have a 60km/hr speed limit. My legs felt great as I have been commuting about 10 km to school some days. I probably stopped to walk them out 3 or 4 times on the way up and maybe 3 times back down. Conditions were about 0 degrees C and not too windy although near the highway there was a strong headwind for a few km. Here is that route:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/RTL-City-Qualifier
I went home for a while and relaxed and ate before suiting back up and going back out to do another round trip around my area and the Kay Gardner Beltline. I went around to the south side of the path loop and joined it at the subway station where I planned to finish. The beltline is snow covered and took some getting used to. The snow was sort of packed but was somewhat glossy and slippery which, caused me to UPD a few times. I have bruises on both knees and one elbow. At this point I met up with my friend near his place and he let me borrow his Canon Powershot G9. By the time finished the entire loop I was beat. The snow made it feel more like 20 miles and I think it took me several hours including the camera stop. People looked at me really funny on the subway :). Here is portion 2
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/RTL-city-qualifier-part-2
Day 2:
161 rating
On day 2 I was less excited for the ride considering I had done it the day before. Next time I will plan a new one, but I didn’t want to risk not riding far enough in the absence of any cyclometer. My legs felt better than I thought they would but my elbow hurt to bend. It turned out to be OK though by the time I got riding. I actually really did not enjoy using a camera while riding. Since it wasn’t mine, I felt really nervous having it on while riding and in order to avoid that I would have to stop far too often to pack it in and out of its case.
I found it harder to stay at a perfect cadence to stay stable. If i got tired I got wobbly. I may have also been dehydrated for some of the ride. Despite this, when I returned from my visit with my relative I felt ready to take on the beltline again. I should mention that for a few of the km on the beltline on Day 1 I deviated from the beltline for a few streets to avoid puddles. On the second attempt I managed to stay on it all but once for 10 mins. This is probably due to the fact that i think it was a few degrees cooler on day 2 and the puddles were a bit more frozen and also, I am seeing the effects of training.
Pics: http://flickr.com/photos/25192939@N06/
Looking forward to meeting all of you this summer on the coast!
Levi Pounds
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Teammates: Matt Burns and Russell Davis