My original goal yesterday was to ride the entire Niagara Circle Route. I’ve done it only once before, nearly 10 years ago on a charity ride. If memory serves it was about 120km.
A Century!!!! So getting a century done was really what I was aiming for.
Over the last couple days I decided to add a couple destinations, 1 winery and 2 breweries.
I left home at 8:30am – it was about 3 degrees and sunny but I knew it was going to warm up to about 15, so I loaded up on layers which can come off as it warmed up. (Panniers are great to have for this!) I followed the Welland Canal path going south from Welland to Port Colborne. I had to stop half way to lose some layers already.
Once in Port Colborne, you cross the canal and it’s a West to East ride on the Friendship Trail (an old railway converted into a path) I was setting a nice pace but do to lots of road crossing that pace was always interrupted. I made to Fort Erie and it was just a nice stunning day. At this point I had done about 60km and started to realize I was likely going to do far more than 100k today. In Fort Erie, you turn heading north along the Niagara Parkway. There is a path but due to the nature of it, the road is faster and smoother.
The moment I started North I realized the easy good times were over. I was fighting a head wind and it started to take its toll.
Once in Niagara Falls, I started to worry fighting the wind was going to burn me out. At this point I was still only at about 85km. So much more to go…. But a fun moment was seeing a nice new Mercedes CLA pulled to the side being photographed. Strange… Then a beautiful new blue Volvo V60 passed me and pulled into the next lot with the driver taking pictures. Hmmmmm…. Out of nowhere I realized, Test Fest! LOL Now I was always looking out for more vehicles, like the GM Twins but that was pretty much it….
The Falls where pretty busy for this time of year but not enough to be troublesome.
I was still feeling pretty good as I pushed into Queenston and began going down the escarpment, I knew I was approaching my first destination. Frog Pond Winery….
The road to turn off was closed and it forced a detour, that total detour cost me an extra 5 or so km. I picked up two bottles of Gamay Noir and headed back to the Parkway and into Niagara-On-The-Lake.
At this point, we would usually go through NOTL and onto Lakeshore Rd, however I had other stops and needed to head down Hwy55 (Niagara Stone Rd)… this is a very busy 80km/h road. The bonus was that it was so busy, the traffic wasn’t too fast.
I arrived in Virgil and stopped at Oast House Brewers. At this point I was at about 105k and my legs were pretty tired. I needed food. At this time of year the brewery didn’t have food, but I had a couple samples and picked up two 750ml bottles of beer. I got a recommendation on food and road off. 15 minutes later I arrived at a small restaurant / bakery that was across the street of my final destination, Silver Smith Brewery. I ate, had a tasty Silver Smith Black Lager and went over to pick up 3 more 750ml bottles. Now I had 7 big bottles and the bike was HEAVY!!!! Panniers totally full… at this point it was time to get moving, I was hoping to get home before 5pm.
While I could have ridden along Hwy55 West towards the Welland Canal, I decided to try and stay true to the Circle Route. I took a small winding road north to get connected to Lakeshore (this was adding more k)… Then heading up Lakeshore to the start of the Welland Canal. From there in St Catharines, I took the road (instead of the path) along the Canal towards Thorold. When I turned to head back South, something happened. While I was already getting pretty sore, I wasn’t feeling too bad. But I somehow turned in a strange way and something happened to my knee. Clipping back in to start riding through the intersection my left knee was in total pain. (crap)… I pushed on and if I kept my speed up above 24km/h it didn’t bother me too much, anything slower would just kill me.
At this point I was around 120k. In Thorold, I took the path… I couldn’t keep my speed up and the big escarpment climb was on. At this point my arse was starting to hurt, my knee was brutal and legs kept telling me to take a break. But I just wanted to get home now and enjoy some beer. I made it up the escarpment and pushed on. I made small goals, each time I hit a landmark I kept telling myself how much closer to home I was.
I didn’t even want to get off the bike now because putting my arse back on it hurt so much!
I made it back in town, the last 4k had 4 lights / stops and that just about killed me. Getting in the driveway I nearly fell over and could barely walk. I couldn’t bend my knee!!!!
Somehow I managed to get my bike put away, brought my panniers inside (steps never hurt so much!) and got changed. I iced my knee and forced myself to stretch. For the first 2 hours post ride I could barely move. After a hot shower everything started to feel much better except my knee. I ended up being just shy of 150km (148.8k) I now wish I could have gone around the block to officially hit 150 but I was so done… done!!!!
I feel pretty good today with the exception of my knee… not sure what I did but hoping I’ll be ok to ride tomorrow.
