RTCC 2015

Finally getting ridden after 10 yrs.

This bike is really getting ridden this year.  More kms on it in the past few months than in the past 10  years.  And all for a good cause.
The Ride To Conquer Cancer ride is this weekend.

200 kms over 2 days.
Day 1 Toronto to Hamilton
Day 2 Hamilton to Niagara Falls 

Wasn't sure if Tresa would be up to riding 100km, let alone 200km over 2 days.  But I watched ride her bike on the indoor trainer for a few hours when it was still below 0 deg C.  And then when it got warm enough, she took it to the streets of TO.

And we did a couple of rides to Oakville, the first one being 74km and another that was 101km just this past weekend.  I made sure she hit the 100km mark to give her a sense of accomplishment that she could do a century ride.

It isn't her legs that hurt, but it's the shoulders and back that ache from being in a stationary position for several hours.  But once you get used to it.  It goes away.  But it takes a while.  She'll feel it in her shoulders and back after this weekend.

We all rode down to the start point (Humber College Lakeshore) which was at Lakeshore and Kipling.  We got there about 7:30am.  Glad we didn't get there any earlier.  Otherwise we would have been standing around a lot longer waiting to get going.  There's only so many muffins I can eat you know.  Those are my Oakley's she's wearing.  They look pretty good. And they block the wind.  A few years ago in the TdF they wore those in the individual TT.

Departure time was after the 8:00am - kick off which included a national anthem and speeches.  Nearly 5000 riders, and $19.5M raised for this year.  That's pretty impressive.  One team alone raised over $800,000.00. Wow.  Makes 2500.00 seem so little.  But we hit the goal with 32 days remaining which allowed Tresa (and me) not stress about it and she can focus on riding.

Glad we rode down, although we were a little concerned for Kieran.  He said he could do it.  And he made it back.  24km round trip.  The return was a slight upward slope.  So his little legs were tired.

5000 riders raise 19.5M dollars for Cancer Research

There was not a lot of cars on the road so it felt safer with Kieran in tow.  But still on Lakeshore, cars are going way too fast and coming close when they didn't need to.  The trucks were actually okay.  Too many people in a hurry to get to there next destination for no reason.  It's Saturday. C'mon slow down.

The Gold Helmets signify a level of donations raised.

It was slow start, but I just got a call and it's 11:45am and Tresa's at 53.5km Lunch pit stop location.  There's no more pit stops until Hamilton from here.  It's after this point that the number of riders begins to thin out.  Or bunch up, depending on how you look at it I suppose.

Don't forget to clip out of the pedals.

RTCC 2015 Start photos.
RTCC 2015 - Hamilton and Finish