Days 9 and 10 - Teamwork

If you follow us on twitter, you would have seen the story of the last two days with this little comment early on Monday morning:

Not heavy, but cold miserable rain as we enter Levis.Definitely more mental than physical today.30/205kms in the books.
— Bike For Bricks (@BikeForBricks) June 25, 2012

Quebec City from Levis

And that defines our last two days. Not that the physical wasn't difficult, because it was terrible, but it really was a mental battle. We quickly became soaked and chilled to the bone (rain booties don't do much!), and faced headwinds on a hilly day compared to our entrance to Quebec City. Every time we pedaled, we would feel the water sloshing around inside the shoes. Every time we stopped, it was just that much harder to get back on the bike. It was too wet to GPS, to Tweet, or to have any amount of fun. We knew that we would hit rain on our trip, and we knew it would suck, and this was it.

A little off-roading

Things hit an early low point on Monday. About an hour in, we weren't clipping in with the booties, and in the day's heaviest rain, we stopped to cut larger holes in the bottom. This had mitigated success, until later in the day when we just stopped using them. But things got better quickly. Almost immediately, we got a great view of Quebec City from Levis, the breeze turned warm, and we found our motivation. We moved at about 19km/hr for most of the day,actually increasing gradually. 

End of Day 9 in Saint- Pascal

I could really fill this entire post with complaints, but let's get to the title, where I choose to frame it: teamwork. Yesterday, we really hit our stride in working as a team to accomplish our goals. Advanced drafting, everyone got into the lead. It is obvious how much it really helps rotating the lead. I don't know how strong the winds were, but they were directly in our faces for most of the day. It is impossible to understate how essential our team attitude was to even just getting through the day. Other little examples too, but it's really as simple as the drafting.

Ultimately, we didn't make our ambitious goal of a campground south of Riviere du Loup. We ended the day in Saint-Pascal, after 185km, still a career-high for all of us. That means that Tuesday we will have to do about 160 to catch up to our plan of Edmundston.

Entering New Brunswick

Tuesday, the wind isn't as strong, but the rain is heavier. We turn south onto the 85 towards New Brunswick, which has very few places to stop. A low point this day is in the afternoon, hiding under a small ledge, fingers too cold to even tweet. Ultimately, we use a well-timed Tim Horton's stop to keep us going, and take a more direct route than we had anticipated, so we made our destination in only 145km. Tyler and I have never been to this province before! We made sure to get a pic at the sign.


Also, late yesterday, Kyle's rack broke. We have a complicated bungee situation holding right now, but we need to take care of this soon. Another casualty of the rains is our motivation to tent. At the end of a day in which we are completely soaked, I think it is a smart health decision to get indoors. So we have been motelling for each of the past two nights. Not ideal, but essential.

We're starting the day with wet shoes, knowing the rain is coming, heading to a cycle shop...fun times!

Kyle MacGyvers his rack support