For those who aren't familiar with this event, the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour is an annual event organized by the Ottawa Bicycle Club. It is simply a supported ride from Ottawa to Kingston or from Perth to Kingston, 180 km or 100 km rides respectively. Once you have arrived in Kingston your bags have been delivered for your stay on the Queens university campus. Then after a good night of sleep you ride back to your starting location.
The chain gang.
The ride departs from the Carleton University campus early Saturday morning. Above we have the gang all together and eager to get the ride started!
And as for the rest stops to refuel, Karl had it covered!
We made three short pit-stops both days over the 180 km rides. Always eating and refilling our bottles because after all we would be riding for about 6 hours each day! Also, I was continuously applying sunscreen to avoid sun burns, but I'm not complaining because that is way better than the rain they were predicting :) We were super lucky and got sunshine both ways!
The other important thing to do at our stops was obviously to pose together. Here we are sporting our super nice Fresh Air Experience bike kits at our last stop before Kingston.
Finally we arrive in Kingston at the Queens University campus where all the cyclists gather at the end of there long day. The nice part about arriving in Kingston is that there is a Barbecue and Beer tent waiting for you when you get there! Nothing like a burger and a cold beer to speed up recovery!
Here is a video I took as we were riding to Kingston:
Notice the two extra tag-alongs, Andy Reedman and Mike Tripp... we were very happy to have these two strong riders along with us!
After the barbecue and after picking up our bags we made our way to our rooms, where hopefully everyone hit the showers! Then all participants gather in the Queens cafeteria where dinner is served.
After dinner we went for a nice walk along the rocky shoreline before heading to bed where sleep came very fast.
On our way back we took the supported route from Kingston to Perth, then back to Ottawa. Everything went smoothly again, except now we were starting with a sore butt and not so fresh legs. Thankfully our group was very civilized and there was no racing each other.
Huge thanks to everyone who rode with me and congratulations to all who participated. Also big thanks to Fresh Air for the bike kits, Rudy Project for the glasses and to E-Load for keeping us hydrated.
thanks for reading :)
"Pack your paddle."