Fit & Grit Day 1 of the Gaspe Coast Ride- June 25th 2016.
What an amazing day on the bikes today.
The weather was perfect to start out and got a little nast near suppertime. We actually had to outrun a thunder storm and made it home safe and dry!
We started out at Chateau Bahia in Pointe a la Croix, near Escuminac.
We loaded up on carbs with some homemade pancakes, fresh fruit, yogurt. The highlight was the maple syrup cake. Perhaps a little too much sugar to start our journey, but we left full of energy.
We didn’t even make it to the road, when Keishawn suffered our 1st flat coming down the very steep gravel drivevway. Our brakes got a good test on that first hill. We remained positive and used the challenge as an opportunity to run a quick ‘flat repair’ clinic for all of our riders.
We eventually got going and made our way through Escuminac and Nouvelle in fairly good time, despite a second flat tire 2 ½ hrs into the ride. Keishawn was the victim again, but this time it was the rear tire. No worries, Keyshawn! We quickly encouraged that all mechanical challenges are a team effort. It doesn’t matter who gets the flat, it’s everyone’s responsibility to deal with it.
We enjoyed a late tailgate lunch in Carleton-Sur-Mer. We assembled our own submarine sandwiches and they rivaled anything you could get in a restaurant. Chocolate milk, fresh strawberries and watermelon topped it all off. It was a beautiful pit stop at the beach with some beach-volleyball thrown in for good measure. We challenged some skilled and buff volleyballers at the volleyball court. It was fun to see the egos of our opponents put in check. The Gallibois men (Guy, Mark, and Joe), along with our support driver Glenn Hayes, almost ran the beefy opponents off the court.
Tanner, Mark Legresley, Adrien, and Sam added a big climb of Mont Saint Joseph, while the others cleaned up the lunch site. Adrien suffered flat number 3 on that climb, which set their 4-some back a little on the path to Maria. They really pushed with Mark Legresley leading their break-away group, to catch the full group of riders in perfect time to converge on our final stop at Auberge Marchand in Maria.
As mentioned, we outran the storm upon our arrival. Mother Nature rewarded our efforts and painted the sky with a double rainbow at the back of Auberge Marchand.
Today’s statistics:
Top speed of 70 Km/hr.
Total elevation climbed 435m
Maximum single climb was 85 meters
Repairs: 3 flat tires (+ 2 scraped knees from some aggressive volleyball diving by Kimberly on a stone-dust court…ouch).
Thanks for the Day!
Let’s do it again tomorrow 🙂
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