This was by far the fastest, scariest and most exhillarating ride I've had. I don't know if it was the Starbucks, or the warm-up in the morning, or if I had a lot of built-up aggression, but I can't belive how good of a ride that was.

It started off fairly slow until I ran a couple yellow/red lights along Ellesmere (shhhhh). I kept enough momentum to fly down the hills that I had, and I didn't have too much of a problem coming back up. I have a new strategy for when I get to a red light that's halfway down a big hill. I stop at the top of the hill and wait for the other street's light to turn yellow. It's much easier at night because you can actually see the light. During the day you just have to read traffic and guess. I seem to be timing it well and make it straight down the hill without stopping.

After the red lights I managed to draft a bus up and over the bridge which goes over the GO/SRT line at a very decent pace. I only lost it after the top of the hill, but then caught up to it again and passed it before crossing Kennedy.

It started getting very dark around the section that connects me from Ellesmere to Lawrence in zig zag alley (hell, it deserves a name, it's one of the ride's hilights). Maybe I'll come up with a better name later. That's when I realized I really need a front light. Something on my helmet so I can make light contact with drivers' eyes. Maybe not as bright (or heavy) as my mountain bike's light, but definitely something stronger than most of these "street" lights.

After crossing Vic Park I actually passed a van. It was a straight-up, clean pass on a downhill. Not a crazy hill, but it was enough to comfortably fly by him. I've never done anything like that before. I'm sure I was speeding, but I didn't care. What did bother me was that I couldn't see the road at all. I went over a few potholes and ridges in the road that I didn't expect. No aero here, just a tight tuck. This was the craziest part.

By Don Mills I checked my GPS. I was averaging 31 km/h. I've NEVER gone that fast for that long. Granted I was close to the bottom of my ride and had a couple hundred metres of bus drafting, but it was unreal! My average heart rate was into the high 150's, which is much higher than I've ever kept up for that long.

After hitting the bottom of the Don Valley, the ride uphill wasn't much to write about. Crossing Bayview I nearly got knocked off by a right turning motorcycle. He had just passed me, so he must have been aware of my presence. There was one car turning left, and enough room for the car behind him and the bike to go around to go through the intersection.

I was a little impatient since the light had been green for a while, so I tried to sneak around the car and the bike on the right. Yes, I know this is partly my fault. I waited for the car to go straight (which he did), but before I passed the bike something just didn't seem right. I gave him a little extra room, and the fucker made a complete right turn in front of me. I yelled out "nice signal job," and under my breath said some not-so-nice things. Maybe it wasn't quite so under my breath. Sorry if anyone had kids within earshot.

It just goes to show that there's no replacement for experience. And hopefully nothing bad happens while you're getting this experience. I'm pretty good at being able to read what people in cars are doing and thinking, but there are some things from a cyclist's perspective that I definitely need to learn better.

Avg. HR: 159
Avg. speed on MotionBased: 28.0 km/h
Avg. speed on GPS: 30.1
Distance: 20.35 km
Time: 40.35 min
Total time: 44.45

I don't know if this link will work, but if you have IE and Adobe SVG viewer installed you may be able to view a dot race of the ride here.