‘Cross Canada: La fin

Four weeks ago today we rolled into Halifax to finish the biking part of our journey. As mentioned in my last post, we followed that up with the relaxing and visiting part of the journey with a week of hanging out in Halifax/Dartmouth. And now it’s been three weeks since we wrapped up that stage of the journey too. Oliver kept the party going with some more traveling he had lined up while I returned home – making me no longer homeless, instead just jobless. Anywho, let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let’s kick off this wrap-up post with the juicy stuff everyone’s been waiting for…the STATS!!!

Ride STATS!!!

• over the 50 days we were on the road we covered 6250km
• we took 7 rest days, giving us 43 days of riding
• during those 43 days, we spent 196hrs doing a meaningful amount of pedaling (there are some bonus km and hrs of riding that I didn’t include in my GPS tracking files), or a little over 4.5hrs/day (or 145km/day)
• that means we averaged 31.89kph (when we planned the trip we had conservatively estimated 25kph and realistically anticipated 27kph)
• We gained (and lost) 27 124m of elevation, with almost a third of that coming in the first eight days through BC and western Alberta
• Our slowest day was Day 39 into Montreal when we averaged 26.3kph in the headwinds and city streets
• That day, however, came after a beautiful streak of 24 days of riding with an average speed over 30kph every day (the previous day under 30kph average was Day 10 into Drumheller)
• Our fastest day was Day 14 into Regina when we averaged an eye-watering 40.3kph thanks to our massive quads and not at all because of the strong westerly winds
• During that day we covered our fastest 40km of the trip in a little over 53min, or traveling at 44kph
• For those interested, we averaged right around 170W (~2.5w/kg) over the whole trip with days as low as 123W and as high as 206W
• By some magical travel karma we dodged most of the bad weather that Canada has seen this summer, having only three days of riding in the rain
• We did, however, get lots of the heat. Our average temperature was 25.8C
• The hot days were definitely skewed towards the back half of the trip with our coldest day coming in at 10C as we rode through a storm in Saskatchewan
• The hottest day by average temperature was the day we left Winnipeg, averaging 35C. Our hottest peak temperature though was the day leaving Montreal. Most of the day was spent at a cool 33C, but near the end of the day the temperature soared to 45C
• We each consumed something like 6.5kg of candy over the trip and upwards of 25L of Gatorade
• That’s okay though, because I burned, on average, an additional 2300 calories, bringing my daily burn up to close to 5000
• For a total of 97 204 calories additional calories burned over all the riding days
• AND we did all this coming in under budget and ahead of schedule. We shaved off four days of riding thanks to the stiff winds and managed to be a couple hundred dollars under budget

I have quite the repository of data now, thanks to Strava, so if I’ve missed any stats you think might be interesting let me know. For now though, here are some highlights from the couple thousand photos and videos we took – including some never-before-seen photos/videos!

Highlights

Le Grand Depart! Vancouver gets mad bonus points for having the infrastructure to bike right out of the airport

Day 2 destination. The first couple were warm-up, the adventure really begins on Day 3

Ky, the BMXer, was also heading across the country. We lost him after a couple of kilometers. Poor Ky. I hope he made it…at least over the Coquihalla Pass

Was not expecting the interior to be so arid and flat, relatively speaking

Revelstoke ❤

The bottom of the descent of Rogers Pass into Golden. Hands-down my favourite scenery of the whole trip.

Final big day in the mountains as we climb the Kicking Horse Pass

Summitting the Kicking Horse marks the end of our first province!

Lake Louise. Possibly the most iconic and recognizable Canadian lake

While I alluded to having an interview in Calgary, I didn’t mention it was at Garmin. They were expecting me to show up by bike and in kit, but some last-minute hustling had me there in proper clothes for the only time this trip (the clothes were later returned). Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out and I didn’t get the job

A cozy and hidden campsite in Drumheller. What you can’t see is the graveyard around the corner. At least we rested in peace

Oliver checking out my cans…of soup strapped to my saddlebag. This was the most epic day of the trip; 270km on a single-speed.

I assume Oliver is trying to drink the rain here that Saskatchewan decided to greet us with…

That look after a cold wet day of riding when you finally get a warm shower, food, and a beer.

One of the rare photos of both of us riding, courtesy of Brian while on his own cross-country trip.

I’ll never be this fast again

Still not flat enough to see the two staples that gave us both a puncture while taking this picture

Sleeping on a time zone border is quite confusing. Would not recommend.

The camera just loves this guy.

So does Emy ❤

Timed perfectly to celebrate Canada Day at a friend’s cottage before heading to the States

Into the land of Freedom and uncomfortable credit-card interactions

Brule, WI. It’s not every day a former NFL All Pro wants to take a picture with you

It doesn’t matter how many dipping sauces there are, this doesn’t count as fine dining, Oliver.

There was much public outrage at Wisconsin’s lack of sign. Actually, just our outrage. This Michigan sign will have to do.

One of those days. It was a fraught final hour into Marquette.

“Wait, you actually want us to ride over that massive bridge?” – me to the border administration person

This really doesn’t seem like a place for bicycles.

Crazy coincidence running into my friend, Todd, at a random stealth camping spot near Blind River, ON

Oliver only paid me one nickle for pulling him all day while he was sick. At least it was a big nickle

What a hunk

It was only slightly uncomfortable taking pictures of children in order to get this shot

Parliament is in session!

The OG cross-country adventurer. What an inspiration.

It felt like we had already crossed into Quebec after leaving Ottawa, but now it was official!

Got a harder ride than we bargained for when we made friends with a pro triathlete and started up the pace line

Quebec City. Ferries really do give the best views of cities

The St. Lawrence makes for spectacular cycling. On the shore, that is, not in the river

I was too busy taking pictures to bother keeping pace with Oliver

Au revoir, Quebec! Into the Maritimes!

Taking decent one-handed pictures behind your back is harder than it looks

The stealthiest of campsites…except that we’re probably only 30m off of the road.

Ah, a common view for me. Six flats for Oliver and only one for me

New Brunswick… the interior BC of the East.

But I did have to replace my rear derailleur cable twice

Final province!

We made it!

I spent too many days to count pondering if I would be able to do this pose.

The trusty steed deserved it’s own photoshoot

Check out the mussles on this bad boy. Also, Oliver’s making a weird pose.

Spent a week staring at this view of the Halifax harbour while I contemplated life and the end of the trip

Well that about wraps it up for content from this trip. It really was a blast and I’m sure I’ll return again to pore over all of our photos and data, but for now, it’s time to move on. After a busy few weeks at home, I’m taking off again in just under a week to go race at the World Human-Powered Speed Challenge in Nevada. When I’m back from that I hope to return to the somewhat regular posting I had going on this past winter. Thanks to everyone that followed our adventure on this blog. It somehow meant more to know we had family and friends reading along at home. I won’t be (too) offended if you decide to unsubscribe 😉 Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming… in a few weeks!
Cheers and Ride On!

-Evan