This past weekend I did a little bike ride that is affectionately known as "To Hell and Back". The ride is approximately 140km long and includes numerous off road sections with one 10km portion along an abandoned rail line known as 'the hell section'. This informal ride evolved from a race first run in 1999 so this year's ride marked the 9th annual running. The original course can no longer be ridden due to housing and other developments over the years. Nigel, a local pro triathlete, is the force that organizes this ride each year. Nigel pre-rides most of the course in the weeks leading up to the ride. Nigel scopes out all the off road sections to make sure they are passable (being rideable is not required or even desirable). This is only the 2nd year I've taken part in this ride. Last year, my first time out, the weather was almost balmy for southern Ontario. The weeks leading up to the event were mostly dry so the off road sections were hard packed and generally fast. Last year's ride was very hard more for the tempo we rode it at than for the actual course or distance ridden. Nigel summed up last year's ride as "Hell Light". For him, the harder the better.
I participated in one of the pre-rides a few weeks ago with Nigel and a few others. We did a couple of the early off road sections. This summer and fall were extremely dry in Toronto and the off-road sections we rode were even more hard packed than last year. There also seemed to be a lot less fallen debris and foliage on the trails (perhaps also due to the dry summer we had). We rode all of these off road sections and even managed to ride up a short steep hill that would have been impossible to ride last year.
Well what a difference a few weeks can make. While Toronto proper still hasn't seen significant snowfall, you don't have to go very far north out of the city to see some accumulation. There was a winter storm watch for this past weekend so the ride had to be bumped up to Saturday instead of Sunday to try and beat the storm. Snow wouldn't have been a big problem however freezing rain was forecasted which might have made the road sections too dangerous to ride. The last minute schedule change meant we lost about half of the 15 odd riders who had committed to ride. 8 of us started out around 7:30am. We set out in 2 groups of 4 based on ability. The temperature at the start of the ride was -10°C. The wind wasn't too bad but when you're moving at 20-30km/hr it starts to bite. Fingers and toes are the hardest to keep warm. From past experience riding in winter, I brought hand and toe warmers. Without these I'm not sure I would have lasted more than an hour. By the time we hit the 'hell section' we were as far north as we would go. It was -16°C and what wind there was was in our face. The hell of the 'hell section' for me is the constant battering your body takes as you navigate ruts that you can't see under the covering of snow. Most of the hell section was rideable but still very tough slugging. Had we waited until Sunday it is likely that none of it could have been ridden. Of the 8 that started the ride only 4 of us started the 'hell section'. All four of us finished the hell section and 3 of us managed to regroup after it and rode the final 40km together to the finish. The ride start to finish took us around 8 hours. According to Nigel it was the longest it had ever taken him so this year's hell will go down as the toughest ever as Nigel gets to look after the record book.
Each of the 2 groups on the road had a support vehicle that followed us as best they could. They reloaded us with Gatorade, hot chocolate, food and provided mechanical support where required. Even while doing the ride I wondered how much longer an event like this can take place. The cost of running 2 vehicles for 8 hours would not be enough itself to make this event too costly to run even if gas prices doubled or even tripled. I was thinking more about things like the hand and toe warmers I was using, the high-tech Lycra clothing I was wearing and even the bicycle I was riding. On a better day I could get by without the toe warmers and my store of Lycra clothing isn't going anywhere so even if I could never buy another high-tech piece of clothing I could be riding in winter for years. The bike itself will probably last a long time however tires and cables need replacing regularly. None of these things by themselves are likely to become unavailable as global oil production wanes. What I was thinking of most was how much longer people will be able to justify recreational pursuits of this sort. How many people would willingly take the vehicle they rely on day to day into a rally car race? If your bicycle becomes as indispensable to your daily life as the automobile is today, will it become less of a recreational pursuit than it is today? If you invest a large amount of your energy every day just moving around, would you willingly spend that energy basically riding in one gigantic circle?
I participated in one of the pre-rides a few weeks ago with Nigel and a few others. We did a couple of the early off road sections. This summer and fall were extremely dry in Toronto and the off-road sections we rode were even more hard packed than last year. There also seemed to be a lot less fallen debris and foliage on the trails (perhaps also due to the dry summer we had). We rode all of these off road sections and even managed to ride up a short steep hill that would have been impossible to ride last year.
Well what a difference a few weeks can make. While Toronto proper still hasn't seen significant snowfall, you don't have to go very far north out of the city to see some accumulation. There was a winter storm watch for this past weekend so the ride had to be bumped up to Saturday instead of Sunday to try and beat the storm. Snow wouldn't have been a big problem however freezing rain was forecasted which might have made the road sections too dangerous to ride. The last minute schedule change meant we lost about half of the 15 odd riders who had committed to ride. 8 of us started out around 7:30am. We set out in 2 groups of 4 based on ability. The temperature at the start of the ride was -10°C. The wind wasn't too bad but when you're moving at 20-30km/hr it starts to bite. Fingers and toes are the hardest to keep warm. From past experience riding in winter, I brought hand and toe warmers. Without these I'm not sure I would have lasted more than an hour. By the time we hit the 'hell section' we were as far north as we would go. It was -16°C and what wind there was was in our face. The hell of the 'hell section' for me is the constant battering your body takes as you navigate ruts that you can't see under the covering of snow. Most of the hell section was rideable but still very tough slugging. Had we waited until Sunday it is likely that none of it could have been ridden. Of the 8 that started the ride only 4 of us started the 'hell section'. All four of us finished the hell section and 3 of us managed to regroup after it and rode the final 40km together to the finish. The ride start to finish took us around 8 hours. According to Nigel it was the longest it had ever taken him so this year's hell will go down as the toughest ever as Nigel gets to look after the record book.
Each of the 2 groups on the road had a support vehicle that followed us as best they could. They reloaded us with Gatorade, hot chocolate, food and provided mechanical support where required. Even while doing the ride I wondered how much longer an event like this can take place. The cost of running 2 vehicles for 8 hours would not be enough itself to make this event too costly to run even if gas prices doubled or even tripled. I was thinking more about things like the hand and toe warmers I was using, the high-tech Lycra clothing I was wearing and even the bicycle I was riding. On a better day I could get by without the toe warmers and my store of Lycra clothing isn't going anywhere so even if I could never buy another high-tech piece of clothing I could be riding in winter for years. The bike itself will probably last a long time however tires and cables need replacing regularly. None of these things by themselves are likely to become unavailable as global oil production wanes. What I was thinking of most was how much longer people will be able to justify recreational pursuits of this sort. How many people would willingly take the vehicle they rely on day to day into a rally car race? If your bicycle becomes as indispensable to your daily life as the automobile is today, will it become less of a recreational pursuit than it is today? If you invest a large amount of your energy every day just moving around, would you willingly spend that energy basically riding in one gigantic circle?
