Day Six - Lancaster to MONTREAL! 102 km

August 3, 2007

The morning of day six the excitement for Montreal was palpable. I had to keep on reminding myself that I still had to ride 102 km. The day dawned hot and muggy. I was feeling sweaty at morning stretches! We had a rain scare with thunder rumbling while we packed up camp. I don't think I've ever taken down my tent so quickly. We were fortunate to be spared from rain although places we rode through looked liked they'd had a good dousing.

We began the morning by gathering in a big group all wearing our rally jerseys or crew shirts, it was an impressive sight. We were all given red ribbons to attach to our helmets, some people wrote names of friends or loved ones on their ribbons. It felt bittersweet to head out for our last day of riding. The ride was almost over, I'd done over 500 kms but the amazing rally experience was quickly coming to an end.

After a very short ride (about 20 minutes) we crossed into Quebec. The tiny sign by the side of the road was a very popular photo op. We became something of a road hazard but fortunately our lime green shirts were highly visible.


The day passed relatively uneventfully. I rode with Sharon and her friend Marc, our pace was good (for Sharon and me) but just after lunch I felt a crackling in my left quad muscle. It was fairly painful and I had to slow down but thankfully it wasn't serious. We all had to wait at the third break before riding into Montreal (we were to appear at Emilie Gamelin Parc at 5 so we had some time to kill). I was able to rest my leg and by the time we were riding into Montreal the shear excitement of the moment made me forget all about a sore muscle.

Riding into Montreal was quite fun, we followed one of the craziest bike paths I've ever been on, it twisted and turned something fierce. We were a very impressive sight, single file lime jerseys as far as the eye could see. I tried to take a photo but really, was trying not to fall off. I think the locals were quite amused by us, we rode along calling out to each other about hazards, speed ("Slowing!" "Stopping!") and pretty much anything else that crossed our paths. Getting into the park was a little bit tight but we soon sorted ourselves out and then there was a lot of sweaty hugging and congratulating each other. I felt a bit stunned that it was all over.