Last weekend I took part in the MEC London Century here in London, Ontario, Canada, for the first time. This wasn’t the first time the event had happened, I have seen photo albums for 2015, 2016 and 2017 online, but I hadn’t previously asked to see if recumbents could take part. But this year I had contacted the event coordinators and they confirmed that the ride was open to all riders and all bike types.
The day itself was glorious for a summer day, but almost too hot for an extended ride like this (it didn’t ‘feel like 42°C’ as we’d seen the previous week during a very humid period, but it was still feeling like mid-30s I think). I signed up for the 160km route, but the other options were 60km and 100km. In chatting to the bike valet after the event, I learned that the lion’s share of participants follow the 100km route, with the longer and shorter options having about the same number of riders. We were the first group to start at 8am, then 100km at 8:30 and 60km at 9am.
The route headed west out of town and then south west of London, taking in the Delaware Speedway track for all routes. This was a fun little detour, it’s only a half-mile oval track with gentle banking but riding your bike around a car race track is always novel and interesting.
All of the routes were available ahead of the event as a map and GPS data for uploading, maps were available on the morning but the route markings throughout the day were first class. It consisted of colour-coordinated cards on poles and posts throughout, the colours identifying the different routes as they overlapped from time to time. The route chosen, certainly for the 160km and I’m sure for the others too, was very enjoyable - it was very quiet of traffic on a Sunday, mostly flat and once out of the city limits, it was quick and easy.
There were rest stops on route, clear and well-marked each time (I think there were six on the long route?) spaced throughout the day. Some were relatively small, just a table or two with fruit, granola bars, water and a porta-potty, so might have seemed a little crowded if you were riding in a large group, but I found them enough for our needs.
I say ‘our’ as I rode the whole event with another recumbent, Don Rose of Michigan, which was a blast. He rides a very nice Bacchetta CA2 so with me on my Corsa, we rode very well together. There was at least one other recumbent taking part in the day, he signed up for the 100km ride on his Musashi and we all got to chat before the start which was nice. It also turned out that he rode the Cambridge Tour de Grand last month as well - I thought I’d seen another recumbent during the day!
We spent the first portion of the ride with the fast leading group and for roughly 56km, we kept up! Our average speed at that point was about 37kmh, which included a relatively slow first half an hour as we left the city with stop signs and red lights. Once out of town the group was flying and we were hanging on pretty good. But in the end, the unrelenting pace beat us and we let them go - maintaining speed in the 40s for extended periods is tough and not something I can manage for a whole ride! Don and I continued to ride together but our pace slowed up over time and we finished the whole 160km ride together with an average of 31kmh. The heat wore us down some as well as the early high pace and both of us said we had nothing left ‘in the tank’ as we crossed the line - whether or not trying to keep up with the lead pack was objectively a great strategy for us, we’d both exhausted ourselves completely and it was certainly fun while it lasted!
The start/finish location is at Toboggan Brewing Company in London. It’s a good choice as it has a natural ‘chute’ between the two buildings, with a large parking lot behind to gather, form up and get ready.
As a participant, we had a burger after the ride which was OK but there were no drinks included - no water or pop at all. We were based at a brewery and the post-ride meal was enjoyed in their very nice patio decks, so perhaps it was just a condition of use of their space as there were plenty of beers and other drinks available from the bar. I think I would have happily downed an ice cold pop with lunch after the ride in the weather we’d experienced, as well as a beer, or perhaps they’d all been drunk by earlier riders? It just surprised me at the time, though, to offer no soft drinks with lunch for participants.
I really enjoyed the event and Don has said he’d like to do it again, so I think this will certainly be featuring in my ride calendar again. Great route, good signage, nice start/finish area, it was fun.
Later: we made some of the official pictures!