FEB 13th, 2021
CANCELLED! Yes, we’re cancelling an already cancelled event, because that’s the kind of year it’s been :). In seriousness, we woke up this morning to -38C, feels like -50C. Without a doubt if the race hadn’t already been cancelled we’d be calling it off this morning. With that in mind we’re now cancelling our own personal ride too.
Obviously we can’t keep other people from leaving their houses and doing their own thing but we wanted to try to lead by example and say that it’s just too dangerous out there.
We’ll leave the map below (that we personally intended to follow) up here to serve as an example of future race ideas, but know that what we end up with next year is completely up in the air at this point.
About the map below: It’s a 65km course that we’ve ridden ourselves, completely within city limits, mostly on designated bike and multi-use paths, protected bike lanes, and ‘low stress” roads. It goes through The Forks, the Assiniboine Forest and Park, along Sturgeon Creek, Omand’s Creek, the Red, Seine, and Assiniboine Rivers, the Yellow Ribbon Greenway, Wellington Crescent, and other scenic areas. There are also some less scenic parts to connect the dots.
It’s possible that we’ve made errors in our mapping (we plotted the map by hand, as opposed to actually riding with a GPS tacker as we’d do when preparing a final race route) so if you choose to use the map as an idea for your own ride or run trust your own judgement first and don’t rely on the map as though it’s a final, proofed copy. It’s not. It’s simply here as reference for future ideas, yet to be completely sorted out.
Even if we’ve mapped everything correctly there can always be unanticipated construction, closures, detours, and other hazards, and even at the best of times there are other people and motorists (and dogs, and…) on the route who can pose their own dangers to watch out for.
Thanks for the posted route. We made some alterations based on our starting location and check-in point. We made a cople of side trips to ‘visit’ important monuments. The loop we ended up taking turned to be 70km, we cut off a bit on the second loop. Fortunately we didn’t get stopped by a train and we found a few alterative quieter routes and at least one more tunnel under major roads. I think the route was safer this year than the out-of-town section because of limited support. We did find it was probably slower because of traffic controls.
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Cool. I’d be interested in the alternative quieter routes and tunnel you found. Feel free to share if and when you have the time -Scott
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Hey Scott Sorry this took so long – PM an email and I can send you the map we used for our course this year. It came out to about 70km, we did a couple of loops. Some of our loop was good for us (we know the city) but might add complications/liability for an official course. Major modifications included: Starting/end in Ft. Richmond (where I live) and for our 1/2 way checkpoint; 1) You already noted the alternative to Fort Whyte Alive (this needs to be a consideration in future since they are only open during the day); 2) We headed down Albany from Silver into Turo park and then picked up Assiniboine Ave (rather than St. Mathews to Empress). Take the culvert under Portage Ave, and ride much of Turo creek; 3) My preference was to take Wolsely/Palmerston and then cut under Maryland Bridge to Cornish Trail (then down onto the river); 4) Tom’s river crossing instead of Elm Park Bridge 5) We dropped down onto the Seine River earlier so we could go under Bishop Grandin (rather than crossing at Shorehill); 5) We stopped to see Woody the Tree Spirit (including single tracks through Bois des Esprit). We spent more time on the river rather than the forest paths and roads.; 6) Instead of going all the way north to Bishop Grandin on Dakota, we crossed over to St Mary’s Rd on Greenwood (avoiding a couple of longer lights); 7) Took back roads in St. Vital (Woodlawn, Greendell Park, Riverbend, Darwin, Roberston, Glen Meado) and then went through the tunnel under Bishop Grandin.
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I’ve confirmed that the south entrance to Fort Whyte is indeed closed due to the pandemic at the moment (oddly their voice messaging says their trails are open, but I guess they’re referring to if you start and end from their central parking lot (?)) so I’ve adjusted the route map accordingly. Thx again to Charles for this tip. -Scott
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I was going to check on my commute home this evening to see if the gate was still closed as well.
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YOu might want to confirm the south entrance to Forth Whyte Alive is open. It had been closed to limit traffic into the centre due to covid-19. Thanks for the proposed route.
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Thx for the tip; I’ll check it out this morning and post what I find -Scott
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