Ride Report – Golden Triangle Plus 2009

by Pat Evans

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. Strong winds from the west; noticed them most around Banff, just before Lake Louise to Field, and then into Golden. At times the wind reminded me of the Okatoks ride. I am starting to get use to the winds; every ride this year has had some good head winds. Even with the head winds, I was able to average 20 km\hr to Golden. Temperature in Golden yesterday was 26C.

Riding to Radium was nice with the tailwinds. Going into Golden and down to Radium, I kept watching this dark ominous cloud, but luckily there was no precipitation from it. Stopped for lunch in Parson. The general store serves good home made food. Had a chicken sandwich with fresh potato salad, and a litre of chocolate milk – $13.50. Not a bad price for lunch. If you are riding through the area, it is a must stop. Just make sure you are there before 6 pm since they close at that time. Got into Radium about 8:00, about 1.5 hours better than last year.

As always, it was a nice climb out of Radium. The temperature dropped quickly going up the hill, bit it did warm up a bit on the other side of the hill. Light traffic on highway 93. Made it into Vermillion crossing at 12:30. At that point my right knee starting to bother me, so I take something for it. It didn’t help. The last 60 km of the ride my knee was killing me. I pedaled with one leg, letting the right leg float on the pedals. If I used the leg by accident I quickly new it by the pain. The temperature on this part of the ride was cool. It was 3C in Banff, so I am guessing it was around the same or a bit cooler on the pass.

Finally made it into Banff at 5:27, for a total time of 22 hours, 27 minutes. Even with my knee problems, this was better than last year’s time of 23 hours, 3 minutes. The last 85 km took 5 hours, which wasn’t bad considering the knee problems.

At this point I don’t know if I will be riding the Fairmont 600 this coming weekend. If I don’t I will ride it next weekend. Should know by Wednesday. Dan I will let you know my plans by then. Either way, I will be starting the ride on the Friday instead of Saturday.