We’re Sorry to Report

That after the following selfie with the world’s largest dinosaur, Simon was eaten.

No, seriously today was a Bow Cyclist Club ride in Drumheller, AB. We originally were going to have three “special” rides, but after the Canmore ride people started thinking about having one more. The Gran Fondo Badlands 2020 was postponed to 2021, so most of the club hadn’t ridden in Drumheller this year. We set up a 75 km and a 100 km route, but most people elected to ride the 100 today. I was leading the second “B” group.

It was pretty chilly this morning. We had a 9:00 am start, and it was single-digit temperatures with a breeze blowing. Adam and Brett rode from Calgary starting around 4:00 am and then rode with my group.

We rode the Dinosaur Trail to the ferry and then back into Drumheller, and then on to Wayne. Usually during the Gran Fondo, there is a bacon sandwiches station in Wayne, but not today. Still, riding the road up to the Last Chance Saloon is nice. There was a large group of motorcycles there on some kind of run. The one motorcycle ride who came over to say hello was darn impressed that Adam had ridden from Calgary.

After Wayne, our route would have been on to East Coulee before turning around, but last night, BCC member Dallas sent this:

Hey there BCC crew, Dallas here and I haven’t been out to too many rides but just wanted people to know that if people need a rest station for the Drumheller ride I will be at my place 10k east of Drumheller.

He was there at the 9:00 am gathering, and when we were passing Cambria we pulled in and found the first “B” group there as well. It was a welcome rest from the headwinds and an opportunity to refill water bottles, use the washroom and even have some coffee. I think Dallas’ wife Valerie thought he was nuts to do this at first, but we won her over. We really are a nice bunch of people. 😊

We then headed for the turnaround and then enjoyed a tailwind back to Drumheller. Adam, who had been planning to ride back to Calgary, started to feel the 240 or so kilometres that he’d ridden and elected to get a ride.

The sun tried to break through all day, but the mix of high cloud and some smoke from the US wildfires kept it at bay until we were packing our bikes back onto car racks. It never got too warm: I wore arm warmers and knee warmers and a wind vest all day. But if you ride Drumheller, you gotta be ready for a weather experience.

Charles was with us as well. Normally he rides with the “C” group, but today he carpooled with Dave and I guess decided to ride together in “B”. It didn’t start well and we thought Charles was going to drop back to ride with Alice’s C group, but he managed to keep up with us on the first hill and from there he managed to hang with us all day.

It was his first 100 km ride ever! 🎉 In celebration, most of our group gathered at the dinosaur for a picture.