MS Bike Tour - Nova Scotia Report

[Scott]

This was my third year doing this event as part of a team our office puts in. We've grown from four, to 20 members of our Gruppetto in 5 years.
The ride is a 170 km long event over two days. The particpants ride from Musquodoboit Harbour on the Eastern Shore of NS to Truro, stay over night and ride back the next day.

The weather on the first day was nasty to say the least. This was the most rain I've even ridden in in my life. At one point, around the 70km point, a downpour started that lasted over 20mins and the raindrops were huge. I would not have been surprised to see hailstones. There were several downpours throughout the day, otherwise it just rained.

Once in Truro, we set about getting cleaned up and warmed up. Of course once we reached Truro, the rain stopped.

This morning we set out in the fog around 8:10AM, by about 9AM, the sun had burned off the fog and it was hot and humid with a headwind.

I made good time on the way back, riding most of it alone, with a few exceptions. I covered the return trip of 85km in around 2:55, so I averaged around 29km/hr. I was most happy with my cadence which I was able to keep in the 80's for most of the ride.

I was another great event, but as has been the trend for me this year, nasty weather followed me.

Scott

[dgrant]

What's the deal? Bluenose, then this? Scott, please don't come to my next event!

[RA.]

good job, scott! it was nasty weather here for a long ride this weekend.

[q]

Good work Scott!

[La]

Did you happen to be in Lake Placid in July 2003??

Well done in tough conditions!

[jacob42.2]

Way to fight through the elements Scott. Great job! Congrats

[Scott]

I should mention that our team raised over $10,000 for MS research and support through this event. I'm not sure what the final tally was for the NS event, but it I think it was in excess of $100,000.

UPDATE: The final tally was over $250,000!!!!

It was amazing to see cyclist of all shapes and sizes tough it out through the storm. Many people are not used to doing something of this magnitude, let alone in those conditions. I will run in pretty much any conditions, but many folks on this Tour were sporadic execisers, so hats off to them.

There were over 10 accidents during the storm caused by people crossing two very wet rail crossings (bad angle). I dismounted and walked the first one and the bike still slipped in my hand as we crossed, the second wasn't as bad so I unclipped one foot.

Scott

[Jo-Jo]

Scott...

Awesome ride and a great report...kudos for all the money your team raised...

Joanne

[Nicholas]

Nice ride. Maybe you should consider going to Africa and helping out with the droughts.....

[MINITEE]

I volunteered for the London to Grand Bend Leg of this race about 10 years ago. I had such a blast. I've always wanted to actually do the bike tour & decided this year as I was returning from the cottage in the rain with my new bike safely tucked in the back of my car, that I would do this ride in 2006!

Great report & job well done, the weather here was not the best for our ride in July either - it was the first "real" rain that we had all summer!
Tracy