Today’s special, courtesy of nature… thick, puffy clouds floating about while on the ride.

GPS Data: 88km – 3h00m – GPS route

An 80km road bike ride around the Saanich Peninsula. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Farm near Brenwood Bay.

Sunset at Ogden Point (taken several hours after the ride).

Ok, fast is relative, but my 32km/h average speed over the 90km was pretty fast for me. After the usual 10-15 minute apathy filled start to the ride, things started feeling good and stayed that way for the remainder. This evening was one of those calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings (except for the occasional scent of road kill) and reminded me that calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings are damn fine for doing bike rides. Definitely a somewhat super-amazing outing for me.

GPS Data: 91.7km – 2h52m – 32.0km/h – GPS route

A 90km road bike ride around the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

It felt good to go a bit faster today, but I guess I should come clean and admit that I didn’t actually ride with the group the whole time; I took a detour on West Saanich and Prospect Lake Road. There were some strong riders out and at the end I think it was down to a group of about 7 or 8 moving along at about 40km/h or so around the time I turned off onto Prospect Lake Road. It was good today, good weather and good ride; more please, but less squirrel would be good.

Oh yeah, more Shirley Temples too please:)

GPS Data: About 90km (didn’t start the timer when I should have) – 2h54m – 28.1km/h – GPS route

About a 90km road bike ride around the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Part of the group ride heading through the Uplands near Victoria, BC. Slightly cool, but great weather otherwise.

Someone's bike and a view of the water near Sidney, BC.

Sidney waterfront looking to the south. Did I already mention that the weather was nice.

Finishing up the ride on West Burnside Road after some roller-coaster-like action on Prospect Lake Road.

Great day for a ride today, finally I was able to expose my pasty white arms and legs to the world. Actually, such exposure does not rank very high on my list of things to do, but it is nice to ride with out being covered up in cold weather gear.

After 90km yesterday I set out today with mixed feelings about trying to do a longer ride again today. In the first fifteen minutes or so I made the decision to go for it since the weather looked good and I wasn’t feeling too bad. The ride started out with a trip along the waterfront (Dallas Road) and then headed out through Esquimalt, View Royal, and Colwood on the way to Metchosin. The furthest west I got was Happy Valley Road – note to self, find out who came up with this name. After an exciting-as-always trip through the thriving/driving metropolis of Langford it was into the Highlands via Millstream Road and the winding, hilly, entertaining Millstream Lake Road / Ross-Durrance Road. By this point I was starting to think about how far I still had to go (about 65km) – not a good sign, but I stuck with it and despite feeling pretty beat at the end I made it around the remaining Saanich Peninsula.

GPS Data: 126.4km – 4h25m – 28.6km/h – GPS route

A 126km road bike ride - Metchosin / Saanich Peninsula. Click on the map to see details on the Garmin website.

Metchosin countryside. Pretty, but hilly.

Millstream Lake Road is fun to ride, but may cause pain depending on your level of fitness. There was some pain for me today on the climbs.

Finally some relatively flat road for a while. This was taken while heading north on West Saanich Road.

The route today was my fairly standard loop of the Saanich Peninsula, this time counter-clockwise. Aside from some slightly sketchy Friday afternoon traffic the ride was all good.

GPS Data: 91.3km – 2h56m – 31.2km/h – GPS route

A 90km road bike ride on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS info on the Garmin website.

On the way through the Uplands not long after setting out on the ride today.

Some old train action north of Mitchell's Farm on the Saanich Peninsula.

Heading south towards Victoria and home on West Saanich Road north of Brentwood Bay.

Looking west towards Brentwood Bay (the body of water, not the community) while pedaling south on Wallace Drive.

Passing by Ogden Point and a visiting cruise ship - Dallas Road in Victoria.

The final stretch along Dallas Road near the bottom of Cook Street in Victoria.

So my bike rides were more of the same if you’ve been following my blogging — Saanich Peninsula. This weekend I wiped some of the road grime, sweat, and snot off my bike leaving it looking almost new. Additionally, I have been trying to sort out some saddle issues, so I was riding with a new, white Fizik Aliante, instead of my previous Arione. So far the new saddle feels marginally better, but unfortunately it has not been a revelation. Sooner or later I hope to have this business sorted out. On a related note, the whiteness (I got some handlebar tape to match the saddle) seemed good in principle, but I’m having some doubts now that it’s actually on the bike; might have to revert to black. Ride highlights/lowlights: headwind for first 45km of 90, tailwind for last 45km of 90, bird flew into me/my bike, I think bird lived, dump truck drafting for a few seconds.

There’s no reason I shouldn’t already be doing it, but I need to start getting out on my mountain bike. It’s fun, it’s going to help with fitness, and it should put me back in touch with some peeps that I have not seen in a while.

