The night before, I really needed to get a good night's sleep. Naturally, I got about four hours in total.
An annual non-profit mass bike ride through Langley and Abbotsford, the course is more than 120 kilometres. The first big heat wave of the year was hitting its peak on event day, Sunday, June 8.
But my worthless brain decided to keep me up late. What if my alarm didn't go off? What if I forgot some crucial piece of gear, like my helmet, water bottles, or even my bike?
When the alarm did go off at 5:45 a.m., I was a little groggy. I shovelled a good-sized breakfast into myself, slathered my limbs and face in sunscreen, and was off.
I've been a recreational cyclist on and off for years, but what really got me into it was taking part in the 2010 Cops for Cancer Tour de Valley, as the media rider. It was my first time using a road bike, an aluminum-framed Trek. After the ride, we had an opportunity to buy the bikes we'd been loaned for the event, and that's the bike I still ride today.
The amount I ride has fluctuated. Last year, between various work/life responsibilities and a major overhaul the bike needed in mid-July, I didn't get out nearly as much as I wanted. Around October, as cold, rain, and short days put a damper on cycling, I realized that I hadn't been on a single ride over 60 km long all year.
I needed a goal to motive me. So in December, I registered for the Valley GranFondo.
Since then, I've either used an exercise bike or my real bike four to five days every week. Deadlines powerfully focus the mind.
Even so, the longest ride I managed while preparing was 87 km. (The Victoria Day long weekend; I got drenched in multiple cloudbursts.) Most of my weekend rides this spring were between 50 and 75 km. So I wasn't sure how I'd feel after the 100 km mark.
I'd decided early on that I would not worry about how long it took me to finish. I'd ride at a pace that felt sustainable.
Fortunately, a gran fondo is not a race. It's a timed mass bike ride, but only the folks up at the front of the pack care about the glory of getting top spot. The majority are riding for enjoyment, or to challenge themselves. The Valley GranFondo, like many similar events, also includes shorter 85, 50, and 20 km routes, and many riders and teams raise money for charity as well.
The event begins and ends at Eagle Acres Dairy, just east of Fort Langley. The event site was already busy when I got there 鈥� cyclists by the hundreds were lined up ready to go.
We started off slowly, rolling down the gravel driveway, packed in together, before finally getting out onto the asphalt of River Road.
My rusty group riding skills got a workout right away. For the first 50 km, riders were in large packs of a dozen or more. This is great, because riding in a group cuts down wind resistance 鈥� it's like getting a free boost in speed. It's also a bit tricky, riding a foot or two behind someone else's wheel. You have to be constantly alert to what they and everyone else ahead of them and alongside you are doing.
The best part of a big ride like the Valley GranFondo is that there are traffic control flaggers at major intersections. The ability to cruise straight on through instead of braking for every stop sign and traffic signal is priceless.
Since the first portion of the ride wound its way through North Langley, this was the easiest and most familiar part of the day for me. I know where the potholes are, which corners you turn to find yourself facing a sudden hill, and how each ravine curves.
After looping around through Fort Langley and Walnut Grove, the route headed south down 248 Street, where we hit our first aid station, at JD Farms. This is where riders can stop to get snacks, top up their water bottles, and use the portable toilets.
There were about a hundred riders there when I arrived. Volunteers were pouring water and passing out food as fast as they could. From a distance, it resembled a group of hungry barbarians sacking a defenceless village. But there were plenty of bananas, orange slices, and cups of M&Ms to go around.
One thing I was always told about cycling is drink before you feel thirsty, eat before you feel hungry. I scarfed down a couple hundred calories and refilled my water bottles.
The route continued through South Langley and then east down Zero Avenue. More familiar territory for me, but it's a great spot to ride for a reason. There are long flat stretches out here, broken up by some punchy little climbs. The ride was more than half over, and I was still feeling fine.
I stuffed my face again at the second pit stop at King Traditional Elementary in Abbotsford 鈥� this time I refilled my water bottles, drank one on the spot, and filled it up again. The heat was starting to feel like a weight on my back, one that lifted just a little when I rode into a patch of shade.
The hills became more frequent, and often I was riding alone. The groups got smaller as riders were strung out over the course.
Here my riding habits came to my rescue. For some bizarre, inexplicable reason, I like hills.
Through the spring I sought out some really nasty, leg-destroying, lung-shredding hills and rode up them every chance I could.
All those hills between Zero Avenue and Mt. Lehman? Well, I sweated a lot. But none of them were bad enough to put me into the misery-zone.
Even so, after the final aid station at Mt. Lehman Elementary 鈥� a bit past the 100 km mark 鈥� I finally started to feel like I was running down. Mt. Lehman is a lovely area, with beautiful views and verdant fields, but I would have appreciated it a lot more if it had been part of the first 20 km, not the last. When we finally dropped down into Glen Valley, with about seven kilometres to go, I was ready for the ride to be over.
I rolled back into Eagle Acres and was glad to park my bike, and haul myself to the tent serving post-ride burgers. If I could have taken a nap sprawled out on a picnic table in the shade, I would have.
According to the Strava app on my phone, the total ride was around 129 km. I finished the ride in five hours, 44 minutes, which is in the back quarter of the pack. The fastest riders rolled in at three hours, 11 minutes, the last finisher at six hours and 58 minutes.
By my standards I kept up a good pace right until the end. 鈥� to train hard enough beforehand to ensure that the ride wouldn't become a miserable slog. I enjoyed at least 120 of those 129 km.
I slept that night like a stone. Take that, pointless anxiety!
I was asked recently what a "long" bike ride is. For a lot of cyclists, the Valley GranFondo is a pretty typical weekend ride. There are folks called randonneurs who ride 200 or 300 km regularly. People training for local races might ride a few hundred kilometres every week.
For others, with less time to train, a 50 km ride might be something to plan and work towards. Cycling soaks up time, and every rider has a different amount to devote to it. For me, a gran fondo-style ride hits the sweet spot 鈥� long enough to be challenging, short enough to be achievable.
I love cycling because it bundles up a number of things 鈥� it's exercise and getting outdoors, it allows you to challenge yourself, it can be a group activity or give you time in solitude. For most of the rest of the year, I'm going to be back to solo riding, and well under 100 km in distance. But I'm already thinking about what long rides I can challenge myself with next year.
