Today is the Friday of the Canada Day long weekend and it was a great day on the bike. I cycled 113 km from Pritchard, BC to Mara, BC in 5 and a half hours (including stops!). I averaged a speed of 26 km/h and made it into camp around 1:00pm. Needless to say, that today's ride was effortless compared to that of yesterday.
The route followed the Thompson River Valley and passed Shuswap Lake into the upper Okanagan. I started the day with Gary, Iona, and Darron but early in on, I stopped for some pictures and lost them. I rode solo for approximately 50 km into the community of Salmon Arm, BC where I became lost due to a lack of detail on the map. As I back-tracked my route in search of a street, I ran into Brett and Graham so the three of us asked a local guy for directions to the highway. Unfortunately, he gave us the most direct route that included the most difficult climb of the trip! It was approximately 1.5 km in length and the grade had to be close to 15 percent. I am one of the few riders in the tour with only two chainrings on the front, making climbing extremely steep hills difficult. I could not climb while seated in the saddle so I ended up climbing the entire thing while standing out of the saddle. For the first time during the trip I really cursed a hill. My heart rate hit 186 beats/min and I was exhausted at the summit.
Luckily, the remaining 50 kms was relatively easy. Graham and Brett are both very experienced cyclist and we rode in a tight paceline for the remainder of the day. By taking turns breaking the wind, the group moved much faster as a whole. We would each take the lead for 1 km and then switch, allowing us to cruise along at over 30 km/h. We actually missed a turnoff and ended up in a small town called Enderby, BC, where we had awesome ice cream. The locals pointed us in the right direction to Mara, BC and we were the first group to arrive at the campground.
I spent all afternoon swimming in the outdoor pool and drinking beer on the deck in the sunshine. I attribute today's ride to an excellent sleep last night in Pritchard and have come to the conclusion that cycling is much more difficult when tired. On that note, I am going to go have supper and chill out for the rest of tonight. On to Canyon Hot Springs tomorrow!
