Scheduling conflicts are inevitable when you have a lot of events to plan in a confined period of time. I committed to run in Harry’s Spring Run-Off (another charity close to my heart) long before the Bike Rally training rides were published. Who knew the first training ride, Finch-McCowan, would be as early as April 5th? I’m sure with all the events I would like to attend this summer, this won’t be the last conflict. Looking forward to re-connecting with my Bike Rally friends next week.

As for the unfinished business with that hill on Cummer Ave, I’ll have to deal with it another time…

On Tuesday January 29th the Pride Committee of Toronto decided that Friends for Life Bike Rally will be the Honoured Group that will lead the 2008 Pride Parade

I just received the eNews from Friend for Life Bike Rally.
The Launch Party for 10th Anniversary Friends For Life Bike Rally will be held on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at Fly Nightclub ( 8 Gloucester Street) between 7:00- 10:00 PM.

I can’t believe the Launch Party is less than a month away! It seems like only yesterday I was riding my bike from Toronto to Montreal and here we are, ready to start all over again.

As of January 1st, 2008 the Bike Rally website switched to a Content Management System (Joomla) allowing its users to interact in a new and useful way with the Bike Rally.

The 10th Anniversary Friends For Life Bike Rally date was published on the official Bike Rally website: July 27 – August 1, 2008.

Both, Mark and I are planning to ride next year and we are looking forward to another exciting and successful year.

Friends For Life Bike Rally 2007 – a video compiled by Lucinda

My photo album

Facebook photo gallery and video gallery

Day4 – (morning)

We are in Kingston ready to start Day4. A great ride so far!

Finch to Keswick photo album

July 20, 2007
Today I rode my bike to the office. This was something I wanted to try for quite some time and I was curious to see if I can match or even go faster then the usual commute via TTC, which in average is around a hour and 30 minutes.

I planned my route the night before and decided to take the shortest route, up on Don Mills and Victoria Park via McNicoll Ave. – 26km. In spite of the fact I was riding against a strong NNW wind I managed to get to the office in one hour and 32 minutes, good enough for me to prove that biking to the office is a good alternative option. I will definitively repeat this every time I’ll have a chance.

Coming back home was way much easier. I tried an alternative route biking down on Pharmacy and jumping on O’Connor via Eglinton. The shortest way is not always the best (or fastest), the traffic, the number of stops and the quality of the roads are playing a big role when you commute on the bike.

Both routes seemed reasonably OK, I will experiment more in the future and see if I can come up with a route that will keep me mostly on the bike trails available along the way.

Total distance: 56km

July 14, 2007

One of the rides many of us won’t forget that easy. The pouring rain and strong winds during the second part of the ride added another level of challenge to an already demanding ride. A ride that brought back memories to seasoned riders (apparently a hard rain in Day4 two years ago) and an eye opener for new riders. It is one thing to get home when you are able to jump in the shower after a ride like this but quite another entirely when you get in to camp and you have to set-up the tent soaking wet and cold and no hot shower.

For me, this was a ride of many firsts:
- riding in the rain for several hours
- having my first flat (it had to be during a pouring rain)
- riding more 130km in one ride
- speeding on a bike, 68.9km/h!
- riding with a GPS enabled cyclocomputer
- taking pictures with an older camera (which I find way easier to handle while I am riding)

A special thank you to the Rustlers, Lynn, Klaus, Wendy and Stephanie for helping with the ride. Also, thank you to Lucinda, Leslie, Heather and Jay for taking the time (staying longer during the break) and
running the drafting lesson. I am sure they could have rode home sooner to avoid the rain.

For obvious reasons I have no pictures taken during the rainy part of the day. I wish I would though, one with me fixing the flat in the rain would have been priceless. Instead, the picture of the day goes to Heather (Team Leader Coach) and Walter (Co-chair)

Total distance: 132.6km