Jean-Marc (I think), John Bates, Danelle and Ron Himschoot at D'Arcy control on 400km ride.
We then drove to Whistler (after picking Theo up where we had left him to watch the hockey game in the bar of the Pemberton Hotel; each to their own!) to Bob's cousin's place so I could get a shower and we could all go off to the Keg for a great meal while everyone else was out slogging in the rain which had begun again in earnest. Alex called to say he was waiting for Bob and Keith to check in at Pemberton, and then he joined us. We six had a great meal. The plan then was for Bob Bailey to go to the Creekside Petrocan and wait till Wayne Harrington, Bob Bose and Keith arrived to see if anyone was bailing and needed a ride as the conditions had become truly horrid again with nightfall. Alex and I were going to head down to Squamish, checking on people as we passed them. However, no sooner had we reached Brandywine Falls, where the rain was almost snow, when the cell phone rang and it was Bob asking us to return to Whistler as a lot of people were quitting due to the atrocious conditions. When we got back to the Petrocan, Bob Marsh was there and was already loading two bikes into his truck, Bob Bailey was loading up a few others and Alex went off to find Bob and Keith. Danelle and two others went to her condo in Whistler, and with us taking a few bikes, everyone and their bike was taken care of or transported back to North Vancouver.
Meanwhile, Karen Smith was staffing the finish control at Tim Horton's, planning to stay there till 0800 the next morning, but now finding that she would have a relatively early night. We got back there at 0140, just as Keith Nichol, Dave Johnson, Michel Richard and Noboru Yonemitsu were finishing and congratulated those who had made it through the deluge. (It was amazing how many people there were at Tim Horton's at 0200!) In all, only six of fifteen completed the ride that day. Three others completed on different weekends riding on their own: maybe they knew something about the weather that we didn't!
Jean-Marc (I think), John Bates, Danelle and Ron Himschoot at D'Arcy control
on 400km ride.
A few comments from us as the organizers. Some people were very well dressed for the weather: Wayne Harrington as an example, while others must have thought they were in a tropical downpour: Ted Milner, for example, who had to be lent a jacket by Susan Allen. Even though these were really extreme conditions, some people need to give more consideration to their rain gear and having enough layers of clothes on to be warm, if not dry. (I still have a jacket, with hat and gloves in the pockets, which was given to us somewhere along the way, and which I have washed; somebody please claim it!) Alex, Bob and Karen used cell phones a lot; we felt much more comfortable knowing where everyone was and how they were doing given the weather.
My solution for this route: make it a 300 km ride from North Van. to Pemberton and back. It is too nice a route and too challenging to give up entirely, but making it shorter would allow people to finish by midnight and so not have the daunting task of spending a whole night on that highway, which truly was dangerous in those foul weather conditions. Similarly, if the weather was very hot, as it was on the previous running of this route, the shorter ride would make it less extreme, but still take in almost all of the climbing.
Our thanks to Sharon and Roger Street, and Susan Allen and Doug Latornell for helping with the controls; to Bob Bailey for riding with me to Pemberton and for transportation when I had told him he was back-up, and probably wouldn't even be needed; and to Bob Marsh for turning up at just the right time.