Dan riding in 2009
Peter riding in 2009
A scenic tour through the praries and badlands east and north of the City. Hillier than you might think.
It is possible for the Google maps to be off; please use the directions as the offical route.
Map: Google Map
Brevet Card: Brevet PDF, Directions PDF, Google Doc
GPS: garmin, GPX
Apr 21, 2009, PH writes: I enjoyed the ride and was not bored. The headwind on 564 (Strathmore to Calgary) though grinded my quads down. I had almost 2h 30 min left leaving Strathmore to finish under 13 hours, but over long stretches it was hard to make 15 km/h. I think the wind was somewhere between 30 and 40 km/h.....and that for almost 3 hours. I was happy when arrived.
Apr 21, 2009 DP writes: After riding Saturday a 200 and following that up with a 300 on Tuesday was defintely not enough time for recovery! Maybe later in the season. It is a good thing that this ride has some scenic areas but overall it is boring (its all in the name). So by having my head down for 2/3rds of the ride did not sacrafice much. The ride was basically survival mode and finishing in the dark was probably my first for a 300. It sure felt cold even though it was still 12 degrees but wind will do that. As I see the snow coming down it makes me wonder how did I get a sun burn?
May 2, 2009 PE writes: Friday's ride started out great; with a forcast of 15C and wind from the north, what more could a guy want. The first thing someone might want is for the wind to cooperate. The first 140 km was great, with a nice tailwind, Terry and I made it to Drumheller by noon, carried on to Rosedale and that's when it all fell apart. The slight tailwind turned into a stronger headwind from the west. After stopping in Drumheller for lunch, we made the easy climb out of town and then hit the headwind again. The nice pace we had be doing decreased to less than 20 km/hr. Even when we turned down Route 840, the wind seemed to find us. It took us 4 hours to get from Drumheller to Standard - a 60 km ride. It was then onto Strathmore and more headwind - just under 40 km in 2 1/2 hours. After another snack at Subway we hit the road and finally the wind had died down; we were able to finish the last 60 kmin just 2 1/2 hours for a total of 15 hours and 32 minutes. We finished with only 1 hour of night riding and slightly tired.
Biggest leason of the day - I need to spend more time on the bike. With the last spring, I haven't put the miles in that I would like to have, and I sure felt it. Definely need to see more of the road before my next trip.