Posted by Les Faber in Last night Helen and I decided to attend the KNBC Wednesday night Mystery Ride. It’s a simple concept. KNBC members meet at Centrepoint in Nepean, and are led on a “secret trek”.
This week’s ride took us on some quiet side streets and down to the Ottawa River Parkway. What a glorious evening! Once we hit the Parkway (at Island Park), we headed west to Andrew Haydon Park. A relatively uneventful ride – apart from a flat tire for poor Jack (who had no spare or repair kit). I stayed with him a bit to help. But his empty stomach got the better of him and he headed home – which was close by.
And on to Andrew Haydon Park. At this point, I was enticed by Steve & Peter to do an “extra loop”. In other words, they needed a sucker to try and keep up with them (that be me). We headed further west and ended up doing the Corkstown Road Hill. A nefarious climb of only 5 or 6 degrees – that never (ever) seems to end! I got to the top in 3rd position (yes there were only three of us!). My lowest (uphill) speed was 13.5 kph.
And on we went. It was amazing! I had never ridden with fast riders before – for any distance. We were averaging over 30 kilometers per hour. Peter made for a good leader – and I a good follower. This was my first true experience with drafting – and I am hooked.
We tacked an extra 10 kilometers onto the 40 or so the rest of the group did – and ended up arriving back at our start point about 5 minutes after they did. I must admit I was pretty excited!
