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| Day 25 - July 22 - Beausejour to Kenora 176km |
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| It's another early morning for Dave and I - the only cyclists crazy enough to leave camp at 5:30am when most people are still fast asleep. The downside to leaving at this hour is that I miss out on a hot breakfast like oatmeal, eggs or pancakes. Instead I have two sandwiches and some water to fuel me the first 30 or 40km. Then I usually buy an orange juice on the first stop of the day. Problem is, it's difficult to find a corner store that's open at 7:00 Sunday morning. |
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| The first 105km of the day follows Route 44 on the poorly-kept Manitoba highway. As we near the Ontario border the landscape changes. Rocks and ferns line the side of the road as we get into the rolling hills, which I think are more fun to ride than the straight, flat, see-10km-in-front-of-you type roads common to the Prairies. |
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| Al catches up to us on Route 44 shortly before we get to Rennie, where we find a good place for breakfast and move on. Just 10km later we pass the last provincial border for almost a month. It will take the same amount of time to get through Ontario as it has to get from Vancouver to here. Five out of ten rest days are in Ontario. I hear it's because of the hills. They are rumoured to be very intimidating to a cyclist, much worse than the Rockies. |
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| There is little wind today, which is good news to me because the wind is against us. The direction of the wind is of huge importance to all of us. If it were always blowing east, we wouldn't appreciate it as much when it does, and this whole trip would be ten times easier. |
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| I do my usual sprint to the finish routine once I start seeing signs for Kenora's restaurants. It is an unwritten rule among TDC riders that when you see a sign for Dairy Queen after a long day, you automatically pull in. After a chocolate shake I'm good to go for the last 5km into camp. Finishing another segment of this trip makes me proud to be here with all these wonderful people. They are my family for the summer, and I don't mind a bit.
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