Tour de Victoria
In 2022, a group of friends and I travelled to Victoria, BC to participate in the Tour de Victoria. It’s an all-ages annual cycling event where you choose your own adventure: there are family-friendly 15km and 30km starter routes, up to the serious slogs at 140km and 160km. It makes for a unique finish because the various routes channels all riders in together to cross the same finish line, so starting early in the morning with serious roadie crews ends up finishing with kids and grandparents on ebikes.
I’ll never be the kind of cyclist that competes at the head of the pack, but I’ve also done enough ambitious riding that I chose the 140km that first year. Only I didn’t do nearly enough to prepare for it in 2022, and the 1800M of elevation over that course wiped me out. I remember feeling done by the 50km mark, and suffering through the next 90 kilometers for a 5:39 finish.
Not a terrible result, but not one I was particularly happy with myself for. The whole experience actually stripped away enough joy from riding that, with a couple of exceptions, I put the bike in storage and didn’t touch it again.
Until this year. I decided it was time to steel up and get back in the saddle, so I registered for the ride and committed to some proper training this summer. I racked up the hours climbing mountains, travelling to remote suburbs, and doing dumb things like 14 laps in a row of the same hill.
As the day of the event drew near it was looking like wildfire smoke could be a factor. I took a risk anyway and made my way into town, and over the entire weekend the Straight seemed to act like a buffer keeping the worst of it on the mainland leaving Victoria’s skies a touch hazy but air quality more than acceptable.
The morning arrived. I packed up and made my way to the start line a few kilometers away, and noticed that my bike was handling a bit funny. With 15 minutes before the start time I pulled up to the aid station to pump my tires but realized the pressure in the back tire was way too low. I had a slow leak, but support is great at events like this, and they were able to swap my tubes with a few minutes to spare so I was back on track.
Like my previous year, The first 20km or so was slow-paced group riding where there were too many people to do anything other than go with the flow. I chose to just enjoy the scenery and not push myself, and sure enough, as the climbs started the pack thinned out. I rode the next 30km or so largely with the same group of evenly-matched cyclists, and after the main big, constant climb on the ride I found myself alone for a while.
Around 75km in, the first of the 160km group started passing me. Those people were fast, good thing I stayed away from the longest ride. Around 100km started wanting to be done, but since that happened at the 50km mark on my last attempt I knew I was in good shape. Pushing on and getting it done, my official finish time was 5:11 so I shaved a half hour off the previous attempt.
I’m glad to have re-done it, and to have improved my effort to that degree. But the deeper satisfaction comes from taking a low point and building up the determination to attempt it again. I don’t see myself rushing back for a third effort, but hey, ask me again in a few years.