Tour D'Ontario 1998
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Picture by Thomas Enright |
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Picture by Thomas Enright |
A ride from Guelph to Manitoulin Island and back, in 8 days! This trip was organized by the Ontario Cycling Association. I just missed making the 1000km mark, but it was still a great trip. We went up the east side of the Bruce Peninsula, spent a day and a half on the island, and returned down the west side.
The weather was fantastic: we only had to ride in a couple hours of light rain during the whole trip, and the winds worked out about as well as one could ever hope for. I'd say we were pretty lucky weather-wise.
The table below gives a rough idea of the route (the stats are from my bike's computer). On Day 5, not everyone chose to ride their bikes! Day 7's route included a detour west to the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in order to allow us to complete an imperial century (160km).
| Day | Start | Finish | Distance | Time | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guelph | Grand Valley | 75.49 | 3:19:27 | 22.8 |
| 2 | Grand Valley | Owen Sound | 144.37 | 6:38:45 | 21.7 |
| 3 | Owen Sound | Cyprus Lake | 141.10 | 6:27:57 | 21.9 |
| 4 | Cyprus Lake | Providence Bay | 102.00 | 4:38:12 | 22.1 |
| 5 | Manitoulin Island | 77.53 | 4:14:33 | 18.3 | |
| 6 | Providence Bay | Sauble Falls | 136.32 | 5:10:52 | 26.3 |
| 7 | Sauble Falls | Hanover | 174.34 | 7:15:20 | 24.0 |
| 8 | Hanover | Guelph | 126.18 | 4:47:37 | 26.3 |
| TOTAL | 977.33 | 42:32:44 | 23.0 | ||
Personally, I preferred the scenery on the west side of the Bruce Peninsula to that on the east side — especially around Pike Bay. The most spectacular downhills and uphills were around the Talisman Ski area.