This is Suka Boy [soo' - ka]: Paris to Ancaster

P2A is a local bike race based upon the famous Paris-Roubaix that is run in early Spring. This is the Paris-Ancaster.

Full Rack

And it used to be 1 month earlier. But in recent years it was moved to the end of April instead of the End of March. Mostly due to the the weather.
So after hearing about this race from my neighbours and asking me if I would do it, and telling me it's fun. But I'm pretty much a fair weather rider. I avoid rain and cold like the plague. But this winter being as mild as it was, I thought, it might be a good time to try. So I registered about a month ago. But spring weather can still be quite unpredictable. Like the snow storm that hit us in the evening of April 3rd. And the temps started to drop. I began to second guess my decision.

Shoe Tree

All clean

Road to Tim Hortons

But in the last month I ended up riding in the rain a few times. Once to ride to the hospital to drive Tresa home. And other times voluntarily. It wasn't so bad if you have the right gear. And for the most part, I do. It's just that 70km on dirt, gravel, roads, farmers fields, rail paths and then there's the mud chutes, where if you don't have your speed, you are walking in mud. The video below is of the Wave 1 fast suckers. Later on, this section is packed with people walking through it.
Video: P2A Powerline Mudslide

There is a shorter 40km route in this race (from St George to Ancaster), where you will see all the riders with plates above #2000. But the more challenging race is the 70km.
70km is pretty routine distance on roads. Raoul said I should use my hybrid and slap some cyclocross tires on it and I'd be good. But in this race I saw all sorts of riders Young, Old, Clydesdales and petite, elites and regular joe and mary and mountain bikes, Cyclocross, 29'ers, full-squish, fat bikes, retro, franken-bikes, CanadianTire bikes, even a unicycle. Still not sure how that guy does it.

It was either that or use my mtn bike. But 70km on a mtb is a really long way! I rarely do more than 20km on it in 1 ride. It's just not set up for long distances. And there's a 5hr cutoff.
I was hoping to make a cheap CX conversion of my hybrid. Maybe just tires and single ring.
But then I had to get a new mtn derailleur so that I could use a wide ratio cassette. So then I went all in and decided to go the extra mile and switched to a 1x10 drive train. Lost the front derailleur, and triple. Put on 40t front ring, with 11-36 cassette & clutch rear derailleur. I lowered the bars and swapped the stem with a longer 130mm one to lengthen my reach. It was feeling pretty light & racy now. I'd taken it out to high park to ride the trails (shhh...bikes are banned from the trails there) to test it out. And it was pretty confident on the dirt. It was super fun. I was starting to understand the appeal of cyclocross. No suspension, just knobby tires with lower psi and dirt, roots and mud. Just avoid the rock gardens or you'll be walking home.

Hybrid CX conversion project

I was constantly checking the weather forecast up till the day before. The last few weekends have been up and down. But I did do my first long ride at 89km ride in +2degC and my toes were a bit numb at the end and I was really tired. Then started to do hill rides no matter what the weather and then did a solo first half to Kleinburg, and felt pretty good. So I felt confident for P2A. However the weather wasn't looking great. But it turned out to be almost perfect. A little chilly, but only just before the start of the race. As the sun came out the temps rose to 15degC according to Garmin.

Road to Start line

The logistics for this race can be complicated. It's not a loop. And it's a 70km race so the start is far from the finish. Two cars and lots of bike trays are required. But it went surprisingly smooth. I left our car at the finish where we picked up our race kit (plates with chip for the bike and a food ticket for end of the race) and hopped into Raoul's to get to the start.

View from Wave 4

A chilly warmup had me thinking i should have dressed warmer, My upper body was fine but lowers were chilled. But it ended up being fine. I just packed away my windbreaker just before midway. Then I was good. I was trying to monitor my exertion so I wouldn't suffer at the end. I was also trying to stay topped up and hydrated. It was dusty out there on the farms!

And in the end I felt tired, but good. The last 1km uphill to the finish was tough after nearly 70km of racing. I also had a flat with 1.2km to go. I had just reached the bottom of the final hill when I heard my wheel rim clunking against the dirt path. So close to the finish.

One rider said "you're so close, just walk it!"

But I didn't want to.

It took me 10mins to make the change and get back on. I probably could've used my CO2 cartridge to save time and get the pressure higher than with my pump, but I didn't want to fumble with it. I already couldn't see where my tire levers had fallen - there were so many leaves on the ground, so left them and my old inner tube and got back to the race.

I could still stop

I had also finished with a bunch of filipinos. I could hear them for the last 10km talking Tagalog. It was driving me crazy. I heard one say we had less 7km to go and that he was tired and he wished the race was over. In the last mud chute one of them lost control and wiped out in the mud.

So I had dropped them in the last set of single track but then my flat caused them to catch and pass me.

The final climb was harder than i thought. People walking, people cramping, people helping the cramping, people cheering. It was so cool. I did get off my bike for a bit, then I got back on and crossed the finish line riding.