Days Five and Six: London to Breslau to Ancaster

August 9, Friday

73.3 miles London to Breslau   

Awake and up at 5:45.  With set up, clean up, and truck loading duties I finally get on the road at 7:50.  Most everyone has left camp.  I ride to the first sag stop with a group of five twenty somethings in a good pace line into a mild head wind.  We stop to watch a helicopter crop-dusting.  Even though we are breathing hard we try to not breath deeply!  

 Then the skies are clearing and we will be riding in country and farmland all day and in a pace line you don’t see much so I leave the sag stop with Peter and Elly and ride with them the rest of the day which is a much slower  and scenic pace. 

  It is a beautiful day, sunny, cool and the fields are all green.  Rather hilly in spots and we have 2700 feet of rise.  After seeing the freigher the Norman McLeod in Sarnia on day 3, today I stop for a photo by a very nice looking farm owned by some well named folks.  These sightings remind me I have left the West Michigan bubble for the greater world!  

 The last 12 miles are mostly busy city streets and we are nearly the last ones into camp at 2:50.  I am soon welcomed by John Medendorp serving the church in Listowell for the summer.  He stays to enjoy our taco and burrito supper.  Tonight's peloton meeting features farewells by those who will be leaving the tour this weekend and some very fine and funny skits!  I laughed so hard I was crying.  I go to bed intently at 9:40. A pretty cool evening, clear.

August 10, Saturday

44.5 miles Breslau to Ancaster / Redeemer University  

Some gusty winds overnight but clear, and the morning dawns clear, calm, and mid-50’s with a very heavy dew.   The rain fly is wetter this morning than the morning after it rained in the evening in Imlay City.  Awake at 5:30 and up at 5:40.  My routine is pretty well established now.  I know what I need, what needs to be done, etc. 

  This morning is pretty relaxed because we all know we have a short ride but everybody is up anyway and many area Canadians are eager to ride because they have friends and family waiting for them, and for others it is their last day.  I leave my tent up during breakfast hoping that maybe the fly will dry a bit before packing, but no such luck.  I am one of the first to breakfast which today includes fried potatoes and scrambled eggs.  I’ve had porridge every day, which is quite good, but today I go for the potatoes and eggs.   I take down and pack up a soaking wet tent fly, load the truck and eventually get on the road at 7:15  The Christian high school was a good place to stop but obviously out of the way as our first 9 miles are backtracking the last 9 miles of yesterday afternoon!   It is 59 degrees on my bike computer as I leave with a group of 10 local day-riders who have very fresh legs and set a brief pace.  Early on Saturday morning there is very little traffic and we buzz through Preston, along the river to Cambridge and to the CRC in town (15 miles). They have lots of home baked goods and fruit and water for us, but surprisingly no coffee!?  What?  8:15 on a cold morning and no coffee?   This grievous omission has seriously compromised the Dutch Canadian hospitality approval rating – especially since our hosts were themselves all holding cups of coffee from Tim Hortons!  With no coffee and no familiar faces I leave with Daniel Kiel and Peter Wiersma.  It is a beautiful, cool, sunny, and fresh day riding through rural farmland to Ancaster.  We have a little tail wind (the first in three days!) which is such a relief, and with the prospect of a short ride we ride easily but at a good pace, getting to Redeemer having averaged 16.7 mph.    We are some of the first to arrive at Redeemer (10:35), in fact the Sea to Sea semi trucks pass us in the last mile before the school.  I check into the dorm and wait for the gear truck to back into position and then help unload.   Everything will come out of the gear truck over the weekend for its weekly cleaning.   I unpack my wet tenting and spread it out to dry in the sun and breeze, eat my lunch, and then repack the gear and take everything up to my room.  Shower and ride a mile or so to find a Starbucks and get some iced coffee and write this blog.   There is a picnic supper – hamburgers -- at the nearby CRC at 5.  

Summary for the week:

425 miles – smiling most of the time, happy I am actually doing this and feeling so good in doing it! 

A bit over 10,000 feet of rise.

No flat tires.

No saddle sores or inflamed tendons. 

No sun burn (but lots of sunscreen).

Several unidentified bugs ingested – fresh protein is good for cell repair!

Eating like I was 18, and sleeping like I was 1.

Lots of new friends.