Ride #1 – GPS Data: 48.4km – 1h39m – 29.2km/h – GPS Route

A 48km road bike ride to Central Saanich from Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Ride #2 – GPS Data: 91.7km – 3h00m – 30.7km/h – GPS Route

A 92km tour of the Saanich Peninsula starting from Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

I may have to drive a stake though my own heart if I ever watch another Twilight-like movie.

I know we cyclists seem slow to drivers, but that’s not how it feels when you’re actually on a bike. Thanks to some favourable winds on my return trip today, I had some particularly savoury fast segments — oh wait, it was my post ride red curry was savoury. 40 to 50km/h and the occasional spurts to around 60km/h feel pretty cool on a bike.

For those interested in road bike racing, this weekend has some interesting events going on Belgium and France/Corsica. Nice win by Fabian Cancellara at E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke in Belgium today. I have discovered that cyclingfans.com is a decent starting point for finding live video race coverage and wrap up video. I get the added benefit of listening to Dutch, French, and Italian commentators.

GPS Data: 73.8km – 2h21m – 31.4km/h – GPS Route

A 74km road bike ride to Sidney and back from Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

I didn’t eat any food on this ride and towards the end I was feeling the effects. Once back at the shack, I probably did a bit too much eating (raisins and chocolate chips; left-over Thai food; veggie and refried bean wraps; cookies by Michelle — supposedly not bad; and some other stuff that I have apparently forgotten about). Next time must remember food for ride.

Oh yeah, today was Milan – San Remo (Wikipedia), a 300km road bike race in Italy. I watched the last 60km on the interwebs and thought it was pretty cool. I have payed a bit more attention to this race this year for a couple reasons: 1) our trip to Europe last fall has led me to be a bit more interested in things that go on there; and 2) I am signed up for Seattle to Portland in July, which is 320km long. 300km is a really long ride and I have only a rough idea how long it might take me (I was thinking along the lines of 10-11 hours). Thanks to Milan – San Remo, I now see that some humans are capable of doing 300km in about 7 hours — holy sh*t that’s fast; about 100km every 2h20m. Far from being at the level of those guys, I will continue to hope for 10-11 hours.

GPS Data: 93km – 3h05m – 30.2km/h – GPS Route

A 90km road bike ride on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC.

Sidney waterfront looking south. It wasn't quite as warm today as the forecast predicted, but it was not too shabby and was my first ride of the year in shorts instead of tights.

If I’m going to describe other people as groundhogs, then I guess I shall be one too. For the record, I was out of my hole and enjoying my shadow back in January without the safety of my groundhog transportation device (car). Today I did what I would describe as a medium length road bike ride (based on my current longest ride of just over 100km) through Downtown Victoria and Central Saanich. I started the ride with Michelle and one of her friends who was experiencing the joy/horror of riding a road bike for the first time in years. I think she did OK. After about 10km we went our separate ways and I headed out to Central Saanich via Prospect Lake Road. My preferred moniker for this road is the Roller Coaster as it has lots of ups, downs, and corners. The Roller Coaster’s one shortcoming is that the road surface is kind of rough; if a real roller coaster was this bumpy its riders would probably suspect that track failure was pending along with certain death. Thankfully, I had enough sauce today to make the Roller Coaster feel like a roller coaster instead of a 15 minute suffer fest.

GPS Data: 57.4km – 2h00m – 28.8km/h – GPS Route

A road bike ride through Downtown Victoria and Central Saanich. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The appropriately named epicenter of groundhog activities on this sunny/warm day in Victoria, BC.

I guess it's almost Daffodil time. This is a fairly common sight around Central Saanich.

My plan today was to go a bit further than my previous outings this year (about 90km was my previous longest). So, off I went towards the north end of the Saanich Peninsula as on previous rides, the key difference being a trip up Willis Point Road to Ross-Durrance Road in Victoria’s Highlands area. Ross-Durrance Road is one of the coolest stretches of road I have ridden anywhere; winding, rolling, smooth – in short, fun. I guess I should point out that it delivers some pretty good pain as well, thanks to some nasty little climbs. To finish up, I headed through Langford, Colwood, and downtown Victoria. Apparently other Victorians figured it was a good day to get out as well; the walking paths along Dallas Road were pretty busy with all manner of biped and quadriped.

GPS Data: 107.5km – 3h40m – 29.3km/h – GPS Route

A 100km road bike ride on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

Crappy picture, but that is a sweet ride. Not quite what I'd expect from my mental picture of the typical Sidney resident.

Almost at landsend on the Saanich Peninsula. I took an unlisted option, i.e. back to Victoria.

Ahhh, look a the pretty trees. I don't think we are quite at the peak of cherry blossom action yet, but as every day goes by there are more and more examples like this. The smell good too.

Admittedly, I don't have much of a green thumb and likely never will, but I do appreciate looking at the results of other peoples efforts